This is a story from a Green Supporter who lives in San Jose, San Francisco, CA.
Last Wednesday (30 December 2009) John attended a Green Rally in support of the Iranian Green Movement.
The Freedom for Iran blog would like to give special thanks to this great supporter.
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I had to walk there and back, and it was NOT a short walk from Sunnyvale to Santana Row in San Jose. I made it though …I wanted to share with you all some impressions, especially as regards comparisons with the November 4 rally by the same group in the same spot.
We definitely had more people this time. I tried to count but couldn't...we're not talking mega rally, but definitely over 125 people….
That last point doesn't matter though because the main comparison I want to make is between the responses from passersby (honking and shouting and giving signs of support)....
The response from Americans of all walks of life, social groups, ethnicities etc was very encouraging on November 4. AND this time is was incomparably more so. Not just because of how many more people turned out, but because of how enthusiastically, passionately, and adamantly they did it! …
This showed to me that within the last two weeks the Iranian people's bravery and the regime's utter depravity have finally registered pretty damn deeply with the American people, media coverage or not.
We also tried to march though Santa Row, a very posh upscale pedestrian outdoor shopping mall, but security stopped us after the first block or so, and we had to exit and go back to where we were. (They also filmed us. Give me a break! Our brothers and sisters brave Basijis cameramen and we're supposed to say OH EEK to a couple of mall cops?! PLEASE!!)
We were getting shouts and honks of support the whole way though, even when I honestly couldn't figure out how the passers-by could see the banners and signs from where they started honking.
I am only just now realizing that in many instances, I think these people actually circled around after seeing our signs the first time just so they could drive by and do that. Come to think of it, in every such case, the driver was honking while passengers were leaning of out the windows and screaming (I mean SCREAMING) their support while flashing V signs or some other sign of support.
The chants were good (my vocal chords beg to differ...I'm just glad my crummy throat didn't give out--my stage voice from all those high school plays came through! I was one of the loudest on my end of the group, which snaked around a curb), we did a two minute silence in memory of all those killed. [NB: On Ashura]
Before and after that, they sang an old hymn. I can't remember if it's the one written back in the 1940s, because they sang two, and one of them I JUST HAVE to learn the name, not only because of tonight, but because for the last month it's been popping into my head and haunting me at the most random time, when I'm not even thinking about our common cause. And I'm not complaining, I welcome it when it pops unexpectedly into my head. I had to smile when they started singing it. I just wish there was a way I could confirm which one it is? I can only hum it, which doesn't exactly help in this forum. [NB: Subsequently established that the song was Yare Dabestani http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4LY-HB]
John
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