What is all of the fuss about the recent Iranian presidential election?

"...Iran is a developing “super-power”, with nuclear energy ambitions that include a space program."

Dear friends,

Just this morning, I was listening to the radio program of a good friend of mine at weibfm.com (smooth jazz), as he mentioned, during a news break, what he and some others in the mass communications media are currently calling the “Iranian Revolution” due to the protestations of young people there who are demanding that their government be more fair about the election process, as well as having a more inclusive public leadership and authority, especially for women. Are any of the young people just mentioned calling for the US government and other Western countries to cease their decades-long economic embargo against the Iranian people? After all, who does the boycott hurt the most – i.e., the privileged bodies (both ecclesiastic and political) or the common folks?

To be sure, if the Western powers mentioned above call off their economic boycott of Iran will that not send a positive message to the people of Iran that the US and others are not trying to meddle in their business, but only mean to provide positive and strong support to the people of Iran? Besides, the history of our own government is covered with blood, especially when talking about African Americans and others fighting for equal rights. As well, in spite of the proclamations of having a “Black” president, African Americans are faring no better, as a whole, than we were prior to President Obama’s election into office.

Moreover, at least to me, the real paradox lies with the fact that African Americans will now be even less likely to protest against governmental injustice, because of the illusion that somehow we have gained power through the election of Barack Obama. Yet, if one thinks about it, while for the past forty years Black mayors have spread across America, all the way from Philly to Alaska, little has changed for most African Americans – or many others peoples, including European Americans (so-called “whites”). How will Barack Obama change that grim reality? More often than not, unfortunately, history has taught us that those who fight against the privileged, once in power, have their own newly-acquired privileges to defend. Dig?

Additionally, as they seem to be having with the elections in Iran, why have neither Western governments nor their media outlets shown any concern with the fairly recent election results in Palestine/Israel that excluded the native people from being part of the electorate and promises to further colonize said Palestinian people (if that is possible) with increased Jewish settlements?

Does all of this media frenzy by the US government- and corporate-controlled media reveal any similarities between Iranians and Americans and how we both conform to whatever our government and the cultural institutions that it endorses - like certain media, churches and schools – as they remind us how to behave/respond to a variety of issues and events? Or do many Americans feel that they have minds of their own, in spite of the ideas that are superimposed upon those minds beginning at a very early age?

Finally, Iran is a developing “super-power”, with nuclear energy ambitions that include a space program. These folks are not “desert jockeys” as racist Western media groups often try to portray the people of Iran and her neighbors. About that, how do the earlier-mentioned young people feel? Worse yet, the more that the US and other Western nations hold on to their nuclear weapons to enhance their “threat” capabilities or muscle, as it were, the more other nations feel that they must both develop and maintain nuclear weapons for their own security and ability to threaten. The end result, at least to me, will be suicidal for all humanity, if we continue to resist genuinely democratic principles and do not stop grandstanding with illusions about “freedom, justice, and equality”. For, ultimately, the quintessence of “democracy” is non-violent conflict resolution. Therefore, the claim of introducing it (said democracy) to Iranians, Iraqis, Palestinians, or anyone else, by violently invading their lands, is a pure lie. Period!

Cheers!

G. Djata Bumpus

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