Hippocrates In San Diego

Sunshining

I’m sitting outside at the hospital, having already had my fill of caffeine and lunch, in the sunshine. My mind has been on events in Iran; popular uprisings like this always capture my attention, but this one is quite personal. I wonder if my many cousins in Iran — in Tehran, Ahwaz, and elsewhere — are out on the streets, putting their lives at risk for an ideal.

The photos I’ve been seeing have been at once celebratory and gruesome. Massive crowds of protestors haven’t been seen in the US since before I was born (impotent antiwar protests of 2003 and election campaign rallies last year excluded); seeing hundreds of thousands of people coming out in defiance of an oppressive regime makes my heart swell — but it’s at once deflated by the images of students beaten, clubbed, and shot at in several Iranian universities. I cannot picture myself in that situation at age 19.

I’ve been following events on Twitter, the first time I’ve ever really used my account there for anything other than the occasional brain fart. It’s been really quite impressive how young people have gained such a weapon in their idealistic endeavors. Of course Twitter is, and will probably remain, mostly brain farts. But now it seems that once in a while it can be used to bring people from every corner together for a common cause. I just hope that it is truly effective, and not just a time waster during critical events like Iran’s Green Uprising.