oct27

Following is the text of my speech delivered on October 27, 2007 at the national anti-war mobilization in New York City organized by United for Peace and Justice.

I am an Iranian-American who loves both Iran and America.

I am Iranian enough to be worried for my people, their cultural heritage, their history, and above all the path towards democracy that they have taken for the past 100 years. I see that today they are closer than ever to reaching this dream: the Iranian women, students, workers, and other groups have worked hard to get here and are willing to even work harder to achieve this dream.

What I feel my fellow Iranians are saying now, and they hope that everyone hears them, is that they are intelligent enough to make their own decisions. I hear their cry, loud and clear, when they say, “Please do not destroy our dream that we have worked so hard for.” I hear them say, loud and clear, “Please let us determine our own future by ourselves.”

We're back from New York, and yes it was soggy! (Somehow the sun managed to come out just as we started to head back to Nyack. ) However there was still a large, high-spirited crowd. Click here to see pictures I took, and here to see pictures of today's protests all across the country.

The forecast call for thunderstorms (oh, how I wish they were in drought-stricken North Carolina instead of New York right now!) but we will be marching on. FOR's posse of about two dozen staff and board members will be heading into the Big Apple today to add our voices to the loud chorus calling for an end to the war in Iraq.

In fact, our colleague Leila Zand of FOR's Iran Program will be speaking at the rally! Come on out wherever you are and Fall Out for Peace!

You probably won't hear about it in your local paper, but United for Peace and Justice is organizing major demonstrations in 11 cities across the US this Saturday, October 27th. The cities are: Boston, Chicago, Jonesborough, TN, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, and Seattle.

UFP has been posting some fun videos online to promote the events. Here's the latest: