Protesting, Part I

I'M A CONTRARIAN by nature, at least when it comes to mainstream society. As a child during the nineteen sixties, I "rooted for" the anti Viet Nam War protestors, and the folks protesting racism with Martin Luther King. I tended to keep my support for protestors to myself, knowing that openly acknowledging it could land me in some, shall we say, "hot water". At one point in my life I claimed that I "never met a protest I didn't like". That changed abruptly when the MAGA folks started protesting vaccine mandates. Alas, I don't like right wing protests any more than Ilike right wing politics. Currently I am in love with the protest movements happening in Iran and China. Not since the good ole days of Viet Nam have I been more enthusiastic for or supportive of mass protests. It is my fondest hope, my greatest dream that the good people of those two countries bring down their repressive, authoritarian governments and replace them with democracy. I have a fantasy of tens of millions of people worldwide hopping on Twitter, or other internet platforms, and proclaiming support for the demonstrators in both Iran and China. In my dream, the avalanche of global support further emboldens and inspires Iranian protestors, mostly women, and Chines protestors, mostly young people, to redouble their noble efforts, and to never cease until fundamental, meaningful reforms have bene implemented. In Iran, the protests began as outrage against the death of a young womsn who died in police custody after being arrested by the so called "morality police" for improperly wearing or not wearing her head garment. Now it has become a protest against the general suppression of women in Iran, and the lack of democracy and equality. Much the same is true in China, where the protests began only as a protest agaisnt continuing stringent measures, including quarantines and general societal shutdown, to fight Covid 19, but has morphed into a all out demonstration demanding less authoritarian government, and democracy. In both cases, wha began as focused protests against specific complaints have evolved and become general revolutions demanding democracy and equality. May they both receive the full blessings of and support of whatever intelligent being governs the universe, if there is any. As goethe said: "The world advances only becasue of those who oppose it." Amen to that.