I showed up at the Iran protest rally. Guess what, I got to catch a glimpse of Barack. Had not seen the dude in a while. I got to see him. He was being driven out of the UN. Traffic had been blocked. And of course they do it in a way that you can not guess which particular car he is in. But he waved. I saw.
I created a Facebook page right before I headed out for the event, and I collected a bunch of email addresses of activists while I was at the event.
It was a smallish event. But then so were the Nepal events back in 2005.
I came across some predictable attitudes. People are opposed to raising money for the cause. I am for raising big money, I am for a resource rich, sophisticated movement. People are opposed to creating an umbrella organization or two. There are so many disparate groups. There is much "sectarianism" among Iran democracy activists, as someone pointed out.
My role is going to be digital. And that can happen 24/7. But there is so much you miss out when you don't meet people in person, when you don't talk to people on the phone. You have to approach the movement from many different angles.
I learned the primary Iran diaspora action is in Europe, not the US.
September 23 Iran Democracy Protests NYC
