Neda Agha Soltan. That is the only name worthy of repetition. She was the only figure over the last few days who merits immortality in print or pixels. No other individual living the early part of their afterlife in Live Team Coverage carries the same need to be memorialized.
Miss Soltan was murdered in the streets of Teheran by thugs solicited by authoritarian theocrats masquerading as leaders. Indeed it is reasonable to question the tenuous link between faith and totalitarian bastardry in Iran. Faith is a gift from the Almighty; it cannot be coerced.
The dictatorial cadre in Iran has used faith as a pretext for some of the most odious prohibitions upon personal liberty, culminating with a sham election. Everything was made up and the points did not matter. Miss Soltan died yearning for the basic human right of conscience, disillusioned by the realization that her voice had been denied, unable to exercise ant latitude in the decisionmaking that will affect the lives and well-being of her contemporaries. Thieves and murderers moved quickly to associate thher reasonable wishes with a cabal of the unfamiliar.
On the other side of the world, a politician took advantage of a similarly convenient approach to faith. Years ago he was among those who attempted to thwart the will of a nation's choice for president, based upon his judgement of the fitness of that president's moral character. In the case of Iran and the politician's jurisdiction alike, holy literalism has served to cloak poor stewardship of the electorate's interests.
It is the politician's great good fortune that his overt hypocrisies will be judged by educated adults with computers and free speech. One only wishes that Miss Soltan had enjoyed the same freedom. Only the politician's ambitions have died. Barring some divinely just irony, he will awaken tomorrow, free, affluent, and able to choose a new path. His constituents should be so fortunate.
Truly dystopian were the deaths of the two entertainers. One was a former sex symbol attached to the most famous nipple in the history of humankind. Her health had been poor for some time. The other was a lost song-and-dance man-child who had long since spent his own fortune, and continued spending the fortunes of others.
These events, although tagedies for the humanities, were not the same tragedy to humanity that was Miss Soltan's death. They had earned celebration and recognition for their talents. They were more than liberally compensated.
The sex symbol made efforts to use her talent to reveal the suffering of women at the hands of neanderthal brutes who must reconcile their differences through violence. That is laudable.
The Man-child spent twenty years under a cloud of accusations of pedophilia. A performing career which had once concentrated upon raising the lot of famine sufferers became a self-parody of odd, self-destructive behavior. One hopes hat he is reunited with his right mind in the afterlife.
Indeed, one hopes that he was truly innocent of the unforgivable things he was accused of, not just beyond a reasonable doubt.
Neda Agha Soltan, however, was innocent. She died at he hands of a child made subhuman by brainwashing and the hope of escaping poverty. Her death was the product of those who believe and teach that basic human rights are only to be conferred upon those with whom they agree.
The other names were heard a lot. Neda Agha Soltan's name deserves mourning in words, thought, and prayer.
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