Welcome to the June edition of the Just Posts, a monthly roundtable of posts about topics of social justice and activism in all shapes and sizes. Holly and I are pleased to share this wealth of posts that inspire and move and make us think.
The beginning of June saw the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing in 1989. Not even two weeks later, the world’s eyes turned to Iran as news came through of suspected fraud in the results of the presidential election. Reports and images of large scale protests of the disputed results were followed by those of violent crackdown against the protesters.
Each month, I have been highlighting a protest song in my introduction of the Just Posts list. The Tiananmen anniversary and the ongoing crackdown against protesters in Iran bring to mind the song “Ohio,” by Neil Young:
Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are gunning us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?
The song was written in response to the the 1970 shootings at Kent State University in Ohio, in which 4 unarmed students were shot during a protest of the Vietnam War.
(This is a concert performance by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, with not-so-great sound quality. You can find a better quality acoustic version by Neil Young here.)
Whether or not the Iranian election results are legitimate (and I’m inclined to doubt their validity), it has been inspiring to witness the passion of so many in Iran as they call for reform in their government and demand that their voices be heard and their votes be counted. It has also been sobering to see the violent and repressive response from the government of Iran and the conservative supporters of that government, who have been acting to suppress the free flow of information.
While there is little that we can do to help, as individuals outside of Iran, recent technologies (like Twitter) have empowered those who are speaking out within Iran, and provided tools for organization and communication in the face of official attempt to silence the protests.
I’d like to take this as reminder that the act of speaking out by an individual can be part of a powerful movement for change. To speak out against the violent crackdown against protesters in Iran, you can add your voice to those of others around the world, such as by signing the petition organized by Avaaz.
I would also like to cheer on those people in the list below for speaking out on topics that are meaningful to them. I’d like to entreat you to visit their posts and encourage them to continue to speak out. Please click on the links!
And now, here are the June Just Posts:
- almostidealist at One Year to Change the World with
Take action for Tiananmen Square’s victims, Sexism sells,
Free speech, free range and Going green for the Iranian protesters - Barbara Drake at An American in Lima with Archbishop of Cusco to Evict More Local Restaurants
- Chris at Formerly Fun with Oh Oh, She’s Back on Her Soapbox Again
- Christine at flutter with The Luxury of Safety and an untitled post
- City Girl at Country Girl/City Girl with Oh, HELL no
- Emily at Wheels on the Bus with This is what a leader looks like, Education dollars at work, Questions (part one) and Rejecting Yertle
- Emily at LA Mom’s Blog with What kids need
- Erika at Be gay about it. with My, what a gayngled web we weave.
- emmy at Los Pininos with Revised Eulogy
- girlgriot at If you want kin, you must plant kin… with Voice of the People?
- Glenna Gordon (guest posting) at Scarlett Lion: Liberia with Global Post: Miss Coco’s Liberian Barbies
- jen at one plus two with the universal backbone and guess what’s coming to dinner
- Kyla at The Journey with My child, every child
- La Gringa at La Gringa’s Blogicito, with Relative calm in Honduras, despite what you might read and Honduran views on Mel Zelaya and the current events
- laloca at baggage carousel 4 with public health stuff
- Mary at The Eleventh with Fed
- meg at A Different View of a Good Life! with Prison in Belize
- Mouse at The Mouse’s Nest with The radical act of being ourselves
- papilio588 at Walk with Me with Nickelsville
- Paul Newnham at Give a damn about poverty? with Why is fighting poverty so hard? and 40 Hour Famine
- Rebecca at Flying Tomato Farms with Are you “Man Enough” for the Middle Border?
- redbird at A Gringa Diary with The Honduran coup was personal here
- Zack Ford at Zack Ford Blogs with Sorry white men (and Ann Coulter), Sotomayor is not a racist. You are.
This month’s readers:
Please drop by Holly’s to see what she has to say this month.
If you have a post above, or would just like to support the Just Posts, we invite you to display a button on your blog with a link back here, or to the Just Posts at Cold Spaghetti. If you are unfamiliar with the Just Posts, please visit the information page.
collecting tokens 
Thanks for including my rant (part of an ongoing series of rants) about the archbishop of Cusco & his pact with the devil/Starbucks/McDonalds. It’s so important that people in developed countries know what’s going on in Peru. Thanks for spreading the word.
Wow! Look how many there are. So much for the summer lull. Great work, Alejna and Holly.
Holy crap, thanks! I really, really, REALLY never expected the “don’t hire childless women” rant would be considered, “just” by anyone.
I am humbled. Thank you.
Good turn out this month!
GloriaPeace prosperity and security when the Taliban ruled afghanistan? ,