I found a gem in my e-mail inbox this morning:
Hello, I stumbled upon your blog and enjoyed seeing that you support our movement for a free Iran. My father, Siamak Pourzand, is an Iranian journalist and intellectual, political prisoner in Iran...I work with a vast network of Iranian activists and freedom-fighters. We definitely appreciate all the support we can get from insightful non-Iranian around the world, like yourself. Please keep spreading the world.
It's from Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi, who has been featured on National Review at least three times before. Form letter or not, her sentiments are sincere; her subject line "Iranian activist salutes you." Banafsheh, an American salutes you. The words of Harry Truman echo as if from yesterday:
Our allies are the millions who hunger and thirst after righteousness.In due time, as our stability becomes manifest, as more and more nations come to know the benefits of democracy and to participate in growing abundance, I believe that those countries which now oppose us will abandon their delusions and join with the free nations of the world in a just settlement of international differences.
Millions have discovered and set for the defense of freedom since January 20, 1949. Millions more wait in want. As I wrote back to her: Thank you very much for your kind words, Banafsheh. Your peoples' struggle for the rights and freedoms deserved by all mankind is an inspiration to me — and an example for the rest of the oppressed world. Godspeed.