Roozbeh Shirazi wrote an excellent article posing the notion that everyone wants change for Iran [The dangerous path ahead], but not everyone is on the same page as each other as what those changes entail and these changes will be implemented. And until we decide what we want things won't change in a manner that as smooth as possible.
Basically we are like a 5-year-old in a candy store. The mother has told the kid that he can have only one kind of candy and for the first time the kid has to decide what he wants on his own.
I have heard this lame excuse a thousand times from both Iranians and various US think-tank that in order for changes to occur, Iranians need to have a leader/group/movement step forward and take the lead in bring about change in Iran, but this will never happen because they can't get their act together and select a leader to lead them to change.
My response to that is NO SHIT SHERLOCK! Please don't take as an attack on Roozbeh's article, because it's not. It doesn't take a genius to figure out why people keep regurgitating the same crap. We have heard it so much that I think some of us are actually beginning to actually believe them.
We start saying to ourselves: Good god they are right! We are so divided on who we want to lead us and bring about change. Man we are really shit out of luck. I guess I'll bitch about how we don't know who the people want to lead them to change Iran.
These people might have a Harvard degree, but it doesn't mean that we should wait for them to find a solution. Nor are they necessarily capable of providing us with a solution.
Now this is the way I see it: Yes, I do agree that we do need to find a leader and have a unified consensus or as unified as possible to obtain a majority, so that real sustainable changes can occur. So is this the supposed monumental problem Iranians are facing?
I have a simple and very viable solution. We have the opportunity to start a grass root-campaign to solve this stumbling block. Why don't we find out exactly what, who, when, where and how Iranians want these changes to come about.
How do we do this? We need to start polling Iranians from all facets of the spectrum and start getting answers to these questions. I know it sounds crazy doesn't it? You ask your self “Can this actually work?”
Roozbeh in his article mentioned the fact that we live in globalized community because of the internet. So why don't we use it this website and every other website that ONLY Iranians would visit to answer those questions.
And when I mentioned the “…from all facets of the spectrum” I truly meant that. We can't just focus on polling internet users; we need to use any vehicles available to us to obtain answers to these vital questions. We can use the Persian satellite channels, Iranian newspapers, radio programs, and so on to let the Iranians from around world know that for the first time they are being asked what they and they have to make a choices because if they don't then their voice won't be heard.
Once all this data is gathered several popular candidates should emerge through the polling campaign. From there, using the same grass roots infrastructure that we used in the initial polling, these potential candidates would start running their campaigns leading up to semi-mock elections to determine the first truly democratically elected leader or party that could change Iran to what the MAJORITY of the people want.
Once the unofficially elected leaders know for sure that he has the backing of a majority of the Iranian people he should initiate the changes as determined by the people through the initial polling.
I know that this is a very simplistic way of looking at this hurdle that we MUST overcome. And I am sure that there are many out there who can poke holes into my solution. And in no way am I saying that this is the perfect solution, or even realistic. But we need to stop focusing on solutions, not problems we all know about.
We are great at pointing out and focusing on faults with. I know for a fact that many of my American friends say to me that I complain a lot. I try to explain to them that I'm not complaining; I'm just merely making an observation of a problem that I have or am experiencing. They did not buy my explanation.
Finally a good friend of mine told me that unless I have a solution or going to do something about my supposed “observation” stop repeating it because to everyone else it sounds like I just like to complain. And you know what? He's absolutely right.
We need to focus on coming up with answers, rather than pointing at problems all the time. Rest assured that in our quest for solutions we may often fail, but we can not give up.
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