Thread by @faravaharSF

Thread.

I’m a Persian-American, a former child refugee, and a practicing attorney.

I saw firsthand what war and revolution can do to a country. Iran was the fifth-largest economy in the world when foreign powers installed Islamic extremists to take over my country of birth.

My mother was an activist. She risked her life time & time again to fight against the authoritarian regime spreading through her homeland. She fought for people’s rights, as the government stripped our rights away.

Iran has existed for 3,000 years. Islamic Revolution: only 40.

I feel the panic and fear and frustration of my fellow Americans today. I truly do. Never did I think that the horrors my family once escaped would replay themselves in America.

And yet here we are.

So what do we do? Despair? Blame our Democratic leaders? Blame each other? NO.

We get motivated. We don’t let the Cassandras of our time scare us into paralysis. We join the fight to defend our democracy — we don’t just expect others to do it for us.

Americans have been bystanders in our democracy for too long. We’ve languished in despair.

TIME TO GET UP.

Do you engage your neighbors & friends & family & strangers on the street? If not: DO IT.

Do you volunteer & organize & help Democratic campaigns, while fighting to vote corrupt Republicans out of office? If not: DO IT.

Democracy isn’t a spectator sport. It’s all hands on deck.

I understand & share your fears. But despair never helped anyone.

My mom put her life on the line to help people, to save her country from the abyss that is authoritarianism. She only stopped because she had me.

And so: I’ve taken the mantle from my mom. Y’all ready to join me?