This collection of photos on Daily Kos says more than a billion words.

Some of the images are very graphic and may be disturbing to the more squeamish.

View the image here.

I generally don't like to get involved in, nor make any political statements, but what is going on in Iran for the past 5 days is truly amazing. Democracy and human rights aside, I think what stands out the most is the will of the human species to fight for something it feels so passionately about. To see millions of people resisting an oppresive regime like this, putting their beliefs before their lives, is nothing short of inspirational, and I think should be a lesson to the rest of the world.

History

Let's not forget that crises precipitate change. Here are some examples from the last century:

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, considered the founding father of the modern Turkish Republic, voiced his disbelief at the Ottoman Grand Vizier Damat Ferid Pasha's signing of the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920. This agreement would basically partition and sell all the land left in the wake of World War 1 to foreign powers. This led to the eventual rise of the people to support the newly created National Army and concluded in the founding of the Republic on 29 October, 1923. The republic was founded as a democratic, secular state - a western model of separation between church and state, the first time this had come to pass in any Islamic country. There was no television back then, but radio and newspapers spread the word fast enough that the country rallied behind Atatürk in a very short time.