Maybe I just haven't watched enough TV and movie violence to get as jaded as you. I have a distaste for gore as entertainment. But I was shocked, and moved, and no, I am not there, but seeing and attempting to support the protesters as best as I can is better than nothing. No, I do not think I am Neda. She was Neda.

But her life did not "leave" her, it was taken, and from the looks of it just because she was the easiest to target in that clump of people. It was a murder intended to terrorize, especially the brave women out there, to show you didn't have to be throwing a rock, or shouting, or even marching; if you were there, you could die, like her.

That is what it showed, and it also showed her courage. And when you consider the powers that be would be happy if you could not even see a girl's face, the fact that now it's the largest symbol of this revolution, from which the women of Iran have the most to gain and are risking the most, will mean something in the end.

To turn away is what we've done for thirty years. I am sorry that real life is in such bad taste. But this was not some damn reality show, this was not a movie, and no one would watch this to enjoy it. There are other reasons to look at something. (You remind me of someone who thought I was weird to watch Rithy Panh's documentary S21--"what, you enjoy hearing about people suffering? That's so depressing. You're sick.") One is to learn. You, though, didn't learn anything.

It's interesting to me to watch the mainstream media's attempt to shove this into some shape that reflects us. It's interesting to me to see you treating it as just another show. It's most interesting to me what will happen as we in America realize we, and our childish attempt to insulate ourselves, are not the center of the universe anymore.

Who would find something like this video "thrilling?"

You?

>>I did not cry or shake with horror. Because what I saw was actually too familiar to me -- from crime dramas, war movies, the thousands of fictional depictions of violent deaths I've seen in a lifetime of watching various screens. This time, the thought kept going through my head, "This is real, this is real, this is real." But it was no match for almost 30 years' worth of knowing that when I see blood gushing out of a chest or a mouth, it's actually red-tinted corn syrup; that when I see the spark of life leave a victim's eyes, they only stay that way until the camera shuts off and the actress stands up; that when I hear the screams of frantic bystanders, they've been recorded over and over until the most chilling possible version was achieved. None of that was true, this time. My brain knows that, on one level -- but on another, deeper level, I am so desensitized to similar imagery, I can't fully process it.

Then you badly need to seek therapy, because you have, as another poster put it, lost something human.

This was real. It really happened. That was her real blood. She really died. Ask her father, the man in the blue striped shirt, if she got up afterward.

Imagine yourself saying the words above to his face, about your lack of feeling about the murder of his daughter.

Can you? If so, you have serious problems. If not, you should re-evaluate why you put it that way.

As an exhibit piece of a time gone by. Like how they preserve the moose. That's how I see the GOP: as a preserved moose.

Here. This is what Neda Soltan looked like before she died. Now connect this with her death.

Do you feel how horrible this is now? Do you see how you might feel if she was a friend of yours?

Because to me, this looked like any number of pictures of my own friends.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1194641/YouTube-martyr-Neda-Agha-Soltanis-final-plea-shot-dead-Iran-rally.html

And Ms. Harding, I went to your blog to see what kind of person could write this. Now I wonder: given what you normally write about, how could you not be at all moved by the guts of Neda even being on the street during that, the fact she was not even a protester, and that it was just a drive-by terror killing like the Basij always do to intimidate women in Iran?

Can you not comprehend what courage they are showing, being out in front, in such numbers?

Or is it that you might feel your concerns are smaller now, given that the only thing you've ever fought for was awareness regarding body issues? Does it itch that you might have been out of your depth?

But I wouldn't expect a cogent piece on such a subject from, say, Rex Reed or Liz Smith either.

The fellow with her was actually a music teacher. This was a talented, bright young woman.

Precisely what the Iranian government despises.

Folks, have a look at Persepolis, which is a great initial intro to all this.

You may start to understand why the women are risking the most. They have the least to lose, and Iranian women are not a timid nor uneducated bunch, as much as the government has tried for 30 years to intimidate them. Do you know what it took to make them start wearing the veil? Threats of rape and beatings.(and often far more than threats)

This is why their courage in this is the most impressive of all.

I'd agree, and I'd suggest that's the point.

I mean...Buenos Aires? Isn't that a little strange to go there by yourself?

Has anyone worked out the travel logistics on that?