On the wall above my bed hangs a poster of Faith Ringold's painting, Freedom of Speech, the American flag inscribed with the First Amendment and the names of controversial and archetypal American figures. I bought the poster when I was in journalism school and when cynical pragmatism could only get me through the day and not go sleep, I let its lyrical lines be my sentimental lullaby.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

As a religious minority, the first clause has always been an anchor to my most basic, childish sense of safety in being myself. As a writer and a journalist, the second clause has been ananchor to my safety in thinking and expressing. Oddly enough, the most emphatic language is left for the habit I practice the least and feel the least secure about--gathering peacefully is a right. In the language of the Declaration, it might be seen as an unalienable right, one recognized already in the late 1700s as universal and sensible. We Americans rarely do this public assembly and grievance protesting thing because we are afraid of inconvenience, cold, heat, crowds, germs, getting arrested, getting a mark on are record, getting accidentally hurt, getting hurt on purpose by rogue agents of the government, getting hurt on purpose in a sneaky and underhanded, conspiratorial way by a government sometimes harboring conspiratorial agencies. These things--which really, happen pretty rarely here, even in the worst of cases--are enough to stop us from standing up for what we believe in or even for what is best for us. Does anyone sensible stand in witness these days any more, anyway? Well, we stand corrected.

I have long taken the language of the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence to be a universal statement, applicable to all peoples; the American part is only the application of those ideas to the specific case and locale of the 13 North American colonies wrenching away from Great Britain. The fundamental idea--that we have an unalienable, innate right to believe, practice, talk, think, gather and complain--applies to all people. I realize that figureheads can be previous tyrants. I realize that there is an awful lot of intrigue and power-trading happening behind the scenes. And I realize that little may come of the current movement, as in the past, and that even if it continues it may be a long, slow haul. I realize that sitting at my computer I'm not being terribly helpful. But I still want to say that I stand with anyone willing to still stand for themselves after so much oppression. There are not American people with our civil rights over here and Iranian people with their civil rights over there. There are human beings with human rights, and citizens of the world with a duty to do what is right by themselves, their children, their future and their world. We should stand together. I hope one day we can.