May This Life Be A Symphony Of Freedom

This topic needs to be trending. People need to know about this. Please listen. People are dying.

40 years ago, Iran became an Islamic Republic. The country was taken by an oppressive regime, placing people under more strain every passing year.

It is illegal for women not to dress by their codes. Children are taught blatant propaganda. The economy falls further each day. The government started selling the water inside the country and the Caspian Sea, and deforested the country's own forests.

Learning English is banned in school.

People are prosecuted and tortured for speaking out against the government. Thousands of journalists are sentenced.

There is an environmental, social, and economic catastrophy.

A few days ago, in an already broken economy, the prices for fuel were then raised to a point where no one but the elite can afford to operate a vehicle (as much as 330%!). This was the last straw. Millions of people have flooded the streets in protest of the regime. This is still happening. In response:

the military and police began shooting protestors with machine guns. At least 200 are dead, but 600+ are said to be dead. 3000+ have been prosecuted. Many are held, some have been released after being forced to "confess" falsely that their children are criminals.

The internet shut down. Usage of the internet in Iran already depended on VPNs and proxies, since the government censors everything. But now, there is a complete communications shut down. There is no access to the internet. VPNs can't get past this. Almost all landlines are blocked from international calls.

Information is shared through direct reports to news channels by traditional radio, the few people who have access to twitter, and a loophole people found in Skype, which allows them to communicate for a few minutes overseas.

I have not been able to contact my family. The Iranian government is trying to keep this contained. They are succeeding.

THIS IS STILL LIMITED. SOURCE ARE LIMITED.

There is not a single word of this on western media. Persian people living outside post about it on Twitter under #Internet4Iran - this needs to reach international circles.

Other countries have done nothing to help.

People are dying. Young people are dying in the streets.

uber driver: “so, this address… is this where you live? is this ur house?”

uber driver: “so, this address… is this where you live? is this ur house?”

My name is Kelsey Juliana and I’m suing the United States government for causing and accelerating the climate change crisis. I’m 22 years old and I’ve been a climate activist for more than half of my life.

I know that young people like me, and others who have yet to be born, have a right to a safe climate system. The constitution guarantees all Americans the right to life, liberty, and property. But how is anyone supposed to live a life of freedom amid a climate crisis? My own government is violating my constitutional rights by its ongoing and deliberate actions that cause climate change and it’s not right.

I, along with 20 other young people from around the country, filed a lawsuit against the federal government in 2015, called Juliana v. United States.

We’re not asking for money. Instead, we’re asking the court to order the government to develop and implement a National Climate Recovery Plan based on the best available science.

This plan should end the reign of fossil fuels and quickly decarbonize our atmosphere so that we can stabilize our climate system before it’s too late.

The longer we go without climate recovery, the more we risk allowing our climate to spiral completely out of control.

And the climate is spiraling out of control, no matter how many politicians claim we’re experiencing normal fluctuations or, worse, a “hoax.” All of the expert witnesses in our lawsuit say that we are currently—already—in the “danger zone” and an “emergency situation” with only 1°C of planetary heating. Allowing the planet to heat up any more is not safe for our species, as well as so many others. And according to the Trump administration’s most recent environmental impact statement, the planet could heat as much as 7°F before the end of this century. We cannot allow this to happen because we simply will not survive.

We originally filed our lawsuit against the Obama administration. That administration tried to have the case dismissed, but the judge ruled in our favor and found that we should be allowed to go to trial.

In 2017, the Trump administration inherited the lawsuit and it has done everything in its power, employing every conceivable tactic, to deny my fellow plaintiffs and me our right to present our case in court. This administration is so fiercely attempting to silence our voices.

At this point, every level of the federal judiciary—the U.S. District Court, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court—has denied the Trump administration’s efforts to have the case thrown out. Yet it will not halt its efforts to avoid standard legal procedures and confront us, the nation’s youth, in court.

Our trial is officially scheduled to begin on October 29, 2018 in Eugene, Oregon.

What we’re asking for could change everything.

My fellow plaintiffs and I want you with us as we head into the courtroom to confront the United States government for knowingly violating our constitutional rights. Supporters will hold rallies in every state around the country, so if you can’t be with us in Eugene, find your local rally here.

Get regular updates by following @youthvgov on social media.

You can learn more about this case and get regular trial updates by tuning in to the No Ordinary Lawsuit podcast here.

Lastly, if you have the means, click here to make a donation to Our Children’s Trust, the nonprofit organization that supports our lawsuit and many others like it around the country.

“Nobody sees a flower — really — it is so small — we haven’t time — and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time … ’So I said to myself — I’ll paint what I see — what the flower is to me but I’ll paint it big and they will be surprised into taking time to look at it — I will make even busy New Yorkers take time to see what I see of flowers: ‘Well — I made you take time to look at what I saw and when you took time to really notice my flower, you hung all your own associations with flowers on my flower and you write about my flower as if I think and see what you think and see of the flower — and I don’t.”