We don't have to just watch and cringe

[Amy Stark]

Ahmadinejad, the current president of Iran, condemned the US, Great Britain, Australia and a number of other western countries for meddling. "Definitely...you will not be placed in the circle of friendship with the Iranian nation"- Ahmadinejad said to the US. But the governments aren't meddling, it's the international twitter community. Smoosier Alice A. Jackson lamented that, "..as free Americans, we can only watch and cringe at the violence.” I disagree, Alice. We can do so much more with very little effort. The list below contains things that we can do to show our support:

1. Send positive energy to those Iranians who are fighting for the right to be heard and pray for the families who have lost loved ones to violence.

2. Wear something green -the color of choice for the opposition against the repressive Iranian regime.

3. Change all your social media avatars to green (@owhimsical is a tweeter from China) :

4. Tweet advice or words of encouragement with the hashtag "#IranElection" to the protesters who are putting their lives on the line such as: (actual Tweets)
from: @Tymlee Iran Gov will respond with electric power cuts -prepare & have gas cylinders at home or gasoline for light/cooking #IranElection

from: @Beomoose "Acid" is tear gas w/ water. Treat w/ solution of 5% baking soda, 95% cold water. Carry spray bottle. #iranelection #gr88

from: @sadenshi Do not take advice on action from NEW people on Twitter. Many are govt agents trying to trap. Lives are at stake. #Iranelection

from: @ardentvox Watching the #iranelection tweets. Never before have we seen technology combine with purpose to create this much unity.

From: @_lindley Many governments worry about guns in their people's hands, Iran fears computers in theirs! #IranElection #NetRevolution

5. Check out the #IranElection social media aggregator site created by #Indiana's own Dr. Thomas Ho.

6. Change your social media settings to mess with the Iranian Government:
“Help cover the bloggers: change your twitter settings so that your location is TEHRAN and your time zone is GMT +3.30. Security forces are hunting for bloggers using location and timezone searches. If we all become 'Iranians' it becomes much harder to find them.” (There are seven other tips in BoingBoings “Cyberwar guide to #IranElections” )

7. Find a newspaper article to add to the tweet stream such as “Neda, young girl brutally killed in Iran, becoming symbol of rebell...” (don't forget the hashtag #IranElections).

8. Look through Picfog and select an image to retweet- a picture paints a thousand words. (all political cartoons retrieved from picfog)

9. Watch the Clay Shirky TED Talk entitled: How Twitter can make history. It will give you a better idea how mobile devices and a connection to the Internet can be used to change the world. Knowledge is power.