Freedom not shared.

I am not a champion of many causes. When it comes to me vs. the rest of the world, I mostly just want the people I care about to love Jesus, and while you're at it, why don't you give healthy living a chance. That's it.

But I read this article about an Iranian blogger who died in prison, and felt compelled to write about it. To champion this man's cause in my own small way. To at least acknowledge that a human life has been uselessly lost.

He was just a blogger, writing about life. He had a small audience. But from time to time his frustration with the government got the better of him, and he wrote about it. So he was arrested, tried and imprisoned for "insulting" the government in his blog.

We've always had free speech, so I sometimes forget that there are those who do not. Ditto on freedom of religion & freedom of the press. And when one hears continual stories of death and devestation around the world, it is far too easy to become calloused and unfeeling towards those who suffer.

But he was just a blogger. Like me. Trying to educate the world about daily life in his country. I would read his blog, but it's been shut down. But there are other Iranians who blog, other people in oppressed countries who are reaching out to the world just to let us know about their lives. They are human, just as I am. They are communicators, just as I strive to be.

That's why I want to read their blogs.