Her name was Neda.

Earlier this afternoon, doing the same thing I've done every day this week, scanning thousands and thousands of tweets coming out of Iran for those I thought needed to be tossed back out into the universe for wider viewing, a particular message caught my eye.

Someone was trying to get the attention of CNN with a video, a video of violence in Iran, not so unusual the last few days, but noteworthy because this one contained images of the last moments of a young girl's life, and people rushing  to help her.

She'd been shot in the street in Tehran.  19:05 June 20th.  Karekar Avenue, at the corner crossing Khosravi Street and Salehi Street. 

She was there with her father, standing next to him, watching the protests, when she was shot directly in the heart by someone hiding on the rooftop of a nearby home, a Basij.  The bullet shattered her heart and took her life almost instantly, despite the efforts of a friend of the person who'd posted the video, a doctor who had rushed to her side. 

I contacted the person who was trying to get the video wider viewing, hoping to get the attention of CNN, the BBC, and anyone else who had eyes to see, ears to hear, and a voice loud enough to convince the world.   I gave him the names of people to contact at CNN, and sent the word out to as many other outlets as I could hoping someone would pick it up, show it more widely to the world.  He worked feverishly to do the same.  

I wondered how this horror could be happening, how a life could be extinguished so casually, even though I've been remotely part of it, witnessing it in the retweeting all week.  Tweeting, and retweeting. Watching the civil unrest, protest and violence unfold, despite attempts by the Iranian government to suppress coverage of it.

It is hard to watch.  But in the comfort of my home it is a world away from the fight for a voice, and now, for life itself, on the streets of Iran.

I went on with my own life today, after reading thousands of tweets on the #iranelection stream, and came back this evening to see that CNN was featuring the video.  It had gone around the world.

Her name was Neda.  A voice, a call.  We know that now.  Not a nameless face, lost in a senseless shooting in a street torn halfway around the world.  She was an innocent, and she will be forever mourned.  She will become the face of a revolution.

May the God of all of us take you to his rest.  

Not all of us will lay down our arms, as long as they can reach a keyboard.