An Iranian solution

I write this not because I have any expertise in Iranian politics or much expertise beyond a generalist who is a journalist. Mostly, I write this because I enjoy a right of free speech, and because I can write.

I suggest the Iranian people who feel repressed by their own government hold a "Fingertip Revolution." A fingertip referendum, as it were.

I propose that Iranian adults cut off a small piece of their smallest finger's fingertip and mail it to their president in protest of his regime. Even a pin-prick's few drops of blood would do, if not real flesh.

We Democrats and independent voters in America should have done the same thing in 2000 when our Supreme Court made a political decision to grant the presidency of the United States to George W. Bush.

The Iranian president would have to react to your protest if only to prevent a public health crisis among your country's postal service.

But the small self-mutilation and mailing would at least register itself relatively quickly among the population of your country, and whoever chose to participate would have a lasting badge of courage to display to your neighbors and further express your opinion.

Such a small act would seem hardly worth a government crackdown with thousands of arrests, if that many people chose to participate. After all, what government in the world could arrest everybody in their country who has a cut on their finger.

I suggest this type of democratic protest, however, only in the most dire circumstances.

That's why I say, if someone had thought of it back in 2000, it would have been a good action for the American electorate to take considering the eight-year regime that resulted from George W. Bush being handed the U.S. presidency on a platter.

It would represent the people of a country using their government to register their protest against their government's widespread policy mistakes. It would be shedding blood in the name of freedom, and yet it should cost no one their lives, and really not much of their sacred honor.

If the act could in any way be considered a sin, it could only be a minor one in the eyes of any self-respecting deity.

Call it a bloody non-coup. Raise a fingertip in rebellion!