TIN OMEN

"Tanks arrive! Fire wall! Got to keep the camera alive!
Tell the world! Tell the world what's going on here!"

"Tin Omen"
Skinny Puppy

Reports are sketchy, but word is on CNN that the Iranian government is now using attack helicopters against the protesters in Tehran. Considering the story I am telling with Titanium Rain, the events playing out in the news right now strikes pretty close to home. In Titanium Ran a nation that goes to war with itself when a despotic regime refuses to accept a changing world. It is a clash that symbolizes stagnation vs. progress, religion vs. faith, dogma vs. humanity, nationalism vs. globalism, fear vs. hope. In short, the war Alec is fighting is all about the old world versus the new. The question is, who will win this fight, and what will this new world look like? Of course, Titanium Rain is fiction. The blood running in the streets of the Tehran today is very, very real.

The situation in Iran is frightening, as much as it is depressing. The endless stream of blurry footage coming across CNN -- scenes of fires, teargas, and scream crowds -- as a observer, this moment history has been like one gut punch after another. Over breakfast today, Kat and I both found ourselves having trouble finding our appetites. Or as Kat put it, "I feel like I'm going to throw-up." But as overwhelming as all this is , it also makes proud. Proud to be a part of this nascent species called man.

This is also something I am striving to communicate in Titanium Rain, and that is what it means to be human. We as humans have free will. Unlike any other creature on Earth (except maybe elephants and dolphins) we have the ability to push aside instinct and look beyond our base needs. We can choose to be better. We can choose to stand on the side of right. It not only blood running in the streets of the Tehran, but also the human spirit. These men and women are risking all they have and all they are for a better world, knowing full well they probably will not live to see it. This is altruism in its purest form. People making the ultimate sacrifice in the hope of creating a better, more equitable world for those who will survive them.

For now Iran is in chaos. CNN just said acid is being dump onto the crowds from those helicopters, and tanks have rolled into Tehran. Nobody knows just yet how this will end. But for now I will leave you with a quote from a personal hero of mine, Franklin D. Roosevelt...

"The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith."

Probably a bit of an odd quote from an atheist like me, but I do have faith. Quite a bit in fact. I have faith in mankind. Faith that we can and will do better. Men have always sought an end to the toil and misery, but it can't be given, it has to be achieved. There is hope, but it has to come from inside ourselves.

-Josh Finney
June 20, 2009