Monday June 15, 2009: The rooftops come alive, elevated beyond the regime from below

Monday was the day it all changed. Yes on Saturday and Sunday, the authorities killed people; they stormed universities arresting people, throwing some students out of windows and tear gassing those who looked on for too long. The Basij militia had clearly been on the streets during the nights over the weekend as well. As we made our way to the June 15 march, scenes of the police state were everywhere: a drill line of young Army soldiers marched; on the highway we passed a driver's Saba car with both the rear window completely smashed out and the front windshield smashed to a pulp ~ clearly this driver had not seen the Blues Brothers for he drove it normal, without sticking his head out the driver's window in a grotesque fashion; on the other hand, he was probably not in the mood to be funny. Later on the freeway we passed a rogue element of Basij numbering approximately 50 on their small-engined motorcycles with a further group of them piled into the back of a pick-up truck ~ they were decked out in make-shift camouflage, clubs some meters long and very long and thick chains. To be honest, I didn't like what I say ~ who would? Already on Saturday I had shared with others that I thought the Iranian government would shortly be kicking journalists out of the country ~ some of the big name Western magazine journalists fled for fear of their safety on this day. I dug my boots in and waited patiently for what was coming ~ we just didn't know if it would be colored with more red or as we hoped, peacefully diffused with green.