For Neda.

It was watching a woman die in real life. We’ve seen it in movies and paintings and pictures, but we rarely see the last moments of a person’s life right before our eyes. The way she falls back. The way her eyes roll to the back of her head. For a moment it looks like she is staring right at the cell phone that is video taping her soul leak out. When the blood gushes out of her and the people around her cry out in Farsi, a chill runs down my spine. I am sick to my stomach. I only watched it once, but the images play over in my mind—so crisp, so detailed and so wrong. The whole world watched her die.