💔 Why Isn’t the World Talking About Iran the Way It’s Talking About Minneapolis?

I want to be very clear before anyone twists this:

Every life matters. Always. No exceptions.

The deaths in Minnesota matter. Deeply.

Renee Good’s killing shook people for a reason. The man who was shot and killed shortly after her — another life lost, another family shattered - matters just as much. Two deaths in the same place, within days of each other, both raising serious questions about power, force, and accountability. They deserve attention. They deserve outrage. They deserve wall-to-wall coverage.

But here’s where the discomfort sets in - and where silence becomes impossible to ignore.

While the media cycles endlessly through these Minnesota tragedies - replaying footage, dissecting timelines, running headline after headline - tens of thousands of people in Iran are reportedly dead, and most of the world barely hears a whisper.

Tens of thousands.

Not rumors. Not isolated claims. Estimates from credible human rights organizations and journalists suggest 30,000 or more people may have been killed amid violent crackdowns, mass arrests, disappearances, and what some are calling a massacre. Families can’t find bodies. Internet blackouts hide evidence. Graves appear without names.

And yet - where is the urgency?

If one death rightly dominates headlines for days, how is it possible that 30,000 deaths don’t dominate headlines for weeks?

This is not a competition of suffering.

It’s a reckoning with attention.

Because attention is power.

Attention is whose names we remember.

Attention is which governments feel pressure to act.

You can hold space for Minnesota - for Renee Good, for the man killed after her, for their families and communities - without erasing Iran.

You can say “this is unacceptable” about federal violence in the U.S. and say “this is catastrophic” about state violence abroad.

Compassion is not a limited resource. Media bandwidth is not a moral excuse.

And here’s the hard truth we need to say out loud:

When thousands of deaths barely make the news, it sends a message - intentional or not — about whose lives are considered globally significant.

That should haunt us.

So I’m asking what many people are quietly wondering but few are saying:

• Why isn’t what’s happening in Iran breaking news every hour on the hour?

• Why do two deaths in Minnesota - tragic and worthy of coverage - eclipse tens of thousands elsewhere?

• Who decides which lives are visible, and which are buried under silence?

Because if a few deaths can shake the world, then 30,000 should stop it cold.

Iranian lives matter.

Minnesotan lives matter.

All of them matter.

And the world deserves media brave enough - and humane enough - to cover all of it. 

I’ve sent messages directly to major media news pages, and I can only hope they wake up, pay attention, and do better.