Are you kidding me?
I've been watching the events as they've evolved (devolved?) in Egypt quite closely. For days my heart has gone out to the thousands of people crowded in the streets demanding the end of Hosni Mubarek's rule.
Since I can read neither their language nor their signs, I've depended upon American reporters to explain just what it is that the Egyptian people are dieing for. I heard things like, "I can't feed my family on 2 dollars a day." That's a desperation with which I can empathize. Perhaps they want democracy, I'm not sure but certainly they deserve that inalienable right of government for the people, of the people and by the people. The American in me wanted to fly to Cairo and march along side of the protesters.
Then, this morning, a reporter from CNN found an Egyptian woman who could speak English well enough to say, "We hate him, he is for Israel, we hate Israel, they are our enemy!"
Like an American racist who uses the "N" word in a heated discussion, that woman deflated her nation's entire argument and immediately made me wonder if I had been duped for the past week.
I don't care if a person is for or against Israel, that hate is not something that I can relate to nor is it something that I can condemn out of hand. But it certainly isn't a cause that I will back in any way. Common enemies should be listed along with politics and misery as causes of strange bedfellows, that I get. But Israel is not my enemy.
Israel has flexed their might in self defense and rarely otherwise. Even so, many would attack Israeli's for simply being Israeli's. I've been around long enough to figure that much out. I haven't heard of a mad Hasidic bomber and I've never encountered a Jew who was anything but friendly. I have no argument with them.
I also had no argument with Egyptians, they seemed to stand alone as a nation of reason and literacy in an area of the world where little of either exists. I followed Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat during the Camp David accords and in my 33 year old son's baby book under Current Events I scribbled, "Mid-East peace talks." I was terribly saddened when an assassin's bullet shot down President Sadat because this planet has far too few leaders so devoted to peace amongst our fellow inhabitants. Each one is precious and the loss of one so decent was truly a loss for us all.
I've had every reason in the world to believe that the uprising in Egypt was one of a civilized people. Naturally, my sentiments would go with them, I've grown old thinking that Egypt was a modern country with educated citizens who shower and strive for peace.
Please don't tell me that this is just another nation of muslim extremists who live solely to see the death of all Jews. That would be one of the hugest disappointments in my life.
I've been watching the events as they've evolved (devolved?) in Egypt quite closely. For days my heart has gone out to the thousands of people crowded in the streets demanding the end of Hosni Mubarek's rule.
Since I can read neither their language nor their signs, I've depended upon American reporters to explain just what it is that the Egyptian people are dieing for. I heard things like, "I can't feed my family on 2 dollars a day." That's a desperation with which I can empathize. Perhaps they want democracy, I'm not sure but certainly they deserve that inalienable right of government for the people, of the people and by the people. The American in me wanted to fly to Cairo and march along side of the protesters.
Then, this morning, a reporter from CNN found an Egyptian woman who could speak English well enough to say, "We hate him, he is for Israel, we hate Israel, they are our enemy!"
Like an American racist who uses the "N" word in a heated discussion, that woman deflated her nation's entire argument and immediately made me wonder if I had been duped for the past week.
I don't care if a person is for or against Israel, that hate is not something that I can relate to nor is it something that I can condemn out of hand. But it certainly isn't a cause that I will back in any way. Common enemies should be listed along with politics and misery as causes of strange bedfellows, that I get. But Israel is not my enemy.
Israel has flexed their might in self defense and rarely otherwise. Even so, many would attack Israeli's for simply being Israeli's. I've been around long enough to figure that much out. I haven't heard of a mad Hasidic bomber and I've never encountered a Jew who was anything but friendly. I have no argument with them.
I also had no argument with Egyptians, they seemed to stand alone as a nation of reason and literacy in an area of the world where little of either exists. I followed Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat during the Camp David accords and in my 33 year old son's baby book under Current Events I scribbled, "Mid-East peace talks." I was terribly saddened when an assassin's bullet shot down President Sadat because this planet has far too few leaders so devoted to peace amongst our fellow inhabitants. Each one is precious and the loss of one so decent was truly a loss for us all.
I've had every reason in the world to believe that the uprising in Egypt was one of a civilized people. Naturally, my sentiments would go with them, I've grown old thinking that Egypt was a modern country with educated citizens who shower and strive for peace.
Please don't tell me that this is just another nation of muslim extremists who live solely to see the death of all Jews. That would be one of the hugest disappointments in my life.
posted by Meg Kelso | 4:41 AM
2 Comments:
Breathe deep and avoid another stroke. You know less about Egypt than Sarah Palin.
Point well taken.
BUT...I do argue with this statement, "You know less about Egypt than Sarah Palin."
After all, I can see the pyramids from my hallucinations.
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