Sunday, February 13, 2011

Egypt - Did You Get Your Wish?

Today Egypt is free. Today Egyptians cleaned their streets. Today’s body count stands well over 300 Egyptian citizens and that doesn’t include the injured. But this ancient race, they are resilient. Peacefully, they removed bombed-out cars, broken glass, and (18) days worth of litter and debris.
So why is America rejoicing? Why are we happy that Hosni Mubarak stepped down? Wasn’t he our best bud only (19) days ago? No? He wasn’t? Really, then why did we kiss his wrinkled 82 year old bum for 30 years?
I haven’t posted during these eighteen days. I haven’t commented on this uprising, this overthrow of everything the Egyptians know. I’ve remained silent to this scream for power in a vastly Muslim country. And why not?
Perhaps, I wanted to be able to babble in favor of the winning team? I wanted to remain as neutral as a Swiss bank? But oh, how the mighty have fallen, even the untouchables now have dirty hands.
Why I? She, who fights daily with the one man who holds her heart in his Islamic fist, why have I remained as silent as the graves of those who have died? How melodramatic, it was a democratic movement. Have I been sleeping? Have you? For I can assure you I have not.
I have listened with a deadening ear to the holocaust that has been brewing across the pond. I have watched each news reel with a hardening heart. I have predicted each step of this bloody fiasco with uncanny accuracy, even our own.
And for once, my wonderful Muslim husband and I agree. And not a little, one hundred percent, we are completely aligned against this snake in the grass successful move of the Muslim Brotherhood. How can I say such a thing? Because it’s true. Egypt has been mollified for thirty years with their regime. Was it right? Was it fair? Was it exploitive? Search the “world” news over the past thirty years for your answer. Counting the lives sacrificed to make it what it was; can we call it a democracy? In my world, no, but it was still theirs.
But for a historically volatile population that form of democracy worked. We want to look at Egypt with our Benjamin Franklin tinted glasses, we want to see every corner of the world through our constitutional lenses. But who are we to judge? When did God/Allah/Buda/Joe’s cat throw down his gauntlet and ask the luckiest citizens of the world to pick it up?
I wish I could say I am happy for this supposed win for democracy. I wish I could say that the Muslim Brotherhood had nothing to do with the sudden rise of the masses of the Egyptian populace to have their voices heard. I wish I could say that I believe the Egyptian military will do what is in the best wishes of the people they serve, that they will obey a higher command, not the foreign governments lining their pockets, especially our own. I wish I could say I believe the Muslim Brotherhood is a mostly secular organization.
I wish I could say I am not terrified for the people Israel and Jordan. But most of all, I wish I could say I rejoice with you, Egypt. When all I can say is…be careful what you wish for.