I remember being in high school and thinking that Anwar Sadat was a good man.  A man who was making peace in the world’s implacable places.  I remember thinking the same thing about Henry Kissinger.

I later heard that maybe Henry Kissinger didn’t have the good of the people in his sights in the way I had believed.  I heard that Hosni Mubarak, though harder for us to deal with, might better represent the will of the people than Anwar Sadat had.  I’ve come to think it’s very hard to know what’s true about what’s going on in the world.

The people in Egypt seem to be exhilarated by their successful uprising.  It’s hard to know how it all will come out.  When Gorbachev dismantled the Soviet Union, I thought it would be a good opportunity for democracy to take hold.  But instead of offering support in the building of democracy’s infrastructure, we offered hyperselfish capitalism – the worst possible influence of the west.  The rhetoric at the time was that we were being ambassadors for western freedoms.  What we sold, in a new package, was the same old freedom to exploit.  At least, that’s what it looked like to me.  What do I know?

The best I can do is hope that the time is really right for the freedoms the Egyptian people are tasting, and that we don’t somehow go barging in there to mess things up.

In Egypt they rejoice to see a change

Though what will come of it is far from clear

What power moves to fill the vacuum may

Be those who subjugated folks before

And yet the people say the fear has lifted

That now, no matter what, they know they’re free

They feel their noble hearts will work a shift

Towards openness and greater equity

Perhaps it’s in their power to redeem us

Wake us from our jaded cynicism

The waning comfort of complacent lives

Make us stand with them, now that they have risen

Truth over comfort could yet make its claim

We could learn courage once again from them.

     
    
©Wendy Mulhern
 February 12, 2011