Democracy On the Verge

By James Preston Allen, Publisher

I was stopped at the San Pedro Post Office the other day and asked (by one of our not so liberal readers) whether I had “predicted the Cairo and Tunisian uprisings?” My answer was, “No, I am not a fortune teller. By the way, it appears as though the CIA and the rest of our intelligence agencies didn’t see this coming either!”

So much for the great “Wurlitzer” of our spook network and all the intel satellites we’ve blasted into space predicting the political frustrations of 80 million Egyptians. But it’s about time that this happened.

What should be noticed in the coverage of the Cairo uprising is that the majority of the protest banners are written in English, often with a message for President Barack Obama. These signs of protest are directed at our leaders, calling on us in this nation to reconsider what we mean by “democracy” in the Middle East, or perhaps everywhere where our foreign policy supports tyrants, dictators or repressive regimes at the expense of our national creed of liberty and justice for all. It is interesting that this revolt emanated not from the repressed Muslim Brotherhood, which has been outlawed and jailed for years, or from the feared al Qaida, but from the Egyptian labor unions and the student movement that emerged in the textile mills north of the capital. This tinderbox of frustrated and oppressed political aspirations only needed a single match to be struck. That was Tunisia.

It is inspiring to watch and listen to these voices in the street and compare them with what little gets reported in the mainstream press and the “talking-head pundits” on Sunday morning talk shows. It is curious how President Mubarak’s power has been offset by the Egyptian military, and how that military had been shifted into neutral, not taking sides, but at whose direction? I am encouraged by the reporting of alternative news sources like Democracy Now! and others who report real news that only Al Jazeera, the Arabic news network, seems to be capturing. The English version of Al Jazeera is available at http:/ /english.aljazeera.net/. Portions of their coverage are aired on KOCE, KPFK and other public TV and radio stations.

This is a “teachable” moment, as our President often says. But is anybody learning? Our national press has learned something as they have been assaulted and beaten by the pro-Mubarak thugs, but will they really get the blunt force message that has politicized the students at Tahrir Square or Kasr al Nile bridge? Will the American people learn from this in any greater context other than just the current string of foreign events—the wars, the drug cartels and the Great Recession? Or will our history teachers take the time to put this in a historical line that goes all the way back to our suppression of the Philippines more than 100 years ago, the American financed coup d’ état in Iran in the 1950s, or even how we ended up on the wrong side of the liberation of Vietnam from French colonialism by Ho Chi Minh, who modeled his declaration of independence after ours? American economic interests enforced with gunboat diplomacy, have trumped our support of democracy for more than a century, and yes, here in Egypt too.

“So where does this end?” my friend at the post office asks. “Probably when democracy comes back to America,” I respond. What’s that you ask? We have drifted a far distance from the first shot fired at Concord. We are now more in doubt of our Constitutional rights than ever before—jeopardized as they are by economic crises, fiscal mismanagement and the granting of civil rights to corporations. When the power of the almighty dollar surpasses the rights of individuals; when belief in our war machine displaces our beliefs in democracy; when we can no longer afford to pay for the basic tenants of liberty, such as public education, adequate access to swift and fair justice, then there needs to be a change at home.

But who will deliver that message of change? Will it be those running to replace Congresswoman Jane Harman who just resigned her 36th Congressional seat or will it come from Jerry Brown rearranging the state budget? Or will it be President Obama as he addresses the U.S. Chamber of Com- merce? Will it come from below from a Twitter feed or from a text sent to millions at once, lighting the fire of revolt in Tunisia? Will anyone pay much notice to the rumblings of dissent in the United Teachers Los Angeles elections or will the displaced home owners that are being foreclosed on by Bank of America rise up in dissent asking, “Where is the justice in a system that bails out the banks but doesn’t help citizens keep their homes?” What will happen when the people who routinely pledge their allegiance to the flag and sing the national anthem realize that their rights and liberties have been trampled on during the mad rush for bottom-line quarterly profits on Wall Street and the next speculation bubble of Internet connectivity investments?

Yes, I applaud the uprising in Cairo at Tahrir Square and wish them a swift victory over all those who oppose the aspirations of democracy both at home and abroad. May their spirit inspire a whole generation, if not the whole world.