Standing With The People
As the world watches—despite the Egyptian government's best efforts to darken the light of revolution—the People of Egypt increasingly come forward to express their will for change and they will not be deterred. Just over a year ago, I had the great fortune to be in Egypt. Making my way through Cairo, up the Sinai, and deep into Luxor, I left holding vivid impressions of who these crowds are made up of, who they gather for, and who they risk on behalf of: the People.
As movements of people calling forth transformative social change, we are further empowered when we recognize our relationship, deep connection, and interdependence with the movements towards justice in the world. I hope these snapshots of with whom it is we stand in solidarity empowers each of you: I stand with Egypt.
I too stood in defiance of President Hosni Mubarak's police in downtown Cairo's Midan Tahrir, or Liberation Square. Coming from all over the world, we gathered there to link Freedom for the people of Gaza with the Liberation of the people of Egypt. Even then, Mubarak sought to keep the attention we were bringing to the plight of the People from coming to light. We were just a few hundred, but it was clear he knew even then that if the People saw us, they would stir. Now, a million—and counting—stand too.
I stand with the low-ranking and even lower-paid soldiers that are shuffled around and posted as human barricades to contain the peoples' movements but can't contain their support for the hopeful defiance of ordinary men and women, young and old, that may finally usher in real change. As long as Egypt is willing to be home of the well-behaved Arabs, America has been willing to deeply fund a dictator to keep up a pretense of peace while Egyptians paid the price of their dignity. Like the Red people of America, their self-determination is systematically denied while US-made and paid-for weapons are used to dissuade them from their conviction.
I stand with the other Hosny, the travel guide who rents horses and poses us in pictures with camels while solving the mystery of the Great Pyramids of Giza with an easy plausibility that confirms westerners are the only ones still questioning what the people have always known. While we watch the legions pouring into the streets from the comfort of our living rooms or the palms of our hands, the People risk the stability that was for three decades secured at the cost of liberty. They trade complacency and comfort for an unknown future but are determined to define that path on their own terms.
I stand with the soft-eyed captain of the Jolie, the fifth generation of his family to guide feluccas up and down the lush banks of Luxor's Nile. He has the help of a young boy that has lost his father but would receive neither service nor support in an Egypt that leaves the poorest to fend for themselves. Egypt's revolution is of and by not just some of the people, but the many. There is no fringe to dismiss. The lines of the class have blurred into oblivion. The haves is coming forward for the have-nots. Like the White people of our own nation that have stood in solidarity with folks red, black, brown, and yellow, refusing to be divided from their values to protect their places, this revolution sees the interdependence of all. They stand in protection of their collective heritage, denying would-be thieves the opportunity to steal their treasures and steal their triumph.
I stand with the head of security at the mighty Valley of Kings. Charged to protect the final resting place of dynasties that rose and fell for thousands of years before an America was considered, he cannot comfortably care for his family. His harmless scams occasionally lighten the pockets of gullible tourists, but when it becomes clear that we are neither easy prey nor think ourselves better than he, his feigned sternness gives way to easy laughter and easier talk of his love for his land, history, and people. He insists on treating us to a tour of the grandest tomb of all. For far too long, the rest of the world has passively looked aside while the People have lived with their requests unanswered, their demands ignored and their dreams deferred, as a leader that promised democracy delivers corruption and stomps out dissent instead.
I stand with Mohammed, the Bedouin with the striking resemblance to the boy-King Tut, now selling papyrus in Talaat Harb Square. His beautiful heavy eyes a window to his heavy heart because his place in society is limited by his birth. Like our Black people, Bedouins are economically deprived and their government metes out uneven punishment against them, institutionalizing a caste system rooted in prejudice. With good luck and by good hearts, this practice will not survive. Waving their flags of red, white, and black with defiance and dignity, destiny is on the side of revolution and the government must finally yield to the eternal law of change. What I see in Egypt is all the people of the world that seek out justice when it is too long denied, insist upon equality when it too long unbalanced, and take back freedom when it is too long withheld. It is time to take our place on the right side of Egypt: the side of the people.
I stand with Egypt because Egypt is me. —you're in truth,
aKw 
dedicated to Ahl Masr, the people of Egypt, home of the soul of Ptah. May your freedom come swiftly that we might learn, insha'Allah, that your freedom is our very own. ‐aKw
--- copyright MMXI. angel Kyodo Williams is a maverick teacher, author, social visionary, and Founder Emeritus of the Center for Transformative Change. she posts, tweets & blogs on all things change. permission granted to retweet, repost, repaste & repeat with copyright and contact information intact.
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