Arab Children, You are the Generation

ARAB CHILDREN,
CORN EARS OF THE FUTURE,
YOU WILL BREAK OUR CHAINS,
KILL THE ILLUSIONS . . .
YOU ARE THE GENERATION
THAT WILL OVERCOME DEFEAT.

~ Nizar Qabbani, 1970

Of Note: On December 17, 2010, the Arab world changed forever. For Americans, that happened on September 11, 2001 when the World Trade Center went up in flames; other countries have their own dates when things would never be the same. For the Arabs, it was the day that a young Tunisian man was slapped by a policeman and then arrested for selling vegetables without a permit. The day after his release, the man set himself on fire in a public square. This act of martyrdom inspired other Tunisians to cry "Enough!" with such force that their entrenched dictator fell within weeks. Egypt was next and now Libya is taking its turn. Other Middle East nations have been beset by protests and a variety of government responses: some violent, others conciliatory. What we are seeing is a region set aflame by the liberating thoughts and subsequent actions of a long oppressed people. Many scholars and diplomats believed that the Arab culture was incompatible with democracy. What a myopic thought that any people would accept slavery over liberation forever because of cultural mores. The world has a long history of revolution and eventual liberation, which reflects the evolution of humanity's consciousness. This onward and upward movement continues unabated even though often from the outside it appears to have stalled, stopped or regressed. We can have faith that humanity as a whole is always moving in a direction toward more freedom and the recent adjustments in the Middle East are an outward sign of a great inward reality.