Today We Are All Egyptians!!

By Seyoum Tesafye

Rarely do we get a chance to witness a momentous historic transformation in real time. If and when we do get this opportunity every cell in our body gets energized and enriched. We become transformed in ways that will impact our feelings and alter our thinking in profound ways for years to come. The People of Egypt just gave us this kind extraordinary gift to the world without any precondition. An affirmation of the credo: When the people decide to take their destiny into their own hands no force will be capable of derailing them.  The Tahrir Spirit will vertebrate both in Africa and the Middle East and beyond. The people are the true forces of change. The tyrants and their enablers, who doubt this cardinal truth, will get a chance to relearn it again as the people's revolution bubbles under their feet.    

Today I am an Egyptian in spirit and thought. A privilege bestowed to millions of people in the world by the gallant people of Egypt. I wear it with pride. I welcome it with a sense of responsibility that it deserves. The unfolding people’s revolution in Egypt is only Egyptian in form but in content it represents the demand, voice and energy of all who are suffering under brutal tyranny. To paraphrase the words of John F. Kennedy: Today we are all Egyptians.  Like I was a Berliners when the infamous Berlin Wall gave way to the will of the people, in this historic day I am an Egyptian. I will engrave in my memory the detail accounts of the last 18 days. I will be withdrawing from it pure energy for years to come.   

Mubarak had the opportunity to exit gracefully and exercise some sense of statesmanship in his last speech. But true to his ingrained authoritarian behavior he was focused on his vanity and narcissistic concerns than to the genuine demand of the 85 million people represented by the Voices of Democracy at Tahrir square. Just like other dictators before him, in the end, his departure becomes an anticlimax when contrasted with the dignified, determined and defiant citizens’ uprising. The revolution prevails and another tyrant bites the dust. More will follow. 

The victory goes beyond the political achievement of the Egyptian Nonviolent National Revolution. It transforms every citizen by reconstituting his and her self-confidence and empowers everyone. It vanishes the germs of fear. It frees the mind from control of totalitarian ideology. It popularizes thinking in possibilities as antidote to the years of being beaten down by the tyrannical political, media and security machine.  It liberates the individual, to think and act in qualitatively different way, and in the final analysis that makes everything possible. No amount of security systems and intimidation can finally defeat the righteous wrath of a determined people. The Lotus Revolution has once again confirmed this cardinal truth. Periodically we need this kind profound affirmation so that we can replenish our soul and continue in our modest effort to contribute to the defeat of tyranny wherever we come face to face with it.  

The last 18 days were a universally shared transparent global experience with immense implication. It is the most important Nonviolent Peoples’ Revolution of the new century. Except the forces of violence, reaction and tyranny the world welcomes the victory of the people of Egypt without any reservation and equivocation.  

Tuesday February 11, 2011 we are all Egyptians and we owe the people of Egypt our utmost respect and gratitude. Bravo the People of Egypt.

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