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Egypt and America: Both Must Become More Truly Democratic

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Message Sam Hamod


"The times they are changin'." Woody Guthrie song adapted by Bob Dylan

Egypt is going its own way. This means that America and Israel both will have lost their hold on this massive Arab Muslim country that has been their handmaiden since the time of the late Anwar Sadat through the regime of Hosni Mubarak. But let us not think that Americans are any better off than Egyptians, considering the loss of our Constitutional rights, the soaring unemployment and the desire by both political parties to cut social services to the citizenry as they carry on with their pork-barrel politics. America is in the hands of not one, but a group of oligarchs -- corporations, banks, media moguls, congress and the president.

The people of Egypt have long felt more allied with their Arab and Muslim brothers than with the West and Israel, but because of the regimes in power since the time of the great Egyptian leader; the leader of the Pan Arab and Pan Islamic movement, Gamal Abdel Nasser, the wishes of the people have not been heard or met. Although the American  government may look at Egypt as a loss -- and it will be for the governing oligarchs of America (the corporations, the media, the banks, the congress and the president) -- it must realize its own pot is also boiling.

We are not only in the hands of oligarchs, we are also in the hands of Israel. Each Israeli gets over $48,000.00 in American aid, while Americans in need of social services are being shut out because, according to the president and the congress, "we have no money for them" -- while at the same time -- banksters and the military bleed the country dry. Once more Americans understand this; once they consider the billions spent on over 1,000 bases around the world and our ongoing wars in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, maybe they will speak up and say, "We are 80% against your continuing wars, and why is it that the president and congress keep funding the military in this way, while we the people starve and lose our social services that we paid into and deserve?"

Thus, though Egypt and Tunisia seem far away, America should also take heed.

But let us understand also, that the Egyptian people are cousins to the Palestinians and will open the Gaza gate to Palestinians who come for medical care and medicines, and even weapons to be used against the common enemy of the Muslims and Arabs -- Israel. Israel no longer has a puppet in Cairo, nor does America. Some say America is the 2nd state of Israel, not Israel as the 51st state of America, and one has but to see the behavior of Binyamin Netanyahu and those before him to see how often they have spit in the face of American presidents.

President Jimmy Carter was knocked out of the presidency by the notorious Kissinger lover, Ted Koppel, who raged night after night against Carter for not attacking Iran. But few knew that Koppel was doing the bidding of the Zionists who surrounded the Reagan candidacy, whereas Carter had stood up to Menachim Begin, who had violated the "peace treaty" he had signed with Presidents Carter and Sadat. Carter's stand against Israel's Begin was his downfall -- aided and abetted by Koppel, who some say has dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship, as has Paul Wolfowitz, Rahm Emmanel, Karl Rove, William Kristol, Richard Pearl, NY Congressman Peter King, and others who "govern" America.

Thus, even in our media, the Egyptian revolution has shaken some "talking heads." Wolf Blitzer had a hard time giving the news in an honest fashion tonight on CNN when he saw, as an Israeli citizen (Wolf was born in Israel) that Israel's tentacles now might lose their hold in Egypt, so he had a hard time praising the oncoming revolution that so many others praised. Too often we have had talking heads speaking to one another, but today CNN finally had an Egyptian who spoke the truth, he pointed out that the people in Egypt are sick and tired of their great country being a handmaiden and lackey to America and Israel, and that the people were fearless in the face of bullets and tanks. This courage should be a wake-up call for Americans to respect Arabs and Muslims who have a greater belief in God than our worshippers of the golden calf -- the dollar -- in America and Israel. As the song says, "The times they are a changin'."

On the other hand, it is clear to the American government that Mubarak is finished and they had best hope for the new regime to re-establish some kind of new ties with America. But I assure you, Egypt will no longer be America's and Israel's lackey. I believe the spirit of Nasser will once again rise from Egypt's youth and even the middle class so that a new and better relationship with other Muslim and Arab countries will prevail. The dictators in other places will hasten to correct their imbalances with the young who have come home filled with the spirit of DEMOCRACY (even though we have less of it in America than we speak of), and their degrees, PhD's, MBA's, MA's, MD's, BA's, etc., who have found little work in their respective countries.

Yes, the revolution is here in Egypt, in the Arab world, and it will be coming to America in due time if our oligarchs do not straighten up and fly right. Because at some point, we Americans should no longer tolerate the oligarchs who collect   money from us, yet who do not listen to us, the taxpayers and citizens. Our situation is no different than that of the Tunisians and Egyptians -- we have no real representation in Congress or the White House, and needless to say, the corporations and banks love the mega slave state they have created in America.

WE all lived with THE AMERICAN DREAM, but as M.L. King, Jr. and the poet, said, "A dream deferred is a dream denied."   At this time, it is clear that our American dream is lost to the oligarchs, much as it was lost in Tunisia and Egypt. How long will it be before the American people also ask for a REAL DEMOCRACY -- not this faux Democracy we now have?

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Sam Hamod, Ph.D. is a graduate professor; he has taught courses in creative writing, politics, religion, mass media and intercultural relations. He has one of the very few PhDs awarded by The Writers Workshop of The Univ. of Iowa, has published 12 (more...)
 
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