So some big company wants to put a landfill, or an incinerator, or a chemical plant, or whatever, in your neighborhood? You don't like it and so you ask for hearings and permits and environmental impact statements and the like? Of course, that is your right. And, of course, the hearings are never held right, the comment periods are too short, the public information packets are inadequate, too few people notified, and on and on.

We all advocate the right to participate in such processes when public funds are being spent, and we call it democracy. But what about when people don't even have such basic rights as being able to run candidates for office, or being able to publicly criticize the government? That's what the folks in Egypt that are protesting are up against.

I think the time has come in this situation where everyone that believes in democracy speaks out in whatever way they can for the movement to bring about such fundamental rights. So I am speaking out in favor of the immediate removal of Mubarak, the lifting of emergency (which is like martial) law, which has been in place for 30 years, and the other reforms that the very courageous folks in Egypt are asking.

There is a very deep and strong "left wing" voice in this country. It's time that they, including the environmental movement, comes out unequivocally in support of the protesters. The "official" US position has become so twisted in middle-of-the-road-ism that it is not inspiring and supporting the reforms anymore.

I know that if Mubarak stays in now, or even if one of his lackies takes over, that there will be no change. There comes a point in a situation like this where, to bureaucrats like Mubarak, it becomes a game. They become determined not to let their opponents "win." Right or wrong evaporates. Winning isn't everything - it's the only thing. The ends justify the means.

I experienced that when the U.S. Forest Service went ahead and logged one of the last old growth forests on public land in southern Illinois, the Fairview Timber sale. 22 of 24 federal elected officials, including 20 of 22 US representatives and both senators, had signed a letter (the FS eventually published it one of their EIS documents) asking the FS not to log the area. They ignored them and logged it anyway. That's because they had been embarassed by months of an effective protest and media campaign against their plans. They didn't like that, and whether or not it was right or wrong to log the old growth forest became irrelevant. The FS was not going to let the protesters win. In the end, something precious was destroyed.

I'm worried that this is just what will happen in Egypt if a world wide level of support among the liberal community doesn't materialize. We won't see an old growth forest logged, but we will see a light of a human desire for a better life be crushed. It's very similar things that are destroyed in the end.

I don't have any power. I can't really do anything but write words that no one reads. But, after watching and listening to a lot of different folks in Egypt who have made statements on the US media over the past couple weeks I'm convinced that this is at heart a true movement and needs support. So folks, you keep it up. I'm supporting you!