We All Want to Change the World

Have I told the story about the Ayatollah Khomeini piñata? If so, well, you are going to hear it again. In 1979, I was in fourth grade, and back then you only learned about other cultures when there was time at the end of the school year. So that spring, we had a short unit on "Mexico."

Thank God for television and adults talking, because we kids were keenly aware of what was going on in the world. In February, there had been a revolution in Iran that deposed the Shah and installed an Islamic government. Even ten-year-olds knew that this was not a positive step forward, although I bet it was another twenty years before most of us learned why the revolution happened. As we grew, we watched many leaders in the Middle East try theocracy. We watched women lose their rights, we watched Sharia law be implemented in different forms, and we watched young men pledge their lives to a form of Islam that rejected the future. In America, it can be said that the 1979 revolution did not affect us until September 11, 2001, but that is a ridiculously parochial view. The whole world has lost decades to an experiment in Islamic law and government that is failing because it is working against the tide of time. People only move forward, and to attempt to turn back the clock is just a waste of time and lives.

So back to "Mexico" (sorry, Mexico, but you are just a detail in this story). The culmination of our extensive week-long study of Mexico was a piñata project. Since this was in the dark ages, kids were still divided into groups based on ability (yes!) and of course I was with the "smart" kids. And we showed off our superior abilities by creating an Ayatollah Khomeini piñata and then delighting in bashing it to pieces.

Today is the anniversary of the Iranian Revolution, but more important, today Hosni Mubarak resigned as Egyptian president after thirty years. It's hard to post links because as I write this I am listening to coverage of the event on Al Jazeera (here's something on Mubarak). After all we have heard here in America about Iran, Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries, Egypt, until last month, was rarely mentioned. Now I understand why. Egypt and Israel are in strange positions in their region, and it has been in our interest to be slightly deaf and blind in dealing with them.

But Americans have to remember that our interests are of little interest to the people in other parts of the world who have to live their lives, too, and want to do so in both freedom and security. To the people of Egypt I say please understand that American leaders (especially those who started the war in Iraq) do not always represent us. We are watching you and all of us are thinking today how far we need to go to make our voices heard, too. Most of all, the future is inevitable, and we will meet you there.