Lady Macbeth and Her Air-Ship

[marcellinafuriosa]

A piece from the Guardian about Egypt.  (I still haven't forgiven them for their stupid Detroit article, though.)  It's just that...after years and years of watching news about "outside troops marched in to topple the dictator", hearing about people who rose up to topple the dictator on their own makes my heart pound.

Here's what's true: my Fundie aunt, who lives in the land of milk-in-a-bag, decided that she'd take her used milk bags and crochet them into a mattress pad for Haitian earthquake victims.  (Rather, than, you know, spending the equivalent amount of time raising money or volunteering or anything like that.  She's also the one who uses Tyvek insulation and a blow torch to make jewelry that looks like little globs of excrement.)  But she got tired of it and quit.  Her husband thought it was such a good idea that he picked up the needles and finished it, and then their son was so proud of them he took it into his classroom (he's a teacher) to show his third-graders.  On the list of "stuff Haitians need" I suspect "craft projects you made with your household rubbish" is pretty far down there. 

Things I Would Watch on TV:
Clue: Wadsworth's New Adventures
Star Trek: Keeping Up With The Cardassians
"Downton Abbey" but with the Maggie Smith part played by Billy Connolly in a dress and a lavalier.

Thing I Am Watching On TV:
DVD of the first season of "Batman: the Animated Series."  It was good.

Comments

[tim]

It's just that...after years and years of watching news about "outside troops marched in to topple the dictator", hearing about people who rose up to topple the dictator on their own makes my heart pound.

Has it ever been any other way? When the outside troops march in, it's been because the dictator was a threat to the economic interests of a more powerful country rather than because the dictator was a threat to their own people, in every example I know of.

[marcellinafuriosa]

I know, and I know that our taxes paid for the guns and tanks aimed at the Egyptian protesters. It's the thought of the Facebook generation and grandmothers and Muslims and Christians (and the line of people, some in hoodies, some in suits, defending the museum in Cairo from looters, who were apparently affiliated with the police) all getting together to throw out the dictator on their own- it's awesome (in the old-fashioned sense of the word.) The loss of life is terrible (it's up to 74 dead and 2000 injured, if the news is right) and it must be so frightening for the people there, but it's as if Egypt has reminded the world that you can stand up to tyrants. I feel the way I did when I was a girl reading about Lexington and Concord.

Dammit, there was a solidarity protest in Harvard Square and I was at work!