Tunisia, Egypt and America

Here is an essay comparing the situation in Tunisia and American student loan debt.

Here is an op-ed piece by John Kerry encouraging the leader of Egypt to step down and encouraging America to support the people of Egypt.

What is striking about the two pieces read in conjunction is how they bring home the real power of public outcry and demonstration. The unrest that has sprung up in places like Tunisia and Egypt is about different things in different places and is far from being uniformly anti-American or Islamic-fundamentalist. Rather, the main strain that seems to unite these uprisings is economic hardship conjoined with a corrupt and unconcerned government. This is about poverty and the sense of entitlement on the part of the ruling rich which motivates them to go on crushing the backs of the middle and lower classes. With Republicans calling more and more for cuts in the government spending which seeks to assist Americans hardest hit by the economic downturn and cuts in taxes in order to serve America's most well off, our nation should perhaps take notice that what is happening in Africa could very well happen here. As noted in the first article, "between 2002 and 2007, 65 percent of all income growth in the United States went to the top 1 percent of the population." Those who are suffering in America do so at least partially because of those who are making (literally) a killing at the top.