While watching the Trump nativist brigade attack the Capitol on January 6, I received a text from a friend: "During all your years working in foreign countries did you ever have an experience as terrifying as this?"
For a moment my thoughts traveled to scary times in Peru and in Sudan but they quickly settled, instead, on a taxi driver in Cairo.
Having completed my consultancy, I was ready to fly home. My colleagues encouraged me to leave for the airport several hours before scheduled departure. The streets were lined with capital police, uniformed military and tanks. The driver from the agency said it was better for me to take a taxi. I surmised that he envisioned dents in his car if the situation grew tense or worried that he might not make it back home before curfew. It took me no more than 15 minutes, settled into the back of a taxi that had seen better years, to know I had been given a gift.
It was June 4, 2009 and Barack Obama had begun his tour of Arab States promising to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world. He made a unique request to each government on his tour. He asked permission to give his national address at a major university, rather than a palace or official government building. He also requested that students should make up the majority of the audience and be allowed entrance without cost.
In his speech, Obama, gave a courteous nod to attending Arab autocrats, saying that America did not presume to know what was best for everyone. Then he turned his attention to the students in the room and to ordinary Egyptians listening by radio or television. Why? Obama believed that an Arab Spring was coming, with young people leading the call. Obama intended to water the seeds of democracy.
From the backseat of my Cairo taxi, I warily watched traffic as we made our way along the major highway that looped the city and flowed onward to the airport. We passed Cairo University where Obama had spoken hours before. Occasionally I glanced at my driver. His back was tense and both hands gripped the steering wheel, balancing the vigilance and aggression required to maneuver the streets of Cairo. He may have sensed me watching him. He gave a steely glance over his right shoulder and asked me where I was from.
"The United States," I replied, cautiously, never knowing how my nationality will be received in Muslim countries since the start of the Iraq war in 2003.
Arabs, like much of the world, asked, "How could an attack on the U.S. by a terrorist group in Afghanistan lead to a war against Iraq? The global support America received after 9/11, including from Muslim countries, was squandered by the widespread view that there were ulterior motives for the war in Iraq, unrelated to the attack on the U.S.
"AMERICA!" my taxi driver squealed with glee, stretching every syllable. I could see his grin reflected in the rearview mirror. "Your president has spoken to us, just a little while ago. I went home to watch his speech on television with my wife."
"Your president, your president," he nodded his head from side to side in both delight and wonderment. Mr. Barack Obama, told us five things."
Still clutching the steering wheel, my taxi driver lifted the fingers on his right hand, 1-2-3-4-5, as he repeated Obama's messages about basic human rights. Obama told Egyptians that he had an unyielding belief that all people yearn for certain things. I don't remember the order or exact words that my taxi driver spoke. However, the topics still resonate with me as they did with him.
He talked about ideals well-known to Americans but to his ears, they were new, novel, and wonderful - governments that have responsibility to protect every citizen and help them to lead their best life; fair laws with equal justice from honest judiciaries; ability to speak your mind without fear of arrest; free press; and the right of citizens to say how they are governed.
I was surprised to hear from my taxi driver that Obama also spoke to Egyptians about two culturally sensitive topics-the rights of women and the challenges of oil based economies. Obama said that when women have equality under the law and contribute their talents to society, both the family and country will be more prosperous. This hit a positive chord with my driver because he had an ambitious daughter and no son to support him and his wife in old age.
Obama told his audience that the Arab countries were rich in oil and gas reserves that have benefited only a few. A shift from oil and gas to a knowledge and innovation-based economy will help the Arab states join the global economy and spread benefits to its citizens. This will require investments in education.
When he said this, I felt pride that the parenting education work I had just completed could contribute to these goals by empowering women and teaching mothers how to promote talents and well-being of their young children.
Whether it was due to democratic ideas spoken by an American president with a Muslim name, or to whom he chose to speak, my taxi driver subsequently felt validated, hopeful, and perhaps a bit emboldened.
And then my taxi driver said this…"My wife and I cried."
The word "cried" was spread over four syllables, for emphasis. His lip quivered. My own eyes filled with tears.
I still choke with emotion every time I tell this story. I have always wished for a chance to share it with President Obama, so that he could see how he brought hope to an ordinary man in a faraway land.
In those moments I was caught up in a wave of pride and gratitude to be an American. But I also suffered embarrassment knowing that America has not yet achieved the ideals of democracy that so awed this gentleman living in Egypt.
I read a lot, balancing fiction in one hand and a biography, history or political commentary in the other. I also ask others about their views and find that political discourse involving diverse perceptions is not just a right, but also an obligation in a democracy. I think of it as lifelong civics education. Studying the 250-year history of America's geographical, ideological and racial divisions has helped me to understand the fragility of our democracy. We cling to the "myth of democracy" without doing the hard work to keep it relevant and fully actualized. We must understand the threats to democracy in order to protect it. This became clear after the Capitol assault on January 6, 2021.
So what are these threats? Threats come from those whose personal power, dominance over others and sense of entitlement is threatened by a society that aims to achieve "equal rights for all in a genuine, multi-racial democracy." They resist this vision for America and fight to "take back our country." Ten years ago they called themselves the "Tea Party". Now, more agitated, they see themselves as "Patriots" fired up for insurrection.
They build bunkers, arm themselves with assault weapons, and wear rag-tag "uniforms" covered in hate symbols. An estimated 30,000 attended Trump's "Take Back America" rally on January 6 and approximately 2,500 of them violently stormed the capitol building. In the 2020 election, 70 million Americans voted to continue Trump policies.
We have seen the tactics. The "patriots" wage war against a seemingly disparate array of social changes that taken together, support white male dominance and racism. They are against gun regulation, immigration, abortion, minimum wage increases, public education, universal health care, environmental protection, voter registration, and most vehemently against the
"Black Lives Matter" movement. In fact, they are willing to vote against their best interests in the short term to maintain white dominant status, a concept discussed by Isabella Wilkerson in her book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.
Over the past four years, the "patriot movement" was emboldened when "they took back the country" from our first African American president and gave it to someone who looked, thought and acted like one of their own. They were fueled by the new president's hate rhetoric and overt actions to destroy democratic institutions. Social media platforms lit fuses and a news station told and retold the president's lies and conspiracy theories until they sounded like truth.
Like hypnotism, these forces took over their minds, empowered them, and incited them to violence. Sabrina Tavernise, New York Times columnist, explained it this way (1/17/21). "The country's political divide is no longer a disagreement over issues like guns and abortion but a fundamental difference in how people see reality." She cited a Quinnipiac Poll that reported 73% of those who voted Republican falsely believe there was widespread voter fraud and that the 2020 election was stolen. They ignored the fact that poll workers from both parties in contested states recounted ballots several times and extensive safeguards that were put into place to make the 2020 election the safest in the history of America.
Dawn has broken; the shadows recede. There are hopeful signs that democracy will survive and thrive. On November 3, 2020, 7 million more Americans voted to restore and strengthen democracy than those bent to scale-up the anti-democratic legacy of the past four years. Young people campaigned and voted in record numbers. Increased access to vote by mail enabled elderly, the disabled and rural Americans to vote in record numbers.
In Georgia, Stacey Abrams, showed what one woman can do to get out the vote in a Republican stronghold. Along with her foot soldiers for democracy and their message that "Black Voters Matter," Georgia turned blue, giving the presidency and the Senate to the democrats. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were elected to lead our country out of the abyss toward a more democratic country that functions effectively for all Americans.
In the days following January 6, police and FBI arrested insurrectionists, aided by thousands of informants, including family members, who were terrified and angered by the assault on the Capitol. Americans are stepping up to do their part. For example, an Association of American Publishers is now circulating a letter of intent not to accept book manuscripts written by insurgents that attacked the Capitol. Democracy triumphed for the moment. However, lessons from the past warn against complacency.
Egypt is an example of how quickly anti-democratic forces can take over a nascent democracy, as well as novel tactics they can use to permanently silence the call for democracy. Two years after Obama's speech in Cairo, massive protests, mostly non-violent, resulted in the first democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi, in 2011. In 2013, , anti-democratic forces spurred a coup led by military general, Mr. el-Sisi. Since then, thousands of citizens have been imprisoned for non-violent pro-democracy protests.
To further consolidate his power, el-Sisi is moving government operations from Cairo to an inaccessible location in the desert. The millions in Cairo, longing for democracy, will be sidelined and out of sight. To further punish poor citizens of Cairo, he is moving its main attraction, the National Museum, to a site near the pyramids. Tourists will fly in to Egypt and be shuttled to the new tourist complex, disenfranchising thousands in the city who ran hostels or small eateries and souvenir shops to serve the tourists. Out of site; out of mind; and voiceless. These tourists will no longer pass Tahrir Square, where the movement for democracy was born. The monument has been destroyed and the symbols plowed over to become a permanent construction site
So what did I learn from my taxi driver in Cairo?
He taught me to wake up every day feeling thankful I live in a democracy. On the other hand, events in Cairo since 2011, and those in Washington on January 6 make me realize that democracy is fragile and cannot be taken for granted. As a citizen I am obligated to do something more than feeling blessed.
My Traveler's Tales blog provides space for me to talk about what I've learned from overseas experiences that teach me how to live everyday life in an extraordinary way I would love to hear from my readers. How are you using your own realm of influence to help build a visionary, inclusive, people's movement for democracy? Writeme@deborah-llewellyn.com
My taxi driver is counting on it. And so are we all.
"I am obligated to do something more than feeling blessed." SO well said!! As a somewhat relentless optimist, I'm hopeful that the last four years and especially the last few months have jogged people out of their apathy about the importance of their votes, including at the local level.
Yes, we have so much to be thankful for, though we are learning how fragile our democracy is. I hope we can keep it. On a side note... I was in Egypt shortly after Obama won. People would see me, realize I was an American, smile, clap their hands, and say "Obama!! Obama!!"