luckily, i have not been following a lot of us/european media.  our tv stays tuned to al jazeera. 

there has been some danger to foreigners.  i heard that a bunch of foreigners were rounded up by the police and arrested and then let go a couple of nights ago.  and of course the attacks on foreign journalists. 

but, most of the violence has been instigated, as far as i can tell, by the police and their paid thugs.  and so the vigilantes/community members have organized themselves as a counter-force to the police. 

also, we dont live in a classic expat neighborhood.  we live in a middle class egyptian neighborhood.  and thus are much less of a target. the folks in our neighborhood know us, know our kid, and are protective of us. also we live relatively close to tahrir sq, which means that we dont deal with the police forces in our neighborhood, since they arent allowed near tahrir. 

and how could i not be excited?  the whole city is excited.  how can you not love an anarchist revolution that is not about political parties, or leaders, but for the people, by the people?  how can you not be excited to watch a multi generation movement emerge and insist on taking the future into its own hands? 

i mean, it was more dangerous to live under a police dictatorship.  more dangerous when bloggers were routinely arrested for critiquing the egyptian govt and i had to weigh if i could afford as a mama to write the truth.  more dangerous when nearly everyone was afraid of the police and just hid in the ‘dark of their windows’ when the police were abusive, just glad they werent the target. this time. 

and yes there have been over 300 martyrs in this fight.  and there will probably be more.  but i dont even have the numbers for the amount of people who died from the dictatorship.  human rights watch probably has it, ill do some research. 

one of the things i have been thinking a lot about in the past couple of days is that there is freedom and security.  most of us get it wrong.  we think first you get security and then you can work for freedom.  but no, that never really works out.  first you get free.  second, you get free.  third, you get free. 

security is an illusion. 

there was no real security under the mubarak regime.  it was just an ugly form of chaos.  it didnt make pretty patterns.  it made fear.