From Tahrir Square to Oscar Grant Plaza

On April 6 2009 I was in Tahrir Square on the Day of Anger. There were police trucks on every side street prepared to round up any person with the courage to come out and stand up against the regime. A brave few were out that day, from the Kefayah Movement and April 6 Youth Movement- the youth who were willing to stand up to the police state before the world was watching, before the revolution. As it happened, I was fired from my job in Egypt for writing an article about the parliamentary elections, and so it was that I found myself in Oakland in January 2011 watching Al Jazeera from my living room. I could have barely imagined in the years prior, yet as the world watched, the people of Egypt believed, and came out to protest en masse, and overthrew a dictator. It reminded me so distinctly of one of my favorite lines of poetry, from Abu al-Qasim al-Shabi:
‎ "إذا الشعب يوما اراد الحياة .. فلا بد ان يستجيب القدر"
"If the people one day really want life, then fate must respond"


Tonight in Oakland, at 14th and Broadway, demonstrators were yelling in Arabic.
"الشعب يريد إسقاط النظام " "The people want an end to the system" I have never had so much tear gas caught in my throat. The police, cops, homeland security, SWAT teams or whoever they were seemed so militarized. When they threw tear gas canisters hundreds of people would run, and as we were running I heard someone yelling "Allahu Akbar". I am not Muslim, but it reassured me in the moment. Everyday at work I see videos from Syria, of people dying at the hands of the Assad regime, thousands of people shot with live ammunition, reciting the Shahada as comrades die around them. So, tonight, I counted my blessings. As I was standing in Oscar Grant Plaza, my friend Ahmad was texting me advice from Egypt: "If you get gassed remember to breathe. Don't rub your eyes. Soak your koffeyyah in vinegar if you can".

So tonight I was thinking back to Tahrir Square in 2009. I was thinking about how I felt so lonely when I got fired from my job. Since then revolutions have been in progress. How amazing is it that tonight in Oakland, I was receiving advice on staying safe at a demonstration from an activist in Cairo? How amazing is it, that tonight in downtown Oakland, American protesters are facing up to a huge policy presence, chanting "ashaab yurid isqat al-nizam". Something about hearing slogans from Tahrir in Oakland tonight felt right. It made me believe that maybe people really can decolonize their minds, and that maybe the 99% all over the world really can draw strength from each other. From Tahrir Square to Oscar Grant Plaza, Thawra Hata Nasr.

‎ "إذا الشعب يوما اراد الحياة .. فلا بد ان يستجيب القدر"