Yes, right from my couch, I saw a man, one I never knew but now have huge feelings for, shot dead. He was unarmed. He was angry, probably hungry, armed only with his sense of decency.
It was on CNN. I saw footage of the uprising in Egypt. The producers/editors at CNN highlighted him. He was part of a crowd, shouting about poverty, injustice, government control and human rights. The crowd fled with fear as the line of police marched toward them. He stayed and continued shouting, one man.
As he stayed, the camera showed him and no one else. He was shot and his body crumpled, he was dead before he hit the ground.
I cried, almost instantly. I had just watched "Red" -- a movie with more killing than dialogue and I laughed my ass off watching it. And now, minutes later, I was crying about one anonymous man shot down.
This man chose to protest the fate dictated to Egypt's "have nots". He is a better man than me. I am unemployed, have no health insurance, am forty, have a wife and daughter and a doctorate -- I am considered an American "have not", certainly by myself. And yet, I had pizza for dinner. My dog is asleep at my feet. My wife and daughter are asleep in a king sized bed. I "have" -- but only b/c I was lucky to be born into a good family, in a country where opportunity was availabe, for some anyway. By nothing more than luck, I am him, only not as brave.
As tears flowed down my eyes, I heard the faint tune of John Lennon's "Imagine" - it was a Cisco commercial. My sadness turned to anger.
Anger at myself, angry at the world, angry at global corporations, angry that I can't get a damned job and so angry that this man died. . . because he was angry about the same things.
He was unarmed. He was alone in the picture and his bravery. Perhaps he was braver than the crowd, perhaps he was angrier. But that does not matter now, he died today.
I will be thinking of him a long, long time. Will you, with me?