I have almost over-dosed on Wisconsin. We have traveled the 300 mile round trip from Chicago to Madison two Saturdays in a row. Sunday night I couldn’t keep my eyes off Twitter, following every minutiae, every rumor, switching from one live stream to another.
Who doesn’t know about Ian’s pizza? The hand-made signs, funny and profane? The fire fighters and the Wisconsin state police? Bolted windows and weddings?
In one ear are the sounds of Wisconsin. In the other, Libya and the Mideast. The world is dramatically changing and the flow of information on the internet makes it all so immediate that you can barely keep up.
And teach too!
Robert Fisk, a British journalist, has covered the Mideast for thirty years.
Who would have believed that the old man in the cave would suddenly have to step outside, dazzled, blinded by the sunlight of freedom rather than the Manichean darkness to which his eyes had become accustomed. Martyrs there were aplenty across the Muslim world – but not an Islamist banner to be seen. The young men and women bringing an end to their torment of dictators were mostly Muslims, but the human spirit was greater than the desire for death. They are Believers, yes – but they got there first, toppling Mubarak while Bin Laden’s henchmen still called for his overthrow on outdated videotapes.
But now a warning. It’s not over. We are experiencing today that warm, slightly clammy feeling before the thunder and lightning break out. Gaddafi’s final horror movie has yet to end, albeit with that terrible mix of farce and blood to which we are accustomed in the Middle East. And his impending doom is, needless to say, throwing into ever-sharper perspective the vile fawning of our own potentates. Berlusconi – who in many respects is already a ghastly mockery of Gaddafi himself – and Sarkozy, and Lord Blair of Isfahan are turning out to look even shabbier than we believed. Those faith-based eyes blessed Gaddafi the murderer. I did write at the time that Blair and Straw had forgotten the “whoops” factor, the reality that this weird light bulb was absolutely bonkers and would undoubtedly perform some other terrible act to shame our masters. And sure enough, every journalist is now going to have to add “Mr Blair’s office did not return our call” to his laptop keyboard.
Fred Klonsky 