Good Riots?

Riots in Greece… Riots in Spain… but I was caught by surprise by a NY Times column by Thomas L. Friedman that maybe the human spirit is alive and well in some places that seem really bleak.  The Cold War did not end overnight, so maybe we can hope for some change in the Middle East in the years to come.  In addition, how blessed we are to live in such a free country!

Here are a few of the key excerpts:

“One of the iron laws of Middle East politics for the last half-century has been that extremists go all the way and moderates tend to just go away. That is what made the march in Benghazi, Libya, so unusual last Friday. This time, the moderates did not just go away. They got together and stormed the headquarters of the Islamist militia Ansar al-Sharia, whose members are suspected of carrying out the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi that resulted in the death of four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens.”

“But having decried the voices of intolerance that so often intimidate everyone in that region, I find it heartening to see Libyans carrying signs like “We want justice for Chris” and “No more Al Qaeda” — and demanding that armed militias disband. This coincides with some brutally honest articles in the Arab/Muslim press — in response to rioting triggered by the idiotic YouTube video insulting the Prophet Muhammad — that are not the usual “What is wrong with America?” but, rather, “What is wrong with us, and how do we fix it?””

The following link will take you to the entire Op-Ed Column… Backlash to the Backlash