Tuesday, April 05, 2005

Totten Luck

Michael J. Totten is one lucky guy. Not only has he carved out a big niche for himself in the Radical Center of the blogosphere, he's hooked up with the good people at Spirit of America, and their new project to give support and encouragement to the Lebanese pro-democracy protesters we've all been cheering for. Which means not only does he get a chance to hang with the secular saints at SoA, he gets a close-up view of the pulchritudinous protesters, some of whom could serve as the doe-eyed model for a new, Arab "Liberty Leading the People."

Michael explains the mission:

What we're doing here is raising money to help the opposition as they oust the Syrian military and intelligence personnel from the country, demand (and hopefully get) an international inquiry into the death of former prime minister Rafik Hariri, and hold truly free and fair elections in May without the interference of a foreign dictatorship.

We're focusing our efforts on the residents of the semi-permanent tent-city that has been built on Martyr's Square, a mere two blocks from Parliament, where the opposition leaders say they will continue to reside until their country is a sovereign liberal democracy. They need food. They need bottled water. They need blankets. And they need the eyes of the world.

You personally can help by donating as little as five dollars. Here is a chance for the American people, rather than the American government or military, to help those who live in a beautiful, diverse, and sophisticated country fight for the freedom and human rights they once had, and that have been taken away by a foreign oppressive power. We can do this ourselves, and we can do it without violence.

...

If you could, please help spread the word on your own blog. It's for a good cause and, unlike regime-change in Iraq, it's non-partisan.

On a related note, while I'm here in the country I'm going to be blogging about what's going on. And there's a lot going on. I've already learned - just in one single day - a great deal that I haven't read anything about anywhere in the media. In another day or so the Lebanon blog will be up and running at the Spirit of America site. I'll be sure to give you the link as soon as it's live.


Read. Learn. Choose to give. In the future, when they ask you "what did you do when the world changed," you'll want to answer with more than "watched it on TV."