Letters policy: Send by e-mail to letters@gainesvilletimes.com (no attached files, please, which can contain viruses); fax to 770-532-0457; mail to The Times, P.O. Box 838, Gainesville, GA 30503; or click HERE for a form. Include full name, hometown and phone number for confirmation. They should be limited to one topic on issues of public interest and may be edited for content and length (limit of 500 words). Letters originating from other sources, those involving personal, business or legal disputes, poetry, expressions of faith or memorial tributes may be rejected. You may be limited to one letter per month, two on a single topic. Submitted items may be published in print, electronic or other forms. Letters, columns and cartoons express the opinions of the authors and not of The Times editorial board.
Events in Egypt could teach us a few things, like how a peaceful gathering can change a government from dictatorship to well, we don't yet know. Egypt was never able to get rid of a dictatorship before, even when Egypt was our ally once they agreed to a peace treaty with Israel.
That's another lesson: the power of a peace treaty with economic help to both sides.
Our own country started in violence against the reigning King of England, and more violence around the issue of slavery after England had outlawed it years before we did.
We talk of our country as being peace-loving and supporting other countries in their quest for democratic government. Yet our allies in Africa are some of the harshest dictatorships, especially those with oil wells and uranium mines: Saudi Arabia, Chad, Uzbekistan, Nigeria, Ethiopia. The world is a dangerous place and we need allies.
Here at home, we learn that local governments see people surviving in tents under the shelter of bridges. Some governments get rid of these unsightly settlements with a fire hose.
What happens to the people who were living in those tents? Some say they committed the crime of being homeless and therefore were not our responsibility. On cold nights, some try to get themselves arrested to be in a warm place. Whose responsibility are they?
In Egypt people said they would stay peacefully in the square until the dictatorship was gone. And so they did.
Adele Kushner
Alto