Let Freedom Ring and Ring and Ring

So, Super Bowl XLV is set for this Sunday in Arlington, Texas, a suburb of Dallas.

Two National Football League teams with storied histories – The Pittsburgh Steelers and The Green Bay Packers – will battle for the right to take home The Vince Lombardi Trophy.

Many folks today might not know how much modern day sports teams in southern cities --which segregated Whites and Blacks and other people of color – owe to the civil rights movement. The 1950s and 1960s civil rights movement uplifted the southern economy just as much as it liberated African Americans, Taylor Branch, author of a trilogy of books on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said in a recent radio interview on WPFW 89.3 FM in Washington, D.C.

Southern officials were putting so much “psychological energy” into keeping people of different races separated that these cities couldn’t have professional sports teams. It wasn’t until segregation laws started to crumble that we saw the rise of the Miami Dolphins in football or The Atlanta Braves baseball team, both established in 1966.

Branch also pointed out how non-violent, civil disobedience aspects of the American civil rights movement were adopted by people fighting for civil and human rights in Ireland and Poland in the 1980s.

Now we’ve seen in recent weeks the cry for freedom, human dignity and democracy spreading throughout the Middle East – described by some as the “jasmine” revolution -- sparked by the uprising in Tunisia, which quickly spread to Egypt, Jordan and Yemen.

Dissent and organized protests have escalated over the past decade in Egypt. Technology, the Internet and social media -- today’s method of mass communication -- has helped organizers spread the message.

Young people armed with their idealism, energy and fearlessness have led the charge. However, the anti-government demonstrators represent a diverse coalition of Egyptian society including Muslims, Christians and secularists. Two million strong stood against President Hosni Mubarak’s autocratic regime in Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo and there were extraordinary turnouts in other cities such as Alexandria.

“We are in the streets every day, people, children, old people, including myself. I am now 80 years of age, suffering of this regime for half a century,” Nawal El Saadawi, a well-known feminist, psychologist, writer and former political prisoner in Egypt, told DemocracyNow’s Amy Goodman via telephone from Cairo last week. Later in the week, after President Mubarak said he would not seek re-election after 30 years of rule but would not resign, a force of pro-government demonstrators was violently unleashed on the peaceful protestors in an attempt to force them out of Tahrir Square. Even though violent pro-Mubarak forces attacked journalists and anti-government protestors, the pro-Democracy protestors still hold their ground.

The cry for freedom has been heard by the leaders of Jordan, where King Abdullah II disbanded parliament, and Yemen, where to stave off unrest President Ali Abdullah Saleh vowed he will not seek reelection in 2013 after 32 years in power nor anoint his son as successor.

The Middle East and North Africa face some uncertain, difficult times ahead. But it is clear after the uprisings of the past month; things can’t be as they were.

Let freedom ring and ring and ring.