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Tuesday, February 1, 2011 The Plain Dealer Breaking news: cleveland.com A5 LETTERS Stabilize Arab world OPINION with moderate Islam Terrance C.Z. Egger Debra Adams Simmons Elizabeth Sullivan Robert M. Long he upheaval in the Arab world will have President and Publisher Editor Editorial Page Editor Executive Vice President consequences. President Barack Obama T magnified the hopes and dreams of the Arab world in his 2009 Cairo speech. But his ac- tions and deeds did not deliver. Obama may have inadvertently exacerbated the explosive combination of frustrated expectations and busi- EDITORIALS ness-as-usual that pressurized the current erup- tion of resentment, anger and alienation among the Arab people. Egypt demands The revolution we are seeing is galvanized by religion, envy, hatred and global political activ- ism. In earlier times, it was easier to control 1 regime change million people than to physically kill 1million people. Today, it is infinitely easier to kill 1mil- omentum is on the side of change in lion people than to control 1million people. This Egyptian street protests. That’s a genie will not go back in the bottle. The solution is finding and getting behind good thing, if it can happen organi- M moderate Muslims. Who are the moderate Mus- cally and without loss of life. It may be agreat lims? Those who have practiced and propagated thing —ifthe Arab world’s largest, most vi- amoderate and tolerant version of Islam, which brant nation can lead the way to atruly repre- teaches justice, sanctity of life, separation of sentative form of government. Giving people a church and state, freedom of religion and speech, universal human rights and empower- real voice in how they’re governed is the best ment of women. These are the people who will inoculation against terrorism and its adjuncts, bring awelcome change in Arab governments. political repression and anti-modernization. Inspired by popular protests that toppled the Nasim Rehmatullah regime of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in neighbor- Bedford ing Tunisia last month, hundreds of thousands Rehmatullah is president of the Cleveland Chap- of Egyptians have taken to the streets to de- ter of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Contact Jeff Darcy at: [email protected], 216-999-4445 View his cartoons on the Web at cleveland.com/darcy mand the ouster of longtime President Hosni U.S.A. Mubarak. Mubarak so far has refused to resign, Israel wise not to deal with autocrats although he did shuffle his Cabinet in abid to rudy Rubin’s and the Philadelphia In- defuse the protests. But after almost 30 years quirer’s agenda are rudely up front when of Mubarak’s autocratic rule, Egyptians aren’t The secret is there is no secret T she conflates Israel with “Arab autocrats” likely to settle for cosmetic changes. in Egypt, Tunisia, etc. (Forum, Sunday). The In- Now that army commanders have promised Lynne K. Varner and Engineering Mentoring. I She advises the students quirer has had anotorious anti-Israeli bias. As not to fire on protesters, the opposition may be caught her just as she headed she mentors to know their for Rubin’s position that now is the time for Is- rael to make peace: In practice, Middle Eastern on the verge of an amazing triumph. ’m convinced that when to the nation’s capital to enjoy limits. To ask, “What would our leaders invoke public aWhite House ceremony and happen if Iworked alittle bit turmoil does just the opposite. Why should avi- U.S. leaders who voiced support for Mubarak I schools in the American collect a$10,000 check. outside of my comfort zone?” brantly pluralistic, democratic state like Israel when the protests began last week are now call to arms on global compet- Williams runs aprogram Or to see aB-plus in aclass ever want to trust its security to two Palestinian urging an “orderly transition.” The emergence itiveness, our students hear that mentors college students as asignal to move up to the entities —the Palestinian Authority and Hamas —that are at each other’s throats, on record in of Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, asecu- what the Peanuts gang hears from disadvantaged back- accelerated class, or, on the wanting to see the end of the Israeli state and when adults speak: bwah grounds and steers them to- flip side, acknowledge afail- larist, as leader of the broad-based opposition whose governments are run by Arab autocrats bwah bwah. ward research and leadership ing grade as asign to take it should be reassuring to the West, which has and fanatics? President Barack Obama’s roles in public health. down anotch and reinforce long viewed Egyptian stability as critical to its The Arab populace everywhere needs repre- State of the Union speech last Isee aconnection between the fundamentals. sentative governments. Until they get them, any interests, including the Middle East peace pro- Tuesday night alluded to Obama’s call for more scien- The secret is that there is no dealings with unrepresentative governments cess and the Suez Canal. America’s “Sputnik moment” tists and engineers and Wil- secret, only hours of hard need to be temporary. The crowds in Cairo are no longer willing to and outlined abroad plan to liams’ life. work and gratification de- improve public-school She grew up the eldest layed until the work is done. accept repression. The United States shouldn’t William J. Jones achievement in science, tech- daughter of Jamaican immi- We ought to be telling stu- either. Cleveland Heights nology, engineering and grants living in abasement dents what Williams learned. math. Education will be the apartment in Queens, N.Y. Otherwise, they see the great Get Americans out of Iraq route upward for the Ameri- Her father, atailor, was men- chasm between their lives and can economy and our global tored by his bosses, European hat is going on across the Middle East is Good parent, bad citizen our nation’s lofty ambitions competitiveness. immigrants who had passed about Arab identity. It comes from and their feet dare not leave Obama’s rhetorical flour- through Ellis Island a years or decades of being oppressed. elley Williams-Bolar, the Akron mother the ground. W ishes are likely meaningless to generation before. They There is no question that it will spread across who spent nine days in jail for falsifying Williams does this with her ageneration whose parents passed on the sage advice that Iraq. Therefore, it is time for the United States to program, the Multidisciplin- K records to send her daughters to a were barely toddlers in the the key to success in America leave before more American lives are lost. ary International Research highly ranked suburban school district, is not 1950s and ’60s, when Ameri- was aiming for the best public Training program. She and exactly the Rosa Parks of school reform. cans responded to the space schools, the ones where teach- Joan Gelbman other mentors engage bright race by flocking to science and ers went the extra mile. Mayfield Heights Lying and putting the squeeze on other tax- students early about careers engineering educations. Williams recalls the day one payers to get your kids into abetter school are in science and global health. Rhetoric matters. It is im- of her teachers asked about Projects in Ethiopia, Thai- not the right answers to an inequitable system portant to tell children to aim her plans. She recalls speak- Thanks for remembering that forces good parents to become bad citizens for building the next Boeing ing of afew schools and her land and other countries pro- vide students with aglobal to help their children learn. According to her or being the next Bill Gates. hopes of avolleyball schol- know I’ve taken shots at The Plain Dealer in perspective, but also induce- lawyer, Williams-Bolar didn’t want her daugh- (And to kindly do it before the arship. Her teacher told her to the past for not publishing all the news kid in Shanghai or Mumbai reach higher and handed her ment to stay on their path, that’s fit to print. But Idoff my chapeau to ters to attend school in their dangerous Akron whether it’s medical or gradu- I does.) acollege application from you for your beautiful and heartfelt tribute to the neighborhood —amotive that parents can un- But that’s all at a Princeton University. ate school or finishing up crew of the space shuttle Challenger —and on derstand. 30,000-foot level. Abetter Williams ended up earning their undergraduate degree. the front page, no less (Thursday). Still, Williams-Bolar had other options. She narrative comes from the abachelor’s degree in genetics Moving from an average ed- Somehow, the word “heroes” is just not strong ucational system to the best could have moved in with her father, who lives ground by people telling stu- from Princeton, amasters in enough to describe the sacrifice these individu- dents how they can build a engineering from Tufts Uni- isn’t agreat leap but aculmi- als made for their country. in the Copley-Fairlawn school district. She better airplane or the next versity and, at Harvard Uni- nation of hundreds of small Well done, Plain Dealer. could have admitted her wrongdoing and paid generation’s software. That versity, amaster’s in demog- steps. The president lays out restitution. would take at least some of us raphy and adoctorate in the visions; people like Wil- James J. Adams Instead, Summit County prosecutors say to Dr. Michelle Williams, the epidemiology. liams show us the building Middleburg Heights blocks. she’s the one out of dozens of parents in such University of Washington’s How did she, decades be- latest rock star and professor fore our president issued the cases who refused to rectify the situation even of epidemiology and global call for excellence, achieve ex- Varner is acolumnist for the Jeers to MetroHealth when confronted with solid videotape evidence health.

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