Pride

Tom Friedman, still in Cairo, reports on a new sense of pride in the Egyptians he meets. Asked why he was volunteering to pick up trash around the square, one young man answered,

This is my earth. This is my country. This is my home. I will clean all Egypt when Mubarak will go out.

Another man, an educated businessman who works in Saudi Arabia, brought his children to Tahrir Square to experience what was happening there. Before the uprising, he said,

I was not proud to tell people I was an Egyptian. Today, with what’s been done here, I can proudly say again I am an Egyptian.