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Today's Poll!Student recounts utter chaos of Egyptian protests
Derrik Sweeney, center, gets hugs from his father Kevin Sweeney, left, and sister Ashley, right, after Derrik arrived at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport Saturday, Nov. 26, 2011, in St. Louis. Photo by The Associated Press.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Editor’s note: Derrik Sweeney, a 2009 graduate of Jefferson City High School, was one of three college students arrested Nov. 20 during demonstrations in the Egyptian capital of Cairo. In this column, he shares his look back on the experience.
Passages from the column, which can be read in its entirety in our newspaper or e-Edition for Sunday, Dec. 11, 2011:
The Egyptian people are not protesting out of boredom or their inability to afford a new iPad; they are not the foolish, misguided folks who march and yell in the “Occupy” protests here in America (with which I disagree wholeheartedly). Rather, they are far more similar to the revolutionary warriors upon whose efforts our Founding Fathers built our great republic: they oppose a non-responsive, unelected military regime that profits at the people’s expense.
...
I hope one day to utilize my language skills in the U.S. military, defending liberty and the American way in remote and hostile regions of the globe. As such, while studying abroad in Cairo during these turbulent and transitional times in Egyptian and Arab politics, I considered myself a great advocate of the popular push for freedom and governmental self-determination.
...
After sprinting away and then regrouping, we Americans were approached by five Egyptian men in plain civilian clothing, offering to bring us to safety. When we crossed a police line where no protesters went, we began to resist the suspicious men “helping” us. At this point, they began punching us, kicking us and dragging us with them, bringing us into the strange building in which 15 to 20 men carrying guns took the now-infamous photos and videos of us in front of a white wall. They took our belongings and told us to hold the menacing bottles seen in our pictures.
...
During this period, I confronted the mental and spiritual task of coming to grips with death, preparing myself for the possible end of my brief stay in this material world, questioning whether anybody outside this small, dark room would know of our circumstances and murder.
...
While I do not regret attending the protests, I do recognize that going into the more dangerous side streets was a very foolish decision. To any who felt sadness or pain because of my predicament, I say that I am sorry and infinitely thankful for your prayers or positive support.
Marry Me
Comments
linoge 1 year, 5 months ago
Oh brother!
BLACKDD 1 year, 5 months ago
This guy has already had his 15 minutes of fame. Why does he have to do it again and go thru his story again? I thought it was pretty boring the first. If he had stayed in his room he wouldn't have been taken into custody . So no more of his ordeal. He brought on himself.
rodinman 1 year, 5 months ago
Mr Sweeney states "After sprinting away and then regrouping, we Americans were approached by five Egyptian men in plain civilian clothing, offering to bring us to safety." Did they not know how to get to their rooms? I believe he is trying to "sell" a story and make himself and the others look innocent.
two_cents_worth 1 year, 5 months ago
From the Article: "The Egyptian people are not protesting out of boredom or their inability to afford a new iPad; they are not the foolish, misguided folks who march and yell in the “Occupy” protests here in America (with which I disagree wholeheartedly). Rather, they are far more similar to the revolutionary warriors upon whose efforts our Founding Fathers built our great republic: they oppose a non-responsive, non-elected military regime that profits at the people’s expense."
What a gigantic load of hot, steaming do-do!! This guy really needs to go back to school here in America & learn what it was the founding fathers were fighting for. Egypt is rapidly devolving into a third-world state because of the misguided followers of a well funded anti American, anti Christian religious organization.
What a gigantic load of hot, steaming do-do!! This guy really needs to go back to school here in America & learn what it was the founding fathers were fighting for. Egypt is rapidly devolving into a third-world state because of the misguided followers of a well funded anti American, anti Christian religious organization. Once the Muslim Brotherhood gains power, they will hold no further elections, they will be free to continue, yes CONTINUE, to burn and destroy the churches of Christian, Jewish, and other non-Muslim faiths, murder their pastors, leaders, & members, and repress & take away human rights of the people of Egypt. Then they will buddy up to other godless Arab countries and work to disrupt any non-Muslim or true democratic societies worldwide.
Why any intelligent person, as well as any free, democratic government would support this is incomprehensible. And I’m not so sure the ‘occupy’ protesters have it all wrong. Maybe we should start thinking about occupying Washington…I’m starting to believe they’ve forgotten what their job is.
asb 1 year, 5 months ago
There are no Godless Arab countries, they're all majority Muslim, and in some of them you have no choice. The Egyptian army is being an army, and may well be all that stands against the nacent Islamist movement. An American kid has no business on the streets of Cairo for any reason beyond getting a local latte. His nonsense about the OWS and helping the American military spread democracy is horse poo, and he should know the military will require that his pants fit and are pulled up above his underwear.
two_cents_worth 1 year, 5 months ago
That wasn't the way I posted it...I promise.
JCLifer 1 year, 5 months ago
Spoiled little rich kid.
viktorkowski 1 year, 5 months ago
so who spends a whole month in the country and he knows what the egyptian people are about? misguided youth!
wow 1 year, 5 months ago
This person isn't a "kid"...he's above 18 yrs old, living living outside of his parents home, attending college in a foreign country and under the rule of host nations laws.. This person is an adult who should have known better (I'm sure he does now) not to get involved with foreign people who throw stones/firebombs...whatever at foreign police. He was in the area where the thrown objects came from.....in Egypt that is enough for the Cops to STA! Derrik Sweeney and his family should be glad that all he got was a little roughed up...because I know from personal experience, it he could have gotten much worse than him being pushed, slapped and yelled at. We don't need to go starting no war with Egypt over this, let's move.
JCLifer 1 year, 5 months ago
Some people are slower to mature and wise up.
Sequoia 1 year, 5 months ago
I'm fairly shocked by the tone of the comments here. I wonder if the commenters know the first thing about what is going on in Egypt?
The U.S. has spent the past 10 years sacrificing our own young people and trillions of dollars in an effort to bring democracy to the middle east... an effort that I'm sure many of these very commenters supported. Now, you commentors are going to jump to the defense of an authoritarian military over democracy. Why?
Is it because you don't like this particular kid? Is it because you don't like the political parties that might get elected in a Middle East democracy? How can you as Americans possibly come to the defense of an authoritarian military? Because some Muslims might run for office? So, democracy is only okay for Christians?
Then, of course, there are the commentors who constantly feel the need to jump on here and make a big show about how much they don't care about this story. I'll let the amatuer psychologists mull over the reasons why the feel the need to make that particular display. Regardless, it is self-defeating... the more you comment, the more you show your interest.
Sequoia 1 year, 5 months ago
So, now you're repudiating the entire Bush "freedom agenda"? All people have the right of self-determination.
Sequoia 1 year, 5 months ago
Why do you call it a "facade of democracy?"
Sequoia 1 year, 5 months ago
Now, this is very interesting. Many Egyptians thought the elections were a step in the right direction. However, many of the more hard-core student protesters boycotted the recent election for EXACTLY the reason you state: they thought the recent elections were rigged by the military, and just a sham to placate the people.
So, now you're with me on the protesters' side, right? We all want real, actual democracy for the Egyptian people?
Sequoia 1 year, 5 months ago
Now you're just boxed in. You don't know what you think.
Sequoia 1 year, 5 months ago
hkchas, are you asking me? If so, I don't understand the question.
tonto_goldberg 1 year, 5 months ago
You're not being consistent again. You want what you believe is the majority in the USA to be able to outlaw same sex marriage and abortions, but you don't want a Muslim country to have the kind of government that a majority of the Muslims favor.
tonto_goldberg 1 year, 5 months ago
I suggest you go back and read your history book ... well, not YOUR history book, but one that was written by a history professor. The German and Iraqi histories are not similar, and neither has any bearing on the current Egyptian crisis.
The NAZIS won a majority of parliamentary seats in the 1932 German elections. Hitler was appointed chancellor and then given absolute power in a declared national emergency. Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland were forcibly annexed.
Saddam Hussein was a leader of the Bath Party that took over the Iraqi government in a coup in 1968. He then deposed the former thug-in-chief to become president.
tonto_goldberg 1 year, 5 months ago
No, it's your haste to predict calamity that is disconcerting.
asb 1 year, 5 months ago
Graceful, do you assume the Egyptian elections won't lead to a reasonably democratic Egypt because; a) the military is overseeing and rigging them to enforce a Mubarak-like secular military-backed dictatorship, or b) the islamists are winning so far through intimidation and will institute a theocracy? If the elections are sound, and watchers have given strong indications that the votes are as valid as Chicago or Florida, why can't a conservative Muslim democracy evolve? Do you think the elections were rigged or just biased by military or islamic intimidation? And, do you really see a rigged/intimidated election coming to the US? Really? Any value that we might find in your ideas is hidden by the light of such nonsense. You discredit yourself, the Right, and your faith with constant threats of an American civil war over . . . what? finally getting national health care along with the rest of the world?
JCLifer 1 year, 5 months ago
Wasn't this country founded on the idea that the states would be more independent entities, and the small federal government would be an overseer for such things as national defense and free flow of commerce between the states?
Now the federal government is huge, and has taken on many roles that should ahve been left to the states.
Sequoia 1 year, 5 months ago
Not exactly. At the time this country was founded, there were many, many different ideas about what we were doing, and what this country could and should be. A lot of the same arguments we're having today were going on back then. There was no single, unified idea of "what this country was founded on" that everyone agreed to.
The best statement of "what this country was founded on" is contained in the preamble to the Constitution, because it was democratically adopted. And even within that beautiful statement, its meaning was (and still is) the subject of vigorous debate.
Sequoia 1 year, 5 months ago
I think it is correct to be skeptical about elections in Egypt, but you're wrong about something. In Egypt, Mubarak and his thugs were SECULAR. They were not Islamists. In fact, you could argue that Mubarak "created" the Muslim Brotherhood, because he ruthlessly imprisoned and tortured them and, no surprise, turned them into martyrs and radicals. He turned them into heroes. Now, many Egyptians are skeptical of the secular parties, because they seem too tied to Mubarak. Many are also skeptical of Islamists, because most of the people don't want to live under radicals. The students have been extremely brave to fight the authorities.
Wow, below, seems to think the Americans should have tattled on the other student protesters? Let me be clear, since you don't seem to know what you're talking about: In Egypt, the "authorities" are the bad guys. The student rock-and-bottle throwers are the good guys. They want freedom. We're rooting for them (at least I am).
The point isn't about this Jeff City kid. The point is that in Egypt the protesters are good and the authorities are bad. Lot of you don't seem to get that.
spelchek 1 year, 5 months ago
Yeah Grace, or an Afro, or dreadlocks, or a pompadour, or a mullet, or a perm?
JMO 1 year, 5 months ago
I just can't get over anyone thinking that kid has long hair! It doesn't even hit his collar. What do you people want? A crew-cut?
tonto_goldberg 1 year, 5 months ago
I think it relates to that whole "uppity" concern that some people have. It bothers them that a young person had an adventure, survived it, and has a story to tell. It bothers them that his pants hang down. They are trying to decide who is to blame for what, and their tiny little minds aren't up to the challenge. That's just my opinion.
gofish 1 year, 5 months ago
Once upon a time Saddam Hussein had a "revolutionary guard" too.
Sequoia 1 year, 5 months ago
What's your point?
wow 1 year, 5 months ago
If the the young man took a beating from some Egyptian's or anyone for that matter while he was on US soil...then the American legal system can and will handle it. But that's not what happened...the dude was in Egypt a foreign country. He was reported being in the same area as some people who were seen throwing fire bombs and rocks at the Egyptian soldiers. Hey news flash "that ain't Kansas" so you can call it what you want...but in my eyes he brought the stuff on himself. He saw what was happening and should have left the area PDQ! As a matter of fact he should have been flying out of that hornets nest. Instead he choose to stick around to see what was up.....even though the Egyptian Soldiers were clearly visible, the guy stuck around the knuckle heads throwing the bombs and rocks. Well guess what....he got the smack down he deserved and is very lucky he didn't get something worse. Being American does not give one the right to be in the position this fella was in, especially when he didn't try pointing any of the rock and bomb throwers out to the authorities. Let it go, the guy is home and learned some good lessons about traveling abroad. Enough with the "an American got beat up in Egypt" stuff. This guy brought on the treatment on himself.
Sequoia 1 year, 5 months ago
You think he should have pointed out the rock throwers to the authorities? The students are the good guys. The authorities are the bad guys here. You can say what you want about the J.C. kid, but you don't need to side with a dictator. Here in America we don't cotton to brutal dictators bub. Educate yourself before you hit the keyboard.
spelchek 1 year, 5 months ago
Yes, wow clearly said that they support dictators in their comment. Thanks for pointing that out. You sound like our current POTUS.
eileen10 1 year, 5 months ago
had i been in egypt i would have stayed away from people throwing stuff.instead i would have been digging in the sand looking for buried treasure and if someone would have seen me i would have dug really really fast.
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