Last Friday, I went to grab a late lunch. I specifically picked a restaurant with TV sets, so I could watch the unfolding events in Cairo.  I know this sounds counterintuitive for someone who admits to rarely watching TV, but since last week, my inner Rottweiler has grabbed onto the bone that is Egypt and is not about to get distracted by anything else. For some “big picture” reason I can’t quite define or explain, I’m riveted by what is happening there, as if it is a crystal ball of sorts, revealing to us all our collective near-future.  My gaze is fixed. 

I can’t let that bone go. 

What amazed me at first in the fairly crowded restaurant (an upscale sports bar) was that most people seemed to be detached from, if not completely disinterested in (or completely unaware of) the significance of this historic event.  It may as well have not been taking place at all.  The lingering, pervasive sense of isolated entitlement and detached idea that Americans are somehow different or better than the rest of the world continues to make me bristle.  It confounds me. 

It occurred to me that if Jay Leno were to walk in and do one of his “Jaywalking” segments, the sheer ignorance (or stupidity) of people would be proven once again when it comes to matters of current events, especially when they occur outside our country.  I find nothing about this remotely funny or laughable at all.  It makes me cry.

I asked to be seated in a (relatively) quiet booth with a TV that was tuned into the news with the volume on.  I watched and listened to it as I opened my laptop, surfed the net and followed updates on Twitter. Within moments, the White House press briefing began.  For what seemed like too long, I listened to Robert Gibbs offer absolutely no information that wasn’t already old news.  He awkwardly failed to commit himself or President Obama to any concrete positions or statements that could come back to haunt him (or the administration) and bite them on the proverbial ass as I am about to do now. 

In short, like the premise of “Seinfeld”, Friday’s press briefing was about nothing.

At once, the Egyptian uprising has turned me into perhaps a never-to-be-reformed armchair analyst, observer/writer of the human condition and rabid truth-hound, using social media tools to hunt for facts or an angle to the story that may have yet to be considered.  

What I didn’t expect was for my connect-the-dots moment to appear as the news reverted back to (filtered CNN) reporting.  It arrived in the form of a young man.

Within a minute of seeing him sit down in the booth next to me, I was curious to know what made this kid do what nobody else in the restaurant (other than myself) was doing.  With great intensity, he was witnessing the world shift before his eyes as I once did in 1989 when I watched the Berlin Wall fall. 

His profile was handsome.  He had skin that reminded me of deep, rich coffee that had been lightened by cream.  I knew immediately that he was not Caucasian and for a moment, I considered he might possibly be of Middle Eastern heritage.  This piqued my curiosity even more. 

This dog had found a new bone.

I told the young man that I was fascinated by his interest and asked him what prompted him to sit down and watch the news when he could be watching any number of sports events on the flat screen TVs.  His answer took me by complete surprise.

“I’m thinking about enlisting in the military and I wanted to see what I might be in for,” he said.

Gulp.

I have no children of my own, but my immediate instinct was to become a Mother Tiger of a different color and save this boy’s life.

“Why?” I asked.

What he told me nearly broke my heart and put such an intimate immediacy on the face of Egypt, war, this world that we now live in and why we need to all be paying closer attention. 

(Paraphrased):

“I’m 23 years-old and have looked for but been unable to find a steady job for three years.  I’ve worked in construction (which I love) off the books, but nobody is building anything around here anymore.  I have my GED but can’t afford college and don’t qualify for financial aid.  I’m good with computers and would love to go to a technical school but I don’t have the money and can’t get work because I don’t have a college education,” he said. My heart sank deeper. 

He went on to explain that he felt as if his life was worthless and that there was no hope for a job or the future and that he may as well join the military so he can “do something”, get paid and eventually be able to go to college.

I asked him when he planned on enlisting and he said within the next three weeks. 

I listened to all this as revolt played out on the screen in front of us, half a world away.

My head was spinning and, as I sometimes do, I felt compelled to offer some perspective and advice as if I had birthed this boy myself.

The first thing I told him was obvious.  He’s young and therefore thinks he’s invincible and immortal and that nothing bad will ever happen to him.   I informed him that the military loves nothing more than to round up young kids with that kind of attitude and use them as pawns to do their dirty work so a few people behind the scenes can benefit and make sickening stockpiles of money that we he will never see.  I also warned him that regardless of the promises the military might make about his (or anyone else’s) future, the future is guaranteed to no one. 

I got his interest.

Then I went on to tell him that our country has a very poor record of taking care of our veterans.  I asked him to imagine himself returning from combat with a missing limb and PTSD, hearing anguished screams or bombs in his head for the rest of his life and trying to learn to walk with a prosthetic leg.  I told him in no uncertain terms that I did not wish this on him or anyone else, but the ugly truth about war is that but for the lucky few who come out of it without seeing combat, it’s not as pretty a picture as they paint in the recruiting stations and shiny brochures.

I made him promise me he would go to a VA hospital and visit with soldiers.  I implored him to ask some of the people who are all but forgotten and being barely treated by our “system” if they had to do it over, whether they would make the same decision to enlist again.

And then I begged this young boy to give me 30 days to find him a job so he wouldn’t have to make a choice of enlisting because the reality of life in America today has put this fully loaded gun against his head. 

I’m sending out e-mails and this story to friends (including the CEO of the restaurant where we met) and doing everything possible to help change the direction of (and potentially save) this young man’s life.  (His girlfriend works at the restaurant, which is why he was there; he had come to pick her up from her shift.  Believe me, I asked if he was so poor, what he was doing there.)  Somebody needs to give this young man a job.

Joe DiMartino has no criminal record (when I asked him, he replied with authority, “Absolutely not.”).  He has a clean driving record.  He’s obviously strong, willing and like many others, frustrated and able.  But a 50 year-old jobless man faces different obligations and frustrations than a 23 year-old.  The older (wiser) person may have a better grasp of implications for choices that are made; a younger version often sees no other way out and makes rash decisions.  The military kind of likes it that way.

26 year-old Mohammed Bouazizi may one day be the poster child of the revolution that is now taking place in Egypt.  For the uninformed, he was the man who, after having his fruit cart taken away by the Tunisian government, set himself on fire in protest.  He died three weeks later, without knowing that ten days after his death, President Zine El Abedine Ben Ali finally fled the police state he had controlled for 23 years. 

Mohammed started the fire of change people could believe in and the flames have spread quickly throughout the Middle East.   Egypt’s rage rages on.

Here in America, we don’t seem to have the courage to do what the people of Tunisia and Egypt have done.  We don’t pay close enough attention to the internal strife of our own citizens.  And then we allow young kids like Joe DiMartino in a fit of frustration, with seemingly no other option, to enlist in the military and risk dying on foreign soil because the insecurity of our homeland is quietly killing us.  And nobody is listening.

Our world is on high alert and Egypt is the reminder of the week.

I can’t help but wonder what color Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano’s face is right now after announcing just a few days ago that the ridiculous color-code threat level alert will be retired.  We should all be seeing red, but not from embarrassment as much as anger.  We are living in dangerous times.

Every young man and woman who is forced to die at the hand of an oppressive regime or because of war is one of our own children.

The world is watching us as we contribute to this insanity by feeding the war machine, while we go to sports bars to watch football or sit at home and flip channels, entertaining ourselves with "Reality TV" and choosing to ignore the truth.

We are a show about nothing.

Let’s start thinking about saving lives of kids like Joe DiMartino before the channel gets changed on us and he becomes one more member of the greatest generation that never was. 

I’ve got 27 days to make good on my promise.

Images:  usarmy, africaresource.com, anorak.co.uk

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Latest updates from Cairo:

10:00 am EST:  The death toll has now reached 138, according to Reuters.

7:30 am EST:  A number of Al Jazeera reporters have been arrested by the military. (They have been subsequently released, but without their cameras.)  Danish (oil) shipping company MAERSK is suspending activities in Egypt.

6:00 am EST:  A “Mega Protest” has been called for Tuesday, asking 1 million people to join in the demonstration demanding that President Hosni Mubarak step down.  Film legend Omar Sharif has joined in the call.  Police, who have been absent since Friday, have slowly begun to return to duty.  Crowds continued to gather in Tahrir Square overnight on Sunday, despite a 3 pm – 8 am curfew.  In the last six days, millions of dollars have been transferred to other countries by investors and markets have been suspended.  Basic food supplies are dwindling as people stock up, with no signs of replenishment.  

Sources:  Al Jazeera English, Reuters