“It’s just the end of the beginning, Sean,” exclaimed my Egyptian friend, Ahmed, during a Skype conversation following a trip from his home in Alexandria.

He was there. “Cairo was a circus.” My good friend had predicted this years ago. This land of people, whose blood traces to the most significant times in civilization, would experience another transformation in their grand journey. A warm people. A land that is home to one of the Seven Wonders and home to great oppression.

Like much of the planet, the gap between those with means and those without is more of a chasm. My friend, a healer, sees the political sea change as an opportunity to affect a better life…design a next era in the rich history of this beautiful place. People stood and voiced and yelled and chanted. With each day there was a renewed energy…momentum. The leaders, including our own, hoped it would just wane and eventually be a rolling headline skipping along the bottom of CNN.

Sure, it was likely to influence the leader’s–and the world’s policy—but much of the world hoped it wold just “go away” and get things back to “stability.”

There’s nothing stable about not being able to feed your family. The grandeur of the Pyramids cannot mask the void of dignity that accompanies joblessness. Thousands, hundreds of thousands said what needed to be said. Peacefully–as peaceful goes. Several hundred lost their lives in the end. One was too many. The price to pay for revolution? History would suggest it.

There comes a point when humans have no choice but to put their very lives on the line to stand up for what they believe. Human rights and civil rights run deepest. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness should be global values.

During my own lifetime, good men an women gave their lives in speaking out against the beasts who wanted them to separately dine, be schooled, be transported, and have no voice in their own government. They stood. We still have miles and miles to go before we sleep. To our brothers and sisters in this desert place that gathers its life from the Nile … Peace, Prosperity.

To my friend, Ahmed, thanks for making a point to let me know how you were and for being a voice in a revolution for human rights and patient rights.