According to much of the western press, the Egyptian election that is going on right now is the first free and fair election for the top leadership of the country in five thousand years. Since the Nile delta was first settled, the people who became Egyptians have lived under some form of top-down dictatorship. They had chiefs, god-kings, dictators of all kinds. They had structured "elections" which were little more than coreographed political theater seasons. And now they have... freedom. FIFTY MILLION PEOPLE have the chance and the choice to vote for their choice of religious candidates, their economic candidates, their guy-from-the-previous-regime-who-really-isn't-that-bad-we-hope candidates (13 candidates in all). Women and men are out there voting, and some women are letting it be known that they are voting their own choices, not those of their male counterparts.

I sincerely hope that the Egyptians get the best of democracy: a robust system full of debate and compromise, where the brightest ideas rise to the top to be hashed and crafted until they can satisfy the most and the best. They've certainly waited long enough.