Still on the march

While reading the news that Egypt will soon have elections, I was reminded of a bit from the man to whom the current president is oft compared, Woodrow Wilson: "Democracy is, of course, wrongly conceived when treated as merely a body of doctrine. It is a stage of development. It is not created by aspirations or by new faith; it is built up by slow habit."

So, in the midst of the expected crowing from the conservatives out there and the slightly more nuanced commentary as well, let us not forget the importance, once again, of remembering that democracy is a way of life that pervades an entire society, not solely a form of government marked by occasional elections.

The news from Egypt makes me glad. Yet it is but the first of many long steps on a path that many countries need to trod.