Something popped out at me, something ultimately insignificant to the larger context of the story, in Thomas Friedman’s editorial on Middle East a’happenings. That is this observation.

There is nothing that you can’t do to someone in the Middle East today, and there is no leader or movement – no Nelson Mandela and no million-mom march – coming out of this region, or into this region, to put a stop to the madness.

There is no Million Mom March in the Middle East? What the Middle East needs is a Million Mom March? No offense to the three quarters of moms who marched on Washington in 1999 for gun control laws, and the diminishing number in years since, but what, precisely did they accomplish, and whatever their accomplishments were, how precisely would it be a pancrea for the situation in the Middle East? If it’s simply a matter of Friedman suggesting that ordinary people taking to the streets and protesting, why specify the “Million Mom March”? Is it just that they are uncontroversial enough? Say, for instance the war protests before the Iraq War were opposed by Friedman himself and apt to be easily caricaturized, but a Million Moms — even if it’s them taking a stance in the hot-button issue of Guns — why, everybody loves mom!

At least the other one, Nelson Mandela, I can hum to.

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