Radu Manolescu

Jersey City, NJ

Eastern Europe 1989

I was a student in my last year in Bucharest, Romania in 1989. I was in front of the government palace when the army stood down and let the protesters run over the building. I saw the president run away in a helicopter. He would be shot five says later.

Evolution is better than revolution. I knew it on the first day of the Romanian revolution and I know it now. If the government falls quickly, you find yourself the next day with new leaders whom no one knows and no one has vetted. From a (sufficiently) long struggle for freedom emerge national leaders who have proven their character in the fight. I hope that Egypt has a few months for the transition. Otherwise, chaos ensues and unscrupulous leaders benefit from it.