That got me to thinking of other images from civil unrest past.

Boston in 1770:

Engraving by Paul Revere

Harpers Ferry, Virginia in 1859:

Illustration from Harper's Weekly

Birmingham, Alabama in 1963:

Photograph by Bill Hudson

Kent State University in 1970:

Photograph by John Filo

Tiananmen Square in 1989:

Photograph by Jeff Widener

Los Angeles in 1992:

Screenshot from KTLA

Seattle in 1999:

Photography by Steve Kaiser

It’s amazing to see Tahir Square not just devoid of cars, but packed with people. When we were there in April of 2008 it was wall to wall cars, day and night.

I actually just pulled out my journal from out trip. Apparently I didn’t write one of the stories down, though, so it might be a little off, but here goes:

Steve, Liz and I took a taxi home from dinner one night, and got an English-speaking driver. He was chatty, as most taxi drivers are, regardless of locale, and at one point motioned to his glove compartment. He said he had a gun in there, and if he ever saw President Mubarak he would shoot him.

He seemed pretty serious.

It was startling to hear, but made sense with all of the stories we were hearing of rising food prices and rampant unemployment. The people’s desperation was palpable.

Trying to imagine that city now, almost three year later, sadly these riots make perfect sense.