Ready for the truth? Can you handle the truth? Folks in the Middle East are ready for freedom and democracy. They can handle it.

That’s always been my view: people everywhere naturally love freedom and are, well, darn good and ready for it. You hear plenty of bad news that through fear casts doubts on these aspirations. Let me offer some good news. Columnist Jackson Diehl reports that last month’s scheduled meeting of the Arab League was “abruptly put off” because “kings, emirs and presidents-for-life of the Arab Middle East are unable to agree on a common response to the Bush administration’s new policy of promoting democracy in their region.”

But earlier in March, a meeting of civic group leaders at the Alexandria Library in Egypt agreed that the region needs freedom and democracy right now. They issued what is being called the Alexandria Statement. Diehl writes, “The most underreported and encouraging story in the Middle East in the past year has been the emergence in public of homegrown civic movements demanding political change. Two years ago they were nonexistent or in jail. Now they are out in the open even in the most politically backward places in the region. . . .”

What does the Alexandria Statement call for? Elected legislative bodies with both constitutional and popular oversight meaning an independent judiciary and voter referenda. They want freedom for all political prisoners and freedom of speech. Oh, and they want term limits for their politicians. Sure makes sense to me.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.