April 21, 2011 7:29 PM
- Text
Katie Couric's Notebook: Time 100
If there were a Time 100 list of influential people back in 1776, I think Thomas Paine would be right at the top. Back then social media was the printing press, and his pamphlet "Common Sense" certainly got the colonists all a twitter.
It was first published anonymously, just like the Facebook page established last year after the brutal killing of a young Egyptian man beaten to death by police for attempting to expose corruption.
The creator of that page, and a pivotal force in the revolution that followed, is at the top of this year's Time 100 list.
His name, as we all know now, is Wael Ghonim.
Thomas Paine's most memorable line may be, "These are the times that try men's souls." But he also wrote, "Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered."
That herculean effort makes the honor and recognition well deserved, but Wael and his compatriots already claimed a far greater prize...freedom.
That's a page from my notebook.
I'm Katie Couric, CBS News.
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