Dear Lebanon: An Open Letter – Tom Fletcher.
A friend sent me this article today and I was deeply touched by those words in those critical days.
I live in the area where the explosion occurred yesterday (targeting the Iranian embassy in Beirut).
To be honest I don’t care about politics. I don’t care about the cold war between the nations. However, I am not totally careless. I care as much as I should but politics never affect my daily life full of ambitions, hard work and hopes for a better tomorrow.
But yesterday I was not afraid. I am not afraid to die in an explosion. I am afraid to die without seeing any improvement or at least a ray of hope here and to sacrifice all my youth years while believing in vain in this country.
Yesterday instead of the fear, I was frustrated and angry because of the dead bodies; because of the bloody days we are living; because of the fact of how cheap a human life became; because I knew some of those who passed away and let’s say it clearly: the people who passed away are, for the media and for the blind minded, irrelevant. Maybe in life, they are irrelevant too for some as they are the forgotten ones in this society (a delivery guy, a foreigner maid, a janitor etc..)
Few days before the explosion, I wrote an article that was published today in Annahar newspaper. This morning while reading it in the journal, I was afraid to regret every word I wrote. I wrote about my belief in this country; that it will survive and rise again; that a new independence is on the way. I truly believe that someday a new generation will grab the hand of the dying Lebanon to lift it back and build the Lebanon of poets, thinkers, athletes etc. (maybe not in our lifetime as a whole set of beliefs and mentalities shall be free from sectarianism and blindness and it shall take time).
I was afraid to regret my optimism. Your words made me reconsider these thoughts of regret.
I will always believe that Lebanon will rise again. Thank you for your words that came right on time.
Dina
Dina Hajjar 