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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><font size=4 face=Garamond><span
style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:Garamond'>“A lot has been said on
how black a day yesterday has been for Lebanon and for all Lebanese. But how
blacker can black get and what palette can lament the death of giants? Even
colors fall short of tinting our grief.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><font size=4 face=Garamond><span
style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:Garamond'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><font size=4 face=Garamond><span
style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:Garamond'>Yesterday does not mark the
assassination of a man, but of a nation’s vision and a
generation’s hope. Rafik El-Hariri was larger-than-life and
larger-than-life he died, along with a handful of martyrs on the path towards
a free and prosperous Lebanon. To their families, loved ones, and to us all,
we extend our deepest deepest condolences.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><font size=4 face=Garamond><span
style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:Garamond'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><font size=4 face=Garamond><span
style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:Garamond'>A nation in a man, he bore Lebanon in his eyes and projected its horizon in his smile. When Lebanon bled, he was its
cleansing hand. When it kneeled, he was its stepping back. When its youth
wept, he replaced their rifles with books. When it collapsed unto its
streets, he was its resurrection. And now, so that it may live on, Mr. Lebanon departs... leaving us with an expression of gratitude, with a plea, and with a vow:</span></font></p>
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style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:Garamond'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:9.0pt;text-align:justify'><font size=4
face=Garamond><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:Garamond'> We<i><span
style='font-style:italic'> thank you </span></i>for teaching us how to wait,
how to hope, how to dream, and how to translate vision into reality. Thank
you for teaching us the value (and cost) of our independence, sovereignty,
and right to self-determination. Thank you for uniting us today – here
and all over the world – in one voice and one hand to demand that
justice be served and that the cause you lived and died for be held above all
else.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:9.0pt;text-align:justify'><font size=4
face=Garamond><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:Garamond'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:9.0pt;text-align:justify'><font size=4
face=Garamond><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:Garamond'> We <i><span
style='font-style:italic'>plead</span></i> that as much as we have once fixed
our hopes on you that you now set your hopes on us. You did not rebuild Beirut to be swallowed by its mines, nor did you entrust us with your legacy to watch us
stand in servility. To fail you is to sin and to gratify whoever is behind
your death, a death that has not come in vain. The perpetuation of fear will
no longer divide us; change is born in the womb of tragedy.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><font size=4 face=Garamond><span
style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:Garamond'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:9.0pt;text-align:justify'><font size=4
face=Garamond><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:Garamond'> We <i><span
style='font-style:italic'>vow</span></i> that you will always be as alive as Beirut, the city you held closest to your heart... too close, they killed you in their
envy for that. They have gravely wronged us all, as they know not we are all
Hariri today. Rest assured their destructive path to Beirut’s heart
passes through each and every one of us.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><font size=4 face=Garamond><span
style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:Garamond'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><font size=4 face=Garamond><span
style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:Garamond'>Our dear martyrs, may your
souls rest in peace, and may your eyes watch our solidarity from above...
with pride and with anticipation.”</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><font size=4 face=Garamond><span
style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:Garamond'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><font size=4 face=Garamond><span
style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:Garamond'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='text-align:right'><font size=4
face=Garamond><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:Garamond'>Loai
Naamani</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='text-align:right'><font size=4
face=Garamond><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:Garamond'>President,
Lebanese Club @ MIT</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='text-align:right'><font size=4
face=Garamond><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:Garamond'><a
href="http://web.mit.edu/">http://web.mit.edu/lebanon</a></span></font></p>
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