[LCM Articles] Farewell Hariri

[Lebanese Club @ MIT]

"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.

 

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.

 

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:

 

 We thank you 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.

 

 We plead 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.

 

 We vow 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.

 

Our dear martyrs, may your souls rest in peace, and may your eyes watch our solidarity from above... with pride and with
anticipation."

 

 

Loai Naamani

President, Lebanese Club @ MIT

http://web.mit.edu/lebanon <http://web.mit.edu/> 

 

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