Oh how it is to be Lebanese and free in these times.
To be Lebanese and free is to live isolated and rejected primarily from your own surroundings by hoards of worshippers of the fearless leader and protector of the sect and party.
To be Lebanese, free, and Shiite is to be an embassy loyalist—a traitor serving either the Americans or the British. It is to be downbeat, a defeatist, and a normalizer.
If you were a Maronite, you are either a Gulf Maronite or an Israeli Maronite. You are chaotic. You are either a slave or a mercenary.
If you were Sunni or a member of the Brotherhood, you are either a terrorist from the likes of ISIS or Al-Nusra, or you’re an agent conspiring with Arabs, foreigners, and Zionists against your nation. You are an extremist. You are either spiteful or seeking abolition.
To be Lebanese and free is to be deprived of your right for aid and government support, whether food or medicine. The ruling mafia only take care of their own, and only the few fortunate among them. It is to be deprived from a seat at the national university for your children, a bed in the hospital for yourself or for a loved one, or a job for your son in any governmental position. All because you do not support the supreme leader of the sect.
To be Lebanese and free is to carve out your own life with your fingernails. It is to struggle and build a healthy home and raise a family fortified with strong moral ideals. One that is free from the sickness of sectarianism and the evils of political and sectarian subordination in a country where being a righteous man is like walking on coal. All this is in the midst of a gang culture that prevails above all else, as it is embraced, encouraged, and rewarded.
To be Lebanese and free these days means that you are always in fear for your reputation and your life. In fear of the mob and the ignorant supporters of the mob who would kill in the name of “patriotism and resistance”. In fear of ignorance spreading machines called “media and reporters” who use poisonous and are pay rolled to spew hatred in the name of defending principles and values. These same people rejected challenging opinions as a result of their implicit sense of inadequacy and the absurdity that their beliefs would result to in the face of scrutiny, logic, and reason.
To be Lebanese and free means that you well as you children are a potential immigrants, as each one of you ends up in a different corner of the earth. You have no place in your country, as it was confiscated from you by the sectarian merchants and their brokers under the pretext of preserving your “rights”.
In short… To be Lebanese and free is to be the watchful eye that resists the corrupt and the powerful and stand in the way of their dark and backwards ways. To be that until God and the people decide that enough is enough.
