From Sassine Square, Lebanon walks...

It's 11:40 am and I had just walked out of my residence to find the first service willing to take me to Sassine Square in Ashrafieh. Five taxi drivers and 21 honks later, I found a cab. The driver was an old man, who for the entire way, looked baffled by the fact that I wanted to go to the square. "Sassine Square is closed”, he said. I answered, "I know". Now, he was more baffled, I knew that the square was closed and yet I decided to go! To go alone nonetheless. The more he looked at me in his mirror, the more I sank in my seat... "I must be crazy", I thought" for going to this rally alone..." But my soul persevered. I swallowed my anxiety and hint of fear and we drove to Sassine Square...

We passed by Sanayi3 gardens, and the young ladies and men, dressed in blue t-shirts calling people to join the march, signaled our proximity to the starting point...


In comes, Maher. Maher is a Lebanese young man who hopped into my cab and uttered the two most musical words I have heard lately... "Sassine square". We arrived there together. It's crowded and traffic was jammed, so we hopped out and walked up the hill, and made a right turn. Maher and I exchanged names, our estimates of how many people will participate, a handshake and wishes of good luck. I will never see Maher again... but I will always remember our encounter. An encounter that was free from questions about where I am from, or what my family's name is. We were just two Lebanese walking towards the crowd…

I joined the crowd... thousands of Lebanese, I am not sure how many thousands, but thousands. Never in my life have I seen so many countrymen and women... walk side by side for a cause that was no one else' but theirs.... Every kind of Lebanese was there, short ones, tall ones, four year olds, 40 year olds, four middle aged women from Ashrafieh who spoke nothing but French, three middle aged men from Tripoli, around 400 camera carriers documenting the scene, Najat  Sharafeddine and Rima Karaki from Future TV, the Sahab brothers (musicians for those who don't know them), a few reporters and political analysts I have seen on TV before but can't remember their names, Abbas_ a Hamra business owner, men in suits, mothers and their sons, fathers and their daughters, two imams, an old friend of mine I bumped into, women with vials on their heads, women with crosses round their necks, guys with tall hair, guys with short hair, guys with aviators, or guys with earrings... and me.

They all came. They all carried one flag. They all asked for the same thing and they all walked the same path... They all received a pinch of flying rice or two from the people looking down on us from the balconies. They all want a new secular Lebanon, and they all will march again and again and again to get nothing less... They arrived at the ministry of interior… I go home and watch the press release on New TV… My heart pounds, my legs hurt, a dream is on its way of coming true...


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