Here we bid farewell to one year and welcome another. We bid farewell to a year full of tragedies that witnessed the passing of fellow citizens or loved ones. A year which much bloodshed has colored red while Lebanese villages have been reduced to rubble, after the war had wreaked havoc and turned their inhabitants into ones displaced or homeless; stray in a large prison, that of a country resembling more of a barn.
We receive a year whilst Lebanon is in its worst condition. Lebanese, residents and expatriates, are closer to beingresidents than to being a people; torn apart, dispersed and lost. They suffered greatly due to divisions of all kinds, mostly through being exploited by own rulers who are deemed to be the worst in existence. They have brought aboutvarious forms of injustice and sorrow to the Lebanese.
Now that the intoxication of loss has passed and it has become clear how injustice has been imposed and furthered, one truth has dawned on us: We only have each other, and we can only stand together. And because with every hardship comes ease, it is a clear opportunity before us to rise together, or to learn to rise together, and to shout with one voice, one people, one hand: Lebanon is waking up. The Lebanese people are waking up!
Indeed, here we are and here we remain after those who have left us, remembering them as we try to cross together into the light, learning the lessons together. Lighting candles in their memories to mourn them, asserting our unity and marking the start of liberating our country from the corruption and tyranny of its own rulers; before some fun takes us into a new year.
For the sake of those who died, for the sake of our unity, for the sake of us and for the tears of the children and mothers of Lebanon, and for the sake of Lebanon Only, light a candle wherever you are, on Tuesday, December 31, 2024 at 8 pm. Or carry your candle to Martyrs’ Square in Beirut, the Square of the Martyrs of all Lebanon, the Martyrs of the entire nation.
—