The rough rider
By: Louis. K. Abi Habib
May 27/2005

“Far better it is to dare mighty things than to rank with those poor timid spirits who know neither victory nor defeat” Theodore Roosevelt

 A wise man once told me that the hardest thing for a man is to find himself face to face with himself. I have finally understood that it is when alone with oneself that we are most vulnerable to true reflection: personal thought. The historic collective experience the new generation of Lebanese has been through is quite fulfilling as it opens the eyes of so many questions they effectively may never have even considered. Now, individually, but within the collectivity of this “new” generation, they have to bear this self glare, this extra burden of building an opinion on how we envisage our country. In the end this boils down to our very essence of “what we are made of”.

We are at a crossroads and we are all bound by collective responsibility yet individually left alone face to face with the impact of our decision.  As the dust settles around what is left of the spirit and aura of the 14 of March, we open our eyes and find ourselves face to face with the truth.

When questioned what we would do after the Syrians left Lebanon, there  were those who said we will see, there were those who hoped and planned for the status quo and finally there were those who thought about something new. Something new… what a concept! A radical change for a society and multiple cultures that continue to simmer in collective waste and nothingness.

The 14th of March was many things but most of all it was a cry for help, it was a nation saying that everything was not right, not just the occupation: the suffocating atmosphere, the banana republic style representation and lack of representation, and that void that we just can’t describe but that we all felt and still feel in our gut.

As a new generation, we feel frustrated by the recent developments in the political arena but giving up is not an option. This is mostly because we do have a choice and this choice can make all the difference in the result or just in principle.

Eventually our point will be made because we stood up for it, and that is in itself the essence of righteousness and truth. Neither victory nor loss, just standing up for what is right. Or has politics lost the last vestiges of what it has of true nobleness?

Under the occupation there was something to truly win or lose and this made us stronger, The time has now come to replicate this battle for what is right but this time it is for winning or losing the right to change and start over again versus walking down a path to nowhere which we have already taken many times before.

If we are accused of being idealists we can say that at least we dare to dream of something better than what is being imposed on us and that is a new beginning in itself.