The Lebanon we dream of cannot come back until we begin to speak the truth.

It is not enough to think that there can be four versions of the truth. There cannot be a Christian, Shiite, Sunni and Druze version. That is without mentioning the Palestinian account of what happened.
No, we must realistically come to one common assessment. The truth can only come when we truly love our country.

The love of country is confused by many. It is exposed as love of a way of life, love of a religion, love of a particular political movement. To this day, there is no simple love of Lebanon for what Lebanon is.

Lebanon is firstly the land. How can you love your nation if you don’t love your immediate surroundings and the state that it is in?
From deforestation, to pollution to oil spills in the Mediterranean, to garbage thrown from the window of a moving car, this country is systematically abused. This is the essence of the problem. How can you even send your mind to speak of alliances and the Palestinian issues when you cannot consolidate on one image of your environment?

This love of the land will lead to the love of the village. The village which is our true social and political history. How can our villages be left to disintegrate as they are while we wonder about foreign debt and how to import more goods?

This nation requires a revolution, but not in the traditional sense. This nation requires a renewal of vows to the land that feeds us and raises our kids and embraces our bones when we die. This country deserves respect, and if you cannot get people to respect what is rightfully theirs, then how can you expect any logical or peaceful democratic system to take place?

How can we go on ignoring the plight of the very earth we place our feet on while looking to strangers for political solutions?

There is one common ground in all successful nations and that is the love of the Nation. We have confused the love of the nation with Politics and alliances and monetary interest. We have confused love of the nation with power and greed and envy. We have replaced love of the nation with self interest and posturing. We have ignored the nation as though it will still be there once we have finished all our conflicts and wars and gluttonous rages.

No, the nation will not be there because the very essence of the Nation is in question. Lebanon will no longer be Lebanon without Cedar trees. Lebanon will no longer be Lebanon without Pine forests and Acorns. Lebanon will no longer be Lebanon without fresh fish caught on the glimmering Mediterranean. Lebanon will no longer be Lebanon without its villages functioning as they have for centuries. And Lebanon will certainly not be Lebanon anymore if we pollute its most precious resource; water.

We are destroying the very fabric of what actually keeps us together.

People speak of Lebanon as an oasis of tolerance in a sea of totalitarianism. We should not pat ourselves on the back for this. This is only a result of our environment; A land that has drawn every empire’s armies and every world power’s ambassadors over many millennia. Why? Because this is a beautiful and rich nation. It is not beautiful because a business man built a villa to live in, or because women spend five hours putting their makeup on. It is not beautiful because clubs run all night and day with whiskey flowing like rivers and money thrown in the wind.

Lebanon is beautiful because a Bulbul still sings to you in the morning and a Hassoun lands on the hill top to serenade the day. It is beautiful because of Sannine and Faraya and Bcharre. It is beautiful because the river Adonis does turn red like the legends of old. It is the olive tree and the ruin of an old house in a valley. It is the mulberry tree that once fed silkworms and a grape vine that has climbed all over it in the years that passed. Lebanon is beautiful because the sun sets on the Mediterranean like a private viewing for this incredibly shaped piece of land curved gently around this sea.

We forget what this nation is, and thus have we forgotten how to love it.

I can say with a clear and honest conscience that I love Lebanon. I know that every Lebanese can say the same.

Then what is it that we are disagreeing over?

Are we disagreeing that the ministry of agriculture is allotted less that one percent of our budget when it should be closer to one third? The emissions of vehicles are polluting every aspect of our environment, are we in disagreement that we should have laws governing the way emissions and pollutants affect our air? Are we in disagreement that cutting trees down should be illegal and punished as a crime of murder?

Are we in disagreement that throwing garbage in the sea should be a crime? Are we in disagreement that we want to see this entire nation as a clean a healthy place to live for us and our kids?

If we just begin there, then there will be no question of who the culprit is. No accusation of who your ally is. No insinuation of what your motives are. Lebanon can only be loved in one way when it comes to the land we live on and that is the way that preserves it for ourselves and our kids and all future generations.

This is the only solution for this nation; to love it for what it is.

I imagine a nation where the people begin to treat their country as a shrine in the same way they treat their bodies and their skin. Imagine a people who begin to realize that only through collaboration on preserving this shrine can they find contentment. Imagine a nation of citizens who begin to put the land first before the villa, and the bird before the car and the river before the swimming pool. Imagine a nation that is truly united over the only thing that matters:

What is best for Lebanon.

That is a nation that will begin to hold its politicians responsible for something greater than power, for something more noble than a speech, for something more honorable than his alliances. That is a nation that will begin to demand respect for its citizens just as it respects its land.

I ask you all why many people loved Rafic Hariri? It is not because he was rich or because he was smart or because he was charismatic or because he was shrewd. They did not love him because he was a saint or not corrupt or that he was fair to all sects.

The Lebanese loved Rafic el Hariri because he made Beirut into the image of his dream.

He dreamed what all of us have dreamed: a Beirut that was the center of the world and gem on the Mediterranean where people just wanted to go to catch a glimpse of it. He believed that this nation deserved our respect and our care and our love and every bit of our effort.

It is easy to understand why people loved this man. Very simply because Hariri loved Lebanon.

I am not standing in defense of him or his politics; I am not endorsing his way of dealing with ally and foe. I am not saying that he was not corrupt or that he was innocent of all the things thrown at him. All I am saying was that this man loved a part of Lebanon called Beirut and look what he accomplished.

Isn’t it time that we all started to Love all of Lebanon just a little bit.