Dear fellow citizen,

I am writing to ask your forgiveness. It is time for me to say sorry for all the hatred and anger and rage that I held in my soul. I am sorry for being prejudiced, for fearing you, for being envious of you, for being suspicious of you. I realize that along the way, I favored my religion of yours, my sect over yours, my family over yours, my interest over yours.

Dear fellow citizen, I am sorry for not loving Lebanon enough to know that we must all one day live together for Lebanon. I am truly sorry for thinking that I was better than you and my love for Lebanon greater than yours. I am sorry for calling you a traitor, an agent, a collaborator, a disbeliever in Lebanon. I regret my dealing with strangers; when I could have stood by you, stealing from you; when I could have shared with you, lying to you; when I could have told you the truth.

Dear fellow citizen, I am sorry for destroying my country and yours, for carrying guns in the name of pitiful causes, for shooting at my brother, and mostly for thinking that I could get away with it. I am sorry for asking for help from those who had an interest in our demise, in our exile, in our loss. I am terribly sorry for joining a stranger against you.

Dear Fellow citizen, I want to be your friend, your neighbor, your protector. I want to give you the comfort of knowing that no matter what, I am on your side. I want to keep my front door open to you and all your family because there is nothing greater than our Lebanese hospitality.

Dear fellow citizen, I want to say sorry for polluting my country, for causing harm to its perfect environment, for ignoring its cries for help. I want to take back all the garbage thrown as if there would be no tomorrow, or someone else to clean it up, as if it would not matter. I want to apologize for dirtying our country as if it was my personal garbage dump. I want to say sorry for destroying our mountains just to make money from its stones, from its sand. I want to say sorry for polluting the beautiful Mediterranean mother, and fouling her shores with my anger and disregard. I want to say sorry for cutting down her trees, her precious cedars without thought without foresight, without question.

Dear fellow citizen, do you think you could find a way to forgive me and in doing so forgive yourself? Do you think that we could put this terrible past behind us and unite in the name of Lebanon. Do you think that we could take one chance in this life that has been given to us and grasp it? Let us in this one moment of time, say: enough!

We want our Lebanon back, our friendship back, our family back. We want to live with respect and self respect. We want to determine our future based on our love for our country and our way of life. Let us stand together as brothers, as neighbors and as fellow citizens of a new Lebanon. Let us unite under the banner of a new politic, a new movement, a new party. Let us all pledge allegiance that supersedes all that is past, all that was bad, all that was ugly, and all that divided us. Let us swear on what we hold most dear to us, our nation.

I ask you, to join me brother, to join this party, the only party;