I wanted to post about Gebran for a while now, but honestly i could not find words to describe what he meant to me and others, unlike Gebran who always knew how to express our thoughts and concerns in words, he had a gift for reaching out to the people’s hearts and minds and most specifically the youth.

So many politicians and leaders and even religious men praised unity among the Lebanese, speeched about it, yet few were capable of reaching out to the people , of convincing the people how crucial this unity is, and among those very few was Gebran Tueni.

Gebran Tueni was one of those few good men this country had, an incorruptible honest charismatic and patriotic person by all means. His presence was always distinguished and his speeches were highly respected even by his fiercest ennemies.

I used to wait for his interventions during conferences held at the university or during the parliament sessions or on TV shows, i used to wait for his editorials on a weekly basis.

What made him so different?

He believed in one religion: The Lebanese one.

He belonged to one party: The party of Lebanon.

He was in my opinion the only one eligible to speech on the 14th of March 2005, since he represented the Lebanese people’s voice, from all parties and sects, he was the true voice of the Cedars Revolution that belonged to the people as he repeatedly said and not to the politicians.

I personally looked up to Gebran because he was that young, educated, fearless patriotic and succesfull person who strongly believe in his principles and knew perfectly how to defend them, he knew his cause is a right one.

I still remember the day i heard he was killed, i felt so sad i kept silent the whole day, and during his funeral, they were repeating his oath as he was being carried to the Church and every time the oath was repeated, it felt heavier and touching, yet i dont want people to remember him for his oath, neither for his 14th of march speech, but for his continuous struggle and strong character and amazing courage and his pure and deep commitment and love to Lebanon.

It is amazing how one can feel his time has come, he was addressing the criminals while in France after May Chidiac’s attempted assasination, daring them to kill him and he also repeated on another occasion:

“even if they kill me i will not give them credit or let them win, i will look them in the eye with the gun pointed at me head, and tell me i will die now coz God said its my time to die and not coz u are killing me”

I might be wrong, but i sense he felt his destiny was to be a martyr of that great revolution, he felt he accomplished what he has been defending and praising for years ..

Finally, one can never express himself well in such posts, and nothing can bring back Gebran but let us revive his memory in the best way possible.

R.I.P Gebran.