March 19, 2003: To a Mailing List, 21 Years Later
Looking at it from Beirut, I can only say: I am so glad not to be an Iraqi. I had my turn as a Lebanese. I wish for all of you who never lived anxiety in a shelter, never to experience it. Never.
Now to the bright side of things. I cannot but marvel at how far the good people in America and Europe have come. I can still recall June 1982 in the San Francisco Bay Area. There was this large Peace Demonstration. A big coalition. The Israelis had invaded once again, but much more savagely, my country Lebanon. And the coalition didn't want to include a slogan against the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, because as I recall it would have been a divisive issue. So, we were a small number of people who led a vigil on the green portion of this avenue in San Francisco that passes by the Dolores Church, and in the morning we passed out 20,000 flyers to the marchers who thought about Peace everywhere in the World except in an Arab country. Since then, the Arabs have made it into the consciousness of the good people in America and in Europe. It has taken a long long long time for us to become visible as real human beings. I was always visible as an Arab, often as a token, when I was a refugee in the Bay Area, but for the ones who recall those times and the demonstrations that were happening, won't you say that we have come a long way?
In the midst of the ugliness that we are witnessing, my heart still rejoices at reading and seeing pictures of what you have been doing, all of you. I can share with you, that the demonstrations held in Beirut against the war in Iraq, have for the first time ever brought the rainbow flag of gays and lesbians out in the open. Ten very courageous men marched and were referred to as homosexuals in the press. So, we are getting there. And please allow me to share with you that under the bombs, only smiling keeps your sanity.
In Peace and Solidarity,
Tina Naccache
Beirut, Lebanon
Tina Nanacche is a human rights advocate and lately a filmmaker. Who Hangs the Laundry? Washing, War and Electricity in Beirut, a 20mn documentary by Hrafnhildur Gunnarsdóttir and herself tells about the aftermath of war.
