Post by Kerrigan on Aug 23, 2006 11:13:43 GMT -5
This was written not too long ago after I preached at a "vigil" held for the Lebanese people in downtown Raleigh. The audio of me preaching to them, talking to the police and talking to the guy who wrote this report are all on My Xanga...somewhere...
Eleven days after Israel responded to the kidnapping of two soldiers by Hezbollah with a small cross-border raid into Lebanon, about 200 people gathered at the state's Capitol building Saturday night for a peace vigil and to stand in solidarity with the Lebanese community in a humanitarian call for an immediate Israeli cease-fire.
According to Moise Khayrallah, one of the organizers of the vigil and member of the Triangle Lebanese Association, over 350 Lebanese have been killed and over half a million refugees are in shelters and abandoned schools.
"We want to draw attention to the destruction of Lebanon," Khayrallah said. "We want to draw attention to the suffering of the people."
Rami Ghanayem, senior in biochemistry, agreed.
"There needs to be more awareness out here and more awareness for the cause of the people back home in Lebanon and Palestine as well as to raise awareness about what's really going on," Ghanayem said. "There's been an ongoing occupation in Palestine, now the effects of it are carrying over to Lebanon."
The vigil took place on the same day that Israeli ground troops moved into and took control of Maroun al-Ras, a village in southern Lebanon. Also on Saturday, Israel received a delivery of precision-guided bombs from the United States.
Nadim Wanna, a graduate student in mechanical engineering, said he attended the vigil to provide support for his country so they can "stop the massacres." Wanna said he, his parents and brother live in Lebanon and he is constantly trying to reach them.
"They're thinking of leaving the country," he said. "But my dad is stubborn and doesn't want to leave his home. He would prefer to die there, on his soil."
A safe return
Almost an hour into the vigil, a rumor began to spread about a group of American evacuees from Lebanon whose plane arrived at the airport. The group consisted of seven people: one woman and six children.
"We're like sisters so it's really hard to have them all the way over there," Rana Alawar, she said of her three friends that have been on a dance team together for eight years. She said seven of the girls went to Lebanon to visit family, and three were to return on the flight.
About two hours after the vigil began, a minivan opened its doors and evacuees ran to greet friends and family. The group went straight to the vigil from the airport.
Raghda Yehya arrived with daughter Sasha, 17.
"We were actually visiting our family and that's when it started," Raghda said. "We could see and hear houses almost, you could feel, coming down on it. It was scary, especially with kids."
Raghda said they were mostly in Beirut but moved to the mountains when the bombings started. They boarded a ship to Cyprus from a port in Beirut, spent the night at a fairground and flew back to the U.S. from Cyprus. She said there was a rumor that it would cost $1,000 per person to evacuate, but that they didn't pay anything.
"We heard a lot of things by the American and Lebanese [militaries] that they could have done a lot better to evacuate Americans from Lebanon," Raghda said. "It was chaos for us to get out of Lebanon."
She said they were on the road for three days without news of what was happening, and that she heard a story that Israel told people to evacuate and then bombed three buses of civilians as they were leaving.
"I knew Lebanese were dying," Sasha said. "On the way here I saw a magazine and it has Israeli perspectives...it only said four civilians from Israel were injured as hundreds of Lebanese were dying."
Sasha said she didn't feel scared when she heard the bombs because she was far away from where they were hitting, and she didn't feel like she was in danger.
"It seemed like everyone here got different information," she said. "We weren't as scared as they are here."
A tough way to grow up
Wael Abouchakra has lived in North Carolina for 25 years. He grew up in Charlotte, attended UNC-Charlotte and married a Lebanese-American 10 years ago. They have an eight-year-old son and an 18-month-old daughter.
"We travel a lot, take advantage of going to Lebanon," he said. "It's been a very beautiful country. The kids have a blast there."
His wife and two children went to Lebanon, and now, he said, they are stuck there. He said he was supposed to join them next week, but that was before the bombings started.
Abouchakra said he talked to his eight-year-old son about the bombings.
"He said, 'Daddy, do you remember when I got scared of the thunderstorm?' He said the noise from the planes was more than the thunderstorm, and it took forever to end," he said.
They left the coastal area they were staying for the mountains and are staying at a mountain resort. All roads out of the area, including the road to the port where evacuations take place, are all bombed out.
"They are stuck, literally, in the mountains," he said.
The State Department advised his family to stay put because they are working on a plan. He said one family risked the conditions and was driven by their nephew to the port. On the way back, the nephew's car was bombed and he is in the hospital.
He is also worried about the economy, he said, and what the U.S. is not doing.
"Those kids in Lebanon are looking up in the sky and watching American-made planes, looking at the horizon and seeing American-made tanks shelling civilians, and I think we are breeding a generation of resentment against Israel and the U.S.," he said.
Time for action
Elie Batoulit, member of the Triangle Lebanese Association, said he had one thing to say: "'Might makes right.' That's a beautiful American proverb that applies to Israel."
While standing outside of the state Capitol with Lebanese flags and signs urging action, demonstrators were subject to some opposition. One man driving past leaned out his window and shouted, "Go back to where you came from."
Hind Muallem, a UNC student, said she gets that kind of response a lot.
"It really hurts because we're Americans and this is our country, too," she said. "I don't respect such responses, especially in the middle of a war. I would prefer to have support from people because that's the way we treat others."
Also, Kerrigan Skelly of Pinpoint Evangelism began speaking near where the demonstration was taking place about Christianity and life after death.
"We were at Downtown Live and we're here to speak to everybody because we care about where everyone will end up in eternity," Sarah Culotta, who affiliated herself with Skelly, said.
When demonstrators began to ask Skelly to leave, she said, "We encounter disagreements all the time, it's not something that's new. He's not getting upset, he's explaining his position like they're explaining their position."
Skelly was asked to leave by a Raleigh police officer, who said he was encroaching on the area the demonstrators had a permit for.
"The point here is to support life and death. This is not about religion and it's sad that someone would come and try to ruin this," Sam Khalek, a Wake Tech student, said. "It's not just
Lebanon, it's Palestine and Iraq, too. I would just like to go back home and know that I'm safe."
Michael Najm, a senior in electrical and computer engineering, said he was supposed to go to Lebanon July 15 but didn't after he heard about the bombings. He was at the vigil to urge leaders to take action.
"[United States is] the leader and I'm asking them to take action on this," he said. "We are the leaders of civilization and this is not what we're about. Lebanon is my love, it's my country, and I don't want to see it keep falling."
It was amazing what some "Christians" were saying to me as I preached. I guess I shouldn't be "amazed" anymore at these things...
Eleven days after Israel responded to the kidnapping of two soldiers by Hezbollah with a small cross-border raid into Lebanon, about 200 people gathered at the state's Capitol building Saturday night for a peace vigil and to stand in solidarity with the Lebanese community in a humanitarian call for an immediate Israeli cease-fire.
According to Moise Khayrallah, one of the organizers of the vigil and member of the Triangle Lebanese Association, over 350 Lebanese have been killed and over half a million refugees are in shelters and abandoned schools.
"We want to draw attention to the destruction of Lebanon," Khayrallah said. "We want to draw attention to the suffering of the people."
Rami Ghanayem, senior in biochemistry, agreed.
"There needs to be more awareness out here and more awareness for the cause of the people back home in Lebanon and Palestine as well as to raise awareness about what's really going on," Ghanayem said. "There's been an ongoing occupation in Palestine, now the effects of it are carrying over to Lebanon."
The vigil took place on the same day that Israeli ground troops moved into and took control of Maroun al-Ras, a village in southern Lebanon. Also on Saturday, Israel received a delivery of precision-guided bombs from the United States.
Nadim Wanna, a graduate student in mechanical engineering, said he attended the vigil to provide support for his country so they can "stop the massacres." Wanna said he, his parents and brother live in Lebanon and he is constantly trying to reach them.
"They're thinking of leaving the country," he said. "But my dad is stubborn and doesn't want to leave his home. He would prefer to die there, on his soil."
A safe return
Almost an hour into the vigil, a rumor began to spread about a group of American evacuees from Lebanon whose plane arrived at the airport. The group consisted of seven people: one woman and six children.
"We're like sisters so it's really hard to have them all the way over there," Rana Alawar, she said of her three friends that have been on a dance team together for eight years. She said seven of the girls went to Lebanon to visit family, and three were to return on the flight.
About two hours after the vigil began, a minivan opened its doors and evacuees ran to greet friends and family. The group went straight to the vigil from the airport.
Raghda Yehya arrived with daughter Sasha, 17.
"We were actually visiting our family and that's when it started," Raghda said. "We could see and hear houses almost, you could feel, coming down on it. It was scary, especially with kids."
Raghda said they were mostly in Beirut but moved to the mountains when the bombings started. They boarded a ship to Cyprus from a port in Beirut, spent the night at a fairground and flew back to the U.S. from Cyprus. She said there was a rumor that it would cost $1,000 per person to evacuate, but that they didn't pay anything.
"We heard a lot of things by the American and Lebanese [militaries] that they could have done a lot better to evacuate Americans from Lebanon," Raghda said. "It was chaos for us to get out of Lebanon."
She said they were on the road for three days without news of what was happening, and that she heard a story that Israel told people to evacuate and then bombed three buses of civilians as they were leaving.
"I knew Lebanese were dying," Sasha said. "On the way here I saw a magazine and it has Israeli perspectives...it only said four civilians from Israel were injured as hundreds of Lebanese were dying."
Sasha said she didn't feel scared when she heard the bombs because she was far away from where they were hitting, and she didn't feel like she was in danger.
"It seemed like everyone here got different information," she said. "We weren't as scared as they are here."
A tough way to grow up
Wael Abouchakra has lived in North Carolina for 25 years. He grew up in Charlotte, attended UNC-Charlotte and married a Lebanese-American 10 years ago. They have an eight-year-old son and an 18-month-old daughter.
"We travel a lot, take advantage of going to Lebanon," he said. "It's been a very beautiful country. The kids have a blast there."
His wife and two children went to Lebanon, and now, he said, they are stuck there. He said he was supposed to join them next week, but that was before the bombings started.
Abouchakra said he talked to his eight-year-old son about the bombings.
"He said, 'Daddy, do you remember when I got scared of the thunderstorm?' He said the noise from the planes was more than the thunderstorm, and it took forever to end," he said.
They left the coastal area they were staying for the mountains and are staying at a mountain resort. All roads out of the area, including the road to the port where evacuations take place, are all bombed out.
"They are stuck, literally, in the mountains," he said.
The State Department advised his family to stay put because they are working on a plan. He said one family risked the conditions and was driven by their nephew to the port. On the way back, the nephew's car was bombed and he is in the hospital.
He is also worried about the economy, he said, and what the U.S. is not doing.
"Those kids in Lebanon are looking up in the sky and watching American-made planes, looking at the horizon and seeing American-made tanks shelling civilians, and I think we are breeding a generation of resentment against Israel and the U.S.," he said.
Time for action
Elie Batoulit, member of the Triangle Lebanese Association, said he had one thing to say: "'Might makes right.' That's a beautiful American proverb that applies to Israel."
While standing outside of the state Capitol with Lebanese flags and signs urging action, demonstrators were subject to some opposition. One man driving past leaned out his window and shouted, "Go back to where you came from."
Hind Muallem, a UNC student, said she gets that kind of response a lot.
"It really hurts because we're Americans and this is our country, too," she said. "I don't respect such responses, especially in the middle of a war. I would prefer to have support from people because that's the way we treat others."
Also, Kerrigan Skelly of Pinpoint Evangelism began speaking near where the demonstration was taking place about Christianity and life after death.
"We were at Downtown Live and we're here to speak to everybody because we care about where everyone will end up in eternity," Sarah Culotta, who affiliated herself with Skelly, said.
When demonstrators began to ask Skelly to leave, she said, "We encounter disagreements all the time, it's not something that's new. He's not getting upset, he's explaining his position like they're explaining their position."
Skelly was asked to leave by a Raleigh police officer, who said he was encroaching on the area the demonstrators had a permit for.
"The point here is to support life and death. This is not about religion and it's sad that someone would come and try to ruin this," Sam Khalek, a Wake Tech student, said. "It's not just
Lebanon, it's Palestine and Iraq, too. I would just like to go back home and know that I'm safe."
Michael Najm, a senior in electrical and computer engineering, said he was supposed to go to Lebanon July 15 but didn't after he heard about the bombings. He was at the vigil to urge leaders to take action.
"[United States is] the leader and I'm asking them to take action on this," he said. "We are the leaders of civilization and this is not what we're about. Lebanon is my love, it's my country, and I don't want to see it keep falling."
It was amazing what some "Christians" were saying to me as I preached. I guess I shouldn't be "amazed" anymore at these things...
