I am not a writer. At this very moment, I am the embodiment of emotion. I am rage, anticipation, and intense sadness.
In my encounters with politics I am told not to argue emotionally, but only logically. But I wonder if it is this exact advice that compels man to slaughter those who have not yet had the mental capacity to sin or to wrong. I wonder if it is this same advice that has allowed people to turn a blind eye to the bloodbaths in the desecrated streets of Libya. Or is it that it is easier to continue with our daily routines and muffle the desperate cries for help? Or is it that we have just forgotten? My strong emotion is due to the fact that my identity transcends beyond Palestinian and beyond American. The death of Mohammed Nabbous triggered in me such grief, yet it brought me to a great realization. I had been awake the morning before his death past 3am with my heart pounding. I watched the videos he had posted of the bullet-ridden homes, blood-splattered pillows, and skeletons of cars that had been hit by missiles. I had fallen asleep to the audio of him yelling to the driver to drive away and heard loud gunshots in the background. And I awoke the next morning, less than 6 hours later, to learn of his tragic death. I returned to the link to hear the quivering voice of his wife, announcing his death. And at that moment, the struggle became personal.
It dawned on me that the death toll at that point was somewhere around 8,000 civilians. I had attended protests calling for the liberty of the Libyan people. I posted and shared every link I had come across informing of Qaddafi’s tyranny. But why had it taken me so long to be this emotionally attached to the noble cause of the Libyan people? The numbers I had seen had meant just that: numbers. A cause does not become your own until you can connect with it on an emotional level. I feel that one might not embody a struggle until one feels the pain, until one is moved. Until then, it is just another struggle being fought on some far away land. I had to hear Mohammed Nabbous’ voice just hours before his death to feel the pain to move me to the point of tears. After that, every death had a story in my mind and the cause had become mine. The blood-splattered pillows were no longer visual effects, but I saw my blood on those pillows; my house became ridden with bullet holes; the cars in my driveway were nothing but skeletons. Embodying the cause allowed me to feel rage at the atrocities committed against the Libyans as I anticipated the drastic change to come for the better, and then settled the intense sadness at the realization of the cost of the change. Strong emotion allowed me to commit to devoting time and effort to my cause and to keep the remembrance of the Libyans alive throughout day.
The death toll is now well above 10,000. That’s over 10,000 families that mourn the loss of a loved one. That’s 10,000 stories. Once we understand the bond of humanity we share with these victims, we may be able to mourn as these losses are our own and we may be able to see these stories. We may be able to become emotional which will, in turn, drive us to further our efforts in the cause. It is our cause. We have the right, more-so the obligation, to argue emotionally. We can argue emotionally because we are enraged that our people are being slaughtered, imprisoned, and threatened. We are distraught at the sub-human treatment of our people.
Mohammed Nabbous was killed pleading to the world to listen to the stories of the people. When we begin to believe that these numbers are merely numbers and disregard these stories, we forget that this is our collective struggle, ultimately ignoring his desperate plea.
Hadeel K. is a Palestinian-American student at Benedictine University. At Benedictine, she co-founded Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). Hadeel is also on the executive board of the Chicago chapter of American Association for Equal Rights (AAPER).
You must help to create a more caring, loving, compassionate better Libya, which can be a Light for the world.
a permanent way will hv 2 b found 2 honour all those souls pure enough to hv given their lives for freedom.
many many blessings.