Because the Lebanese university and the public schools are withering away; because dying children are not admitted to hospitals; because there are homeless elders stranded on the streets and victims scattered in our neighborhoods and homes; because the homeless, the jobless and those working in “downtown” (could there be a word more ridiculous than this one?) know little, if any, about Karl Marx and Adam Smith, but are aware that they share a common destiny; because “no riches have accumulated except through stinginess or ill-gotten wealth” and because the rich are not better than the poor;

 

And although things are not as they seem; although there are demonstrators who conceal their true aims; although the problem does not lie in the Ministers of Interior and Environment nor in the government; although those cursing at the ruling class may fare far worse if there were in its shoes; although some heads of municipalities, if not most of them, are more corrupt than most ministers; although some demonstrators are deluded by thinking that they are going to change history through posts and tweets on social media and are drawn to the limelight and to TV appearances;

 

In order for the dialogue table to become a decision-making table capable of promptly resolving what is more important than presidential and parliamentary elections or the formation of a government, that is finding practical and sustainable solutions for the crises of garbage, electricity, water, traffic, public transport and labor and taxation systems; in order for the zu’ama to announce their willingness to be ministers in a ‘crisis’ government of seven to nine members and to lose to each other so that the country can win;

 

For all those reasons and more,

Because demonstrations cannot usher change unless they grow into a purposeful movement able to organize and to be organized and seek a better and brighter future and in order to immunize the demonstrations against the abuse and cunning inside and outside Lebanon and safeguard a dream that may never come true, one must join the rally on Sunday, September 20 and Thursday, October 8, 2015.