Dear friends,
I was born by the river, in a little hospital in Boston. Too young to personally experience the struggle for civil rights in the United States, but not too late to genuinely appreciate the effort it took to effect real progress in America. On the other hand, like many in my generation, I have witnessed firsthand worsening global inequality. As America votes next week, the struggles of most to pursue lives of abundance and meaning are brought to the fore. Not just in the wealthiest and oldest democracy in the modern world. Everywhere.
AS AMERICA VOTES NEXT WEEK, THE STRUGGLES OF MOST TO PURSUE LIVES OF ABUNDANCE AND MEANING ARE BROUGHT TO THE FORE.
Yet, for many Lebanese, Palestinians, and Syrians, economic disparity as the leading problem facing their societies is something they would sign up for in a heartbeat these days. As the War on Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon escalates, our fall semester has been interrupted and disrupted. AUB data as of October 21 show that 50 percent of our student body has been displaced, and 25-30 percent of our faculty and staff are either displaced or have taken multiple family members into their homes. Nothing of what we are experiencing in the fall of 2024 could pass for normal. Or acceptable.
NOTHING OF WHAT WE ARE EXPERIENCING IN THE FALL OF 2024 COULD PASS FOR NORMAL. OR ACCEPTABLE.
Mental health challenges are on the increase in this period of great instability, and the stress of life is making it difficult to focus and follow through on everyday tasks. Still, we resumed online education the week of October 7, and went into
partial hybrid delivery on October 21. We are all heartened when we see our libraries gradually filling and in-person attendance on campus on the rise. Over the course of last week, more than 2,800 individual students accessed our campus. Our faculty and staff, though personally affected by the present challenges, are willfully engaged in ensuring the best possible learning experience, upholding our high academic standards, and offering maximum support to our students. The American University of Beirut Medical Center has weathered wave after wave of trauma, yet its physicians, nurses, staff, and administration are standing strong amid this maelstrom. And in the Beqaa valley, AREC has taken over 400 displaced Lebanese individuals, comprising more than 100 families, largely from the communities surrounding AREC, with some being families of AUB staff members. These are all solid reasons for hope.
WE MUST RESOLVE TO CREATE THE CIRCUMSTANCES AND THE MILIEU FOR THEM TO SOMEHOW FLOURISH, NO MATTER WHAT IT TAKES.
Amid an onslaught that has cost more than 2,700 lives in Lebanon and more than 44,000 in Gaza, a region long on the brink seems to be slipping off the edge. But for those of us with the privilege and responsibilities of serving as senior officers of this university, defeat and despair are not options. It is incumbent upon us to ensure that the students, faculty, and staff placed in our charge do more than survive to tell their tale, or to struggle on. We must resolve to create the circumstances and the milieu for them to somehow flourish, no matter what it takes.
As I write this, I am in the early stages of the longest trip I have ever undertaken, around the world and then some. With stops in England, Ireland, Scotland, Qatar, Australia, and more than a half dozen cities in the United States, I will connect with dozens of colleagues in academia and meet with supporters and alumni of the university on four continents, before returning to Beirut. The vast majority of our leadership team remains at AUB to help steer the ship. We all have interconnected responsibilities, and at a time when our two medical centers' resources are stretched to the limit, as are those of our student body, I am crisscrossing the globe to raise support, awareness, and resources.
I AM CRISSCROSSING THE GLOBE TO RAISE SUPPORT, AWARENESS, AND RESOURCES.
We will continue to do all in our power such that future generations who strive to enjoy dignified, fulfilling lives can do so in their native lands, and that their considerable talents will abound to those nations' benefits.
As I visited Edinburgh and the Writers' Museum, I absorbed the words of Sir Walter Scott, whose
Ivanhoe I repeatedly devoured as a young man of the Lebanese Civil War, searching for signs of chivalry and kindness wherever I could find them. Scott's love of his native Scotland is immortalized in the opening lines from “The Lay of the Last Minstrel," Canto sixth:
“Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd,
As home his footsteps he hath turn'd,
From wandering on a foreign strand!"
Much damage has been done to Lebanon and Palestine over the last few months, too many lives lost, bodies broken, and families uprooted. There is no way to know when this needless destruction and suffering will end, but rebuilding will be enormous work once the war stops, and I am certain AUB must once more be at the forefront to show the way forward. To do so, and to do that well, our university must be upright and nimble, rather than battered and limping. We must preserve, protect, and propel our institution and community forward. The violence will end one day and, just as in the case of equality before the law in America and elsewhere, better times will eventually come.
In 1963, soul superstar Sam Cooke was greatly moved by “Blowin' in the Wind," Bob Dylan's classic protest song about war and oppression (and not coincidentally the first folk song my mother ever played for me). Cooke felt compelled to respond with a song of his own, describing his experience as a black man in America, after being refused service in a “whites only" restaurant in Louisiana. The result, “A Change is Gonna Come," lifted spirits then, as it provides hope now for better days for the oppressed peoples of the world.
“I was born by the river in a little tent
Oh and just like the river I've been running ever since
It's been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will.
It's been too hard living but I'm afraid to die
Cause I don't know what's up there beyond the sky
It's been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will.
I go to the movie and I go downtown
Somebody keep telling me don't hang around
It's been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will.
Then I go to my brother
And I say brother help me please
But he winds up knockin' me
Back down on my knees.
There been times that I thought I couldn't last for long
But now I think I'm able to carry on
It's been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will."
Yes, it will