Thread by @oldlevantine

In memory of the #ArmenianGenocide, #PonticGenocide #Kafno, #Sayfo, different places, different methods, same anthropogenic extermination campaign
#DeadAreMyPeople, Kahlil Gibran
"Gone are my people, but I exist yet,
Lamenting them in my solitude...
Dead are my friends...

and in their Death my life is naught but great
Disaster.
The knolls of my country are submerged
By tears and blood, for my people and
My beloved are gone, and I am here
Living as I did when my people and my
Beloved were enjoying life and the
Bounty of life,

and when the hills of
My country were blessed and engulfed
By the light of the sun.
My people died from hunger, and he who
Did not perish from starvation was
Butchered with the sword; and I am
Here in this distant land, roaming

Amongst a joyful people who sleep
Upon soft beds, and smile at the days
While the days smile upon them.
My people died a painful and shameful
Death, and here am I living in plenty
And in peace...This is deep tragedy
Ever-enacted upon the stage of my
Heart;

....My people died on the cross... They died while their hands stretched toward the East and West, while the remnants of their eyes stared at the blackness of the firmament… They died silently, for humanity had closed its ears to their cry.

They died because they did not befriend their enemy. They died because they loved their neighbors... because they placed trust in all humanity. They died because they did not oppress the oppressors. They died because they were the crushed flowers, and not the crushing feet..

They died because they were peace makers. They perished from hunger in a land rich with milk and honey. They died because monsters of Hell arose and destroyed all that their fields grew, and devoured the last provisions in their bins...

They died because the vipers and sons of vipers spat out poison into the space where the Holy Cedars and the roses and the jasmine breathe their fragrance."
Written by Arab-American poet Gibran, in the midst of the Ottoman genocide of Arabs in Western Arabia during the Great War.

For the record the bits about the "Arab-American poet," the "genocide of Arabs" and "Western Arabia" are all a farce of course, my way of mocking perversions of fact and semantic promiscuity, as in the title & description of this event:
nyac.lau.edu.lb/events/