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“...if the United States never intended to help, it shouldn’t have built up the expectation. The false promise of help was cruel and inexcusable and it would only get worse over time. If a man is drowning and a boat drives past in the distance, the man accepts his death and goes down quietly. If a man is drowning and a boat pulls up beside him, dangles a life jacket, tells the world he wants to help, but then doesn’t throw the life jacket, the drowning man dies crying and his family might take a blood oath to take revenge on the boat’s crew. This type of anger was already starting to build in Syria and al-Qaeda would capitalize on it.”
― And Then All Hell Broke Loose: Two Decades in the Middle East
― And Then All Hell Broke Loose: Two Decades in the Middle East
“Empty Spaces
I wanted to feel less.
To not be burdened by emotion,
To not feel sadness,
To not know loss.
I envied the inanimate,
The trees that stand proudly in winter,
Not missing their leaves.
I wanted to be weightless,
To not experience limitation.
I didn’t want time to pass,
The blur of days, months, years.
It moved too quickly,
I wanted to grasp on,
Hold it.
It eluded me,
Intangible,
Like light.
I wanted to preserve life before you were gone.
I didn’t want to know grief.
But the pain kept me connected.
It meant that I loved you,
It meant that I would always be a little broken,
It meant that our love filled all of the empty spaces.
It meant that you would be with me... forever.”
―
I wanted to feel less.
To not be burdened by emotion,
To not feel sadness,
To not know loss.
I envied the inanimate,
The trees that stand proudly in winter,
Not missing their leaves.
I wanted to be weightless,
To not experience limitation.
I didn’t want time to pass,
The blur of days, months, years.
It moved too quickly,
I wanted to grasp on,
Hold it.
It eluded me,
Intangible,
Like light.
I wanted to preserve life before you were gone.
I didn’t want to know grief.
But the pain kept me connected.
It meant that I loved you,
It meant that I would always be a little broken,
It meant that our love filled all of the empty spaces.
It meant that you would be with me... forever.”
―
“And this is the worse part of it — when you realize that what separates you, someone who can leave, from someone who is trapped in Aleppo, or Homs or Douma or Darayya, is that you can walk away and go back to your home with electricity and sliced bread; then you begin to feel ashamed to be human.”
― The Morning They Came for Us: Dispatches from Syria
― The Morning They Came for Us: Dispatches from Syria
“The regime had understood that one person leaving her house while asking herself:
"Are my trousers long enough? Is my veil in place? Can my make-up be seen? Are they going to whip me?"
- No longer asks herself:
"Where is my freedom of thought? Where is my freedom of speech? My life, is it livable? What's going on in the political prisons?"
It's only natural! When we're afraid, we lose all sense of analysis and reflection. Our fear paralyzes us. Besides, fear has always been the driving force behind all dictators' repression.
Showing your hair or putting on makeup logically became acts of rebellion.”
― Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return
"Are my trousers long enough? Is my veil in place? Can my make-up be seen? Are they going to whip me?"
- No longer asks herself:
"Where is my freedom of thought? Where is my freedom of speech? My life, is it livable? What's going on in the political prisons?"
It's only natural! When we're afraid, we lose all sense of analysis and reflection. Our fear paralyzes us. Besides, fear has always been the driving force behind all dictators' repression.
Showing your hair or putting on makeup logically became acts of rebellion.”
― Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return
True stories of the missing
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— last activity Oct 30, 2016 04:40PM
books of the missing, trafficked, abused, abducted.
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