Free Koolaids by Alameddine Rabih Page A

certain state it is indecent to go on living. To vegetate on in cowardly dependence on physicians and medicaments after the meaning of life, the right to life, has been lost ought to entail the profound contempt of society.
    â€œHey, Nietzsche boy,” I told Friedrich. “Look who’s talking about parasites on society. How many people supported your every whim and desire? You should be ashamed of yourself.”
    He never liked me anyway.
    â€¦
    They kept Tim alive for five months more than they should have. He was a vegetable. His parents, born-again Christians, refused to have the doctors pull the plug. The machines kept forcing themselves on him. It was rape. Five months later his lungs actually exploded.
    â€¦
    December 24th, 1987
    Dear Diary,
    What a day. We had to drive all the way to Ba’albak to buy our car back. It was our second trip. The first time, they told us our car had not arrived yet. They did have it, they assured us. It just hadn’t arrived at their depot yet. Apparently it takes about five days for a stolen car to get up there. They had the gall to tell us they are trying to get more efficient. Soon it would take only three days for them to steal the car, drive it up to Ba’albak, for it to be ready to be sold back to its owners. What is this world coming to?
    â€¦
    I am in a mausoleum. I climb, reaching one of the higher vaults, and enter. I have to break through an intricate spider’s web. At the end of the tunnel is a bright room. I reach it to find the devil, sitting on his throne, lifelike, yet larger than life. I can feel his power. I am pulled in. He is seductive. At the end of his tail is a large penis. I am entranced.
    â€œYou can’t keep your eyes off it, can you?” His voice resonates through my entire being.
    A dwarf comes in. He is deaf and mute. He gestures for me to follow. I follow him out of the room. He wants to lead me through a journey of self-discovery. He directs me to a room. In the room I find my father, sitting on his throne, lifelike; yet larger than life.
    â€¦
    It was a gray morning. I went into the kitchen to get my coffee. Scott had left some Danish pastries out for me. On the table, he had the paper with a headline circled in red. I sat down with my cup of coffee, and picked it up. Next to a small story on the Lebanese war, the headline read:
    Reagan Wins on Budget, but More Lies Ahead.
    â€¦
    (Excerpted from a letter by Mr. Kasem sent on the Internet.)
    There is a historical parallel to Lebanon which, hopefully, can establish a precedent and move all Lebanese past this point of national identity as Arabs, Phoenicians, Aramaic, or whatever.
    It is a well-established fact, if one looks objectively, that the very nature of Lebanon and its uniqueness lies in pluralism. Lebanon’s history is that of a place of refuge, a sanctuary, for oppressed people throughout the region. It is by no means an accident one of the largest communities of Druze in the region calls Lebanon home, since the Druze sought refuge in the Lebanese mountains from persecution in Egypt. It is no accident either that the largest community of Shiite Muslims outside of Iran calls Lebanon home. Shiites, as the minority Muslim sect, were historically dominated by the majority Sunnis. It is also for this reason the largest Christian community in the region finds its home in Lebanon as well. The Maronites sought refuge in the mountains over one thousand years ago. Since then, Armenian and other Christian sects have sought refuge. Lebanon is multicultured because it is a place of refuge. It is a place where the people revel in the fact they are different from the monolithic uniformity that laps at their borders.
    Because each community of Lebanon has known oppression in its history, none should oppress the other.
    In recent history, there is another country which was founded as a refuge for the people of the world who were different and therefore not tolerated in