Bishops on the run

So I was talking to my mom today and she was telling me that she felt the country was going crazy. I told her that yeah, she was right as you have one fourth of the population mobilized to bring down a government, and that is really unprecedented, and she answered: “This is not the craziest part”. I asked her what she meant and she replied that while you had tents burgeoning in front of the Serail and other buildings in downtown, you also had a mass being celebrated by PM Siniora in the Serail in memory of Pierre Gemayel. “Even Jumblatt came ya Bechir all the 14th of March was there, and it is unprecedented! A Maronite mass in the Serail!” she said, “The Serail, this remnant of Ottoman rule (bastion of Sunnism), do you realize habibi?” she almost screamed. I said, “Well… good shit”.

But then she continued that this wasn’t the funniest part: Yesterday, you had the Beirut Marathon that kicked off and all these dudes running around were actually circling the outskirts of where the demonstrations were taking place, so that broadcasters and newsprint did not know if they were going to beef up their sports segments or politics pages. “There were cameras everywhere”, she said. “Beirut is like a big carnival”.

Meanwhile the Bishop who was giving the mass in the Serail could hardly finish praising the soul of Gemayel before running to another mass given by Aoun’s party (Tayyar) in Hazmieh on something for the “new Lebanon”. We were wondering if the Bishop gave the marathon entrants a run for their money. Now seriously, don’t you want to live in Beirut? So many people are worried about what’s going to happen. Especially after this guy got killed by pro-Hariri Sunnis in Beirut (by the way ever since a group of Sunnis have been hanging out with right wing Christians ((i.e. what came to be known as the 14th of March)), they have taken on racist mindsets it seems). But I say to them, as long as there are Bishops and Sheikhs running to bridge the gap, don’t worry, everything will be alright.