Caveat: Courage and Conviction [Not Really]

This morning, it dawns rainy and thundery.  I sit in my new apartment and watch the water droplets pattering on my windows.  I may go to work today, although my contract doesn't actually kick in until Monday, because I'd like to have as much advance notice as possible with respect to my teaching schedule.

So.  Meanwhile.

Typically, if I follow the upheaval in the Arab world, I do so with quite a bit of distance.  I love the Arabic Language, and would someday hope to study it more (I did pursue it, briefly, while in grad school).  So I've long held a lot of interest in the culture and the region, but it's often been tempered by a feeling of despair with respect to politics:  the chances of ever flourishing what one might term progressive dreams.  The never-ending stream of news about repressions and demonstrations and military interventions and resistances all seem circular and futile.  To be frank, I don't spend a lot of time following the region's news, because it's generally depressing.

In my web-surfing last night, I happened across a blog entry that moved me to hope, however.  Hope for humanity and progress and genuinely ethical (meaning unhypocritical) behavior.  I recommend reading it – if you care about rational political discourse (amazing), if you care about human rights (very human), if you're interested in questions of true human equality regardless of religion or gender or sexual orientation (each of these relevant and addressed), if you believe in the possibility of genuine unconditional love of a parent for a child (stunning).

The Syrian woman's conclusion showed such a degree of personal courage and conviction that I felt moved almost to tears:

"So, when my father says he will not leave until either democracy comes or he is dead, I have no choice but to stay. Not because he is making me, but because he is not making me."

I have hope for Syria.  I've long thought of it as a much more nuanced place than it is typically portrayed in the Western media.  Read it – be inspired. 

[UPDATE 2011-06-13:  I have learned that this woman's blog was a hoax – the author was not a woman, not Syrian, and not gay.  The compelling nature of the writing remains, but one feels a bit bit less inspired, eh?]