We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, October 28, 2016

Kindest People You've Ever Met: American Journalist Describes Lebanon, Syrian Attitude

 
The following post is a 25:29m interview conducted by a person from Era of Wisdom website the focus of which seems to me to be rather eccentric notions of spirituality and nutrition. However, the interviewee is Branden Turbeville who is a young activist who frequently posts articles with Activist Post. In this interview I regarded Turbeville as a typical young, aware American activist who along with unspecified others attempted to visit Syria, but ended up spending all of their time in adjacent Lebanon. In the interview he reports on his conversations with a lot of Syrian refugees specifically about what is going on in their war-torn country. I was quite fascinated by what he reported and the genuineness of his impressions.

Brandon Turbeville took a trip to Lebanon, and almost made it to Syria last month, to report on what is really going on.

In this interview, Brandon describes the humble, grateful attitude of the Syrian and Lebanese people. He recalls learning how they feel about Assad, the US government, the American people and more.




There is a 12:14m post that concludes this interview which can be found here. I was particularly interested in more of his observations about the Syrian people starting at 8:54m.