On Monday, I arrived in Beirut, Lebanon at about 9:45 local time,after a long trip from home in Boston. I sent a text message to myhusband to let him know that I landed safely. Soon after, whilechecking into my hotel, I received a message back saying, "There weretwo bombs that went off at Copley sq but kids are home and safe." Inmy confusion and shock, I cried "What?! Bombs in Copley Square?!" andthe Lebanese hotel clerk asked me what was the matter. I explainedwhat I had just learned, and he said, "Thank God, your family issafe." The next day, he said, "I was the first Lebanese to learn ofthe bombings in Boston."
The irony of the situation was hard to miss. Here I was in Lebanon, acountry that Western press reports depict as perpetually on the brinkof a new civil war and that has witnessed more than its share ofbombings, war, and terror. Just one day earlier, as I prepared toleave for my latest research trip to Lebanon, friends in Boston hadcautioned me to be careful there and asked whether the war inneighboring Syria threatened to spill over. I assured them that I feltperfectly at ease in Lebanon, emphasizing that the country's politicalleaders in Lebanon have thus far done a pretty good job of holding thecountry together, despite mounting regional tensions. Little did Iknow that Boston would be the site of a terrorist attack.
After checking in, I raced upstairs to my room and watched theaftermath of the attacks in my neighborhood unfold on Arabic satellitetelevision channels. It was surreal to see shots of the Boston PublicLibrary, the Lenox Hotel, and what appeared to be the hollowed-outshells of stores such as Marathon Sports and Sugar Heaven located atthe finish line of the Boston Marathon. While commentators onAl-Jazeera and Al-Arabiyya described the attacks, images of injuredand shocked bystanders and marathoners and the efforts of firstresponders and good Samaritans played out on the screen. Whenever Iwatch these channels, the images of destruction, loss, and tragedy arefrom Afghanistan, Iraq, and, most recently, Syria, among other placesin the region -- not Boston.
Boston has undergone a terrible tragedy. The pain that the families ofthe victims are experiencing must be unbearable. My heart goes out tothem. Even those who were not injured by the explosions will sufferfrom the shock and trauma of the event. Life will never be the same.Sadly, what Boston just experienced has become a fact of life forAfghans, Iraqis, Pakistanis, Syrians, and others in this region.Depending on where the war has traveled in your country, going to buybread or sending your children out to play is a game of Russianroulette. Beyond the very real possibility of death and destruction,the psychological toll of living under these conditions is enormous.The Lebanese know this all too well, having lived through 15 years ofcivil wars, subsequent Israeli invasions, and a series ofunpredictable car bombs targeting political leaders and public figuresthat often kill innocent bystanders.
Under these conditions, people adapt by developing new understandingsof space, conceptualizing bombs several blocks away as "far off," andlearning to live with uncertainty and threat. But these are copingmechanisms that have their after-effects. Several years ago inLebanon, I met a team of doctors from Doctors Without Borders. I askedthem why they planned to work in Lebanon, which was no longer anactive war zone. They explained that the population has high levels ofpsychological trauma, a normal response to all that they havewitnessed.
In the aftermath of the Boston bombings, students at the school thatmy children attend have expressed fear and confusion, and the school'sadministrators have admirably stepped in to bring in a professionalcounselor to work with them and their parents. Some witnessed thebombings, albeit from a safe distance, and stories abound of nearmisses -- families watching from the finish line who chose to leavebefore the explosions occurred for a variety of reasons that, inretrospect, amount to random luck. Our own daughter had watched fromthe precise location of the first bomb with a friend and her friend'smother. Forty-five minutes before the bombs went off, they leftbecause they were cold.
Based on what our community in Boston has undergone, I can only beginto imagine the nightmares and terrors that families in Iraq, Syria,Lebanon, Afghanistan and elsewhere across the globe have experiencedas violence has invaded their everyday lives. Sadly, violence toinnocents is a tie that binds.