I really don't have time for this! But this is something you NEED to know:
I hopped onto facebook for a second to send a message to a relative and the first thing I saw made my heart jump. A good friend of mine went home.
I have to have my classes ready for tomorrow - first day of fall semester- and I am woefully behind -WOEFULLY, I tell you! - but I just had to share this bit of joy with my good friends here.
First some background (you knew I wasn't going to make this short, right?)
Our first year in graduate school with my lovely wife of 33 1/4 years I was introduced by her to a fascinating and extremely special young lady who was also a graduate assistant. She was participating in a panel discussion about the Palestinian question.
One of the panelists was a professor who came here from Israel. He was from Haifa and was presenting the question from a hard-line Israeli perspective. My friend's name is Samah, and she was presenting the Palestinian perspective. You see, she was born and raised in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon.
I won't go into the panel discussion, but I will digress (yet again) to give you more background (the madness never ceases LOL) Her father was born in Acre and was 3 years old and living in Haifa in 1948 when the Palestinians were force-ably removed from that city by the new occupants. Samah adored her dad and I'll always remember her story of how he had kept the key to their house there. Her beloved father died fairly recently and - I assume - she kept the key.
When Samah won an award from our graduate school she had to fill out a form which required her to fill in her home town. OK, here we go again on another background journey. (It gets better . . . really!) As a Palestinian refugee in Lebanon, she was literally a person without a "country" - in the sense of a nation-state. She was not considered a Lebanese citizen and was not able, as I recall, to get a Lebanese passport, drivers license, et al. She was never able to go back to Palestine as she was a refugee with no citizenship status. I "cannot even imagine" what it was like to grow up under those conditions.
All of this was a part of the aforementioned panel discussion. The professor on the panel was even taken aback. As an Israeli he had never given a second thought to "their" situation,
When it came time to fill out the form, she listen her home as "Haifa, Palestine."
Right after the discussion she left to go to be sworn in as an American citizen. I had only just met her but was so proud to here this. She told me that she hoped she would be a good American citizen because she was sure that the Palestinian issue would always be a priority for her. I told her that I only wished there were more American citizens who were as intelligent, compassionate and as well rounded and that I was absolutely certain she would be an excellent American citizen.
She went on to a PhD program in Philadelphia, Pa. I have not seen or talked to her since, but try to keep up with her on facebook. I was thrilled to find a series of posts from her from Haifa and Acre. As a U.S. citizen she was finally able to visit her home in Palestine. 
Now, if you see me again today tell me to get back to work!
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