Speeches

100th Anniversary of American Community School

Feb. 7, 2006

I’m very pleased to be with you today, to take part in one of the number of activities organized during the past seven months to celebrate the American Community School’s centennial anniversary. What excites me as U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon about ACS’s centennial is the proof it offers of an enduring 100-year partnership between the American people and the people of the Middle East.

The Americans who, in the latter part of the 19th century, first made Beirut their home arrived armed not with weapons, but with immense optimism and zeal. Inspired by their faith, they came eager to educate, to promote free thought and discussion, to share science and minister to the sick. Very much products of their historical era, they both embodied American progressive beliefs and were energized by an egalitarian spirit.

The first Americans in Beirut came as missionaries, seeking to save the souls of Moslems, Jews and Eastern Christians in the Holy Lands. But this was no “shock and awe” invasion. Many of the missionaries dedicated their entire lives to the region. They studied and mastered Arabic, learnt and learned to respect local customs, developed deep personal ties with their neighbors and reveled in the region’s natural beauty. Rather than a “clash of civilizations” between east and west, each side appropriated from the other what was useful and appealing.

The members of Beirut’s American Presbyterian Mission soon recognized the elusiveness of religious conversions. Nevertheless, they remained determined to instill their Protestant values of democracy, hard work and free intellectual inquiry in the people of the region through the establishment of educational institutions. And forty years after the founding of the Syrian Protestant College in 1866, there were enough American families in Beirut to consider how to educate their own children. Thus was the American Community School born.

Those Americans families who made Beirut their home at the dawn of the 20th century would, I believe, be immensely satisfied with what ACS has become today, one hundred years later. While ACS’s first pupils were a small group of American missionary children, ACS’s student body today represents the full diversity of Lebanese communities, as well as international and American students. The seeds of democracy, hard work and intellectual inquiry ACS founders planted in Lebanese soil a hundred years ago have after a long period of germination grown strong roots. It is time now for Lebanon’s garden to bloom, in all its glorious diversity.

ACS’s centennial year coincided with a historic and transformative year for Lebanon. You, the students of ACS, have been witnesses and perhaps even participants in a defining year for this country. Certainly, much of the energy demanding change came from young voices. The tragic and senseless assassination of Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri brought hundreds and hundreds of thousands of Lebanese—from all communities—into the streets, waving Lebanese flags, singing proudly the Lebanese national anthem. And a courageous and tenacious group of young people put up tents in Martyrs’ Square and stayed there, reminding the Lebanese that the future that young Lebanese envisioned—and what they were willing to fight for—was a democratic, sovereign and independent Lebanon. The result was unimaginable changes in Lebanon’s political landscape: an end to occupation, the election of a new Parliament and a cabinet “Made in Lebanon” not dictated by Damascus.

Yet, as Sunday’s violent demonstrations revealed, Lebanon’s transformation to sovereignty and independence is far from complete. There are those in Lebanon, and from outside as well, threatened by a free, democratic Lebanon. Fearing loss of their own influence, they’d like the Lebanese to believe that choosing freedom and democracy means loosing Lebanon’s stability and security. Nothing could be more wrong. As the Lebanese know from bitter experience, only full sovereignty can guarantee Lebanese security. Like the American Community School, Lebanon’s diversity should be its strength; its survival will be in unity.

At ACS you have lived and grown in a diverse and vibrant community. Your American education has emphasized the intrinsic worth of every individual and encouraged you to be open-minded, think critically, and become an independent learner. Your teachers have challenged you intellectually, broadened your world view and stretched the limits of what you thought possible.Through community service and outdoor education, arts and athletics, you’ve learned to work with others and give of yourself, learned to appreciate beauty and recognize it in others.

I hope also that the spirit of optimism and commitment to serve that so characterized ACS from its creation has left its mark on you, too. The enormous privilege of receiving an ACS education should be repaid in service to others. And like ACS’ founders, may you too be motivated to work for a more just, tolerant and democratic world. That was, after all, what prompted a committed group of Americans more than a century ago to make Beirut their home, and to create the foundation of mutual respect and friendship on which the enduring partnership between our two countries and two peoples has been built.

As ACS enters its second century of service, and you the graduating classes of 2006 and 2007 depart to pursue higher education and career and professional goals, may you draw inspiration from your institution’s founders. With strength derived from your faith and families, with wisdom accrued from your education and school experiences, believe in the potential for change. Envision a world of tolerance and mutual respect, of democracy and freedom, of prosperity and opportunity…and then work to achieve it.