Rayan Makarem says his family in Lebanon— who include his parents, cousins, and in-laws— are "as safe as they can be."
"Safe" is a relative term right now for the country of roughly 5.5 million people, with a smaller landmass than Connecticut, as Lebanon faces constant aerial bombardment and an ongoing ground invasion from Israel's military, as part of a campaign against the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
Makarem grew up in Lebanon and moved to U.S. 10 years ago. He says his evening routine now consists of watching the war and texting his friends and family — including his own parents — still in the country.
He tells KCUR's Up To Date that any new bombings could come with the feeling of, "Oh, I know that place. It's only 100 yards from where a friend lives."
This is far from Lebanon's first experience with violent conflict. Makarem was a college student there during the 2006 war.
"It's always the innocent who suffer, and that's what's happening today as well," Makarem says.
He fears this time will be worse: More people have been killed in 10 days than during the entire 33-day conflict in 2006.
Being a new parent has also changed Makarem's perspective on conflict in Lebanon.
"As soon as I had my own daughter a couple of years ago, I realized I did not grow up in a normal, healthy environment," he says. "We normalized war. We normalized danger."
But Makarem acknowledges that normalized violence left psychological scars. "That's how we (Lebanese people) keep doing our day to day lives while all of this is happening around us," he says.
Makarem wants his daughter to grow up with a sense of security he never knew in Lebanon.
"I'm giving her everything that I can so that she can have what we call a normalized childhood," Makarem says.
- Rayan Makarem, climate policy advocate and Lebanese immigrant living in Kansas City
