I deeply admire your steadfast insistence on speaking from the heart, even in the face of heartlessness, Yahia.

In every culture, there are those of us who love life, and want it to be good. Not only for ourselves, and for our loved ones, but for all people. I'd like to think that most of us fall into this category.

Also, in every culture, there are those of us whose hearts, for whatever reason, are closed to others, to the world around us, to ourselves. Of course this has nothing to do with race, ethnicity, religion, or any of the other categories we human beings have tended, foolishly, to place so much emphasis on. But when a person's heart is closed, they often seem to want to look for someone or something else to blame, something to distract them from their own heartlessness.

It must be a frightening thing I think, not to be able to feel.