"Lebanon’s tragedy is that instead of creating The Greater Beirut, we came up with The Greater Mount Lebanon...Lebanon’s tragedy was that the city was never able to impose its political role, and that instead, the old rivalries of the mountain took over the life of the country. Those rivalries were not condusive to the creation of a modern state, and we ended up with a fragmented country where local chieftains tried to protect their power with the help of a wide array of foreign countries...we have to shift the balance of power from the countryside to the city."

Even though roughly half of Lebanon's people live in or around Beirut, most of the voting districts are out in the countryside. If your grandfather is from Shweir, you must go to Shweir and vote for a rural sectarian candidate. Your representative in parliament will not be, cannot be, an urban cosmopolitan even if you're an urban cosmopolitan yourself.

One of the benefits of Lebanon's miniscule size is that every last inch of it is close to the city. Anyone in the villages can easily visit Beirut. And anyone in Beirut can visit the villages.

Until the districting laws are changed, Beirut will not be able to impose its political role on the countryside. But people who live in the city can project their culture and their values into the villages. That's exactly what the tent-city protesters are going to do every day for the next week.

A core group of sixty people will divide themselves into smaller groups and visit every single village in Lebanon - even those controlled by Hezbollah. They will campaign for their cause there in person. Part of their campaign will be the distribution of the following flyer:

Here is a translation:

"Respect you constitutional deadline Exercise your right Vote for freedom

- The Camp Youth"

Those in the democracy movement insist their support in much of the countryside is high despite, not because of, the fact that the countryside is still deeply sectarian. If they're right about this - and I have little reason to believe that they aren't - it's a good first step toward forging Greater Beirut from the Greater Mount Lebanon.

If you care about the people of Lebanon, if their victory - by no means assured at this point - over terror and dictatorship is important to you, please help us help them. You can donate as little as five dollars, or as much as you can afford. A donation from you is more than just charity. They are fighting for all of us here.