“Here I am, a youth, a young tree whose roots were plucked from the hills of Lebanon, yet I am deeply rooted here, and I would be fruitful.” This excerpt, taken from To Young Americans of Syrian Origin, is chiseled underneath a bust of famed poet Khalil Gibran on a monument that greets visitors at the Lebanese embassy in Washington, D.C. The monument was installed in October 2014. It was designed to pay tribute to the favorite son of Lebanon. Gibran was born in the city of Bsharri in 1883…
