As many of you are aware, 18 years ago I started a book publishing company
named Cune Press (from "cuneiform"). Since then, with the help of dedicated volunteers,
we have published a range of titles, many of which are nonfiction on Syria and the
Levant. Mamoun Sakkal, the calligrapher and designer originally from Aleppo, has
contributed original calligraphic designs for many of our covers. Others who are
still based in Syria helped us to research and proofread our books. The political
cartoonist Ali Farzat and the historian Sami Moubayed, both from Damascus, contributed
original book length work.
I am writing now because the Syria that I know and love is in trouble.
A friend from Aleppo who is now outside the country was able to telephone
home after 18 days of no phone service. Then he called me in Seattle. He was frantic
and screaming over the phone: artillery, rockets, and aerial bombs have destroyed
multiple Aleppo neighborhoods, have damaged the Aleppo Citadel and the historic
Old City of Aleppo which are part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site , and are now
landing in the irreplaceable Jdaideh section of the Old City, where several Ottoman
courtyard homes had been destroyed. In recent regime counter attacks, hundreds have
been killed . . . with many bodies left in the streets, apparent victims of summary
execution.
A Syrian engineer whom I know, normally a reticent man, gave me this
message to share with the world: "The houses and villages of Syria are being destroyed.
The grandparents and parents are being killed. The children are killed beside their
parents or are left screaming for their dead mothers. The land and the structures
and the historical monuments are now rubble. And, while Syria bleeds, the US and
the rest of the world does nothing."
On behalf of Cune Press and all our volunteers and friends in the US
and abroad, I'd like to urge you to write your Congressmen, to write the White House,
to write the State Department. The Salaam Cultural Museum, our sponsor, is collecting
funds for refugees. Please, do something. Now.
Thanks.
Scott C. Davis,
Founder
Cune Press
