Towards the morn, O ye nations,
towards that awakening dawn!
towards that awakening dawn!
Towards the peace, O ye peoples,
towards the twilight of the new!
towards the twilight of the new!
Towards the LORD, O ye numberless stars,
towards that promise made of old!
towards that promise made of old!
Towards the Light, all ye living lights
away from the darkness,
where all our roads,
lead back to you, Jerusalem.
away from the darkness,
where all our roads,
lead back to you, Jerusalem.
The September 23 Palestinian Initiative
Today is September 23. I am well aware of the prominence of this date in the context of the Middle East Peace process of which I am an ardent advocate.
Today, I am anxious. I am not anxious in a sense that I am afraid. I am anxious in the sense that I am expectant. I feel I can not be anything else. I am praying for a break in the doldrums. I am expecting for the slightest bit of forward movement.
I am hoping for even a few people to chose peace in the Middle East.
I am praying for Abu Mazen and for Benjamin Netenyahu. I am praying for President Obama. I am praying for President Sarkozy whose solution to the deadlock I feel closely matches what I have in mind.
I am praying for the representation of my own Republic in the United Nations and for all notable nations who are represented there not to be confused by this seemingly intractable divide.
For the heavens above us have no division save for the divisions in the mind of Man. This is also true of the Middle East Peace.
The confrontation that is to happen today in the United Nations between the two sides is going to be very difficult.
It shall be fraught with deep and profound emotions supported by histories going back centuries. And these histories shall often be expressed in a form that appear outwardly prejudicial for they shall never be perceived by any nation in and of itself to run parallel to the unified experience of the United Nations.
Indeed, it is for this reason that the spirit of the Council stands; to reconcile human history to itself so that War shall be forever denied a place on our earth.
Nothing of good and lasting worth for any Country can ever be said to have been cheaply won. Everything we hold dear to our sacred remembrances as individual nations upon this world of earth and fire can not be said to have been so easily obtained by our generations.
So it goes as well for the hope we all must invest in the peace between Israel and Palestine and maybe even more because of the sheer difficulty of it all. Indeed, this dream of peace must be a wonder worth seeing unto its very fulfillment. It must be something worth standing for.
Having said all this and having considered the bravery inherent in this undertaking of peace as a whole as well as the virtues God has so generously invested and showered on all sides of our one human family, I shall now personally conclude that at the end of this day, September 23, 2011, if even a few people gets absolutely convinced of the need for Peace over War in our world especially between Israel and Palestine, then I feel that all this expectation is worth it.
Because it is for the individual to heal the wounds of the nations and the nations for the healing of the wounds of our failing world.
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Despite protests, the State of Georgia carried out the execution of Troy Davis. The US Supreme Court decided not to intervene.
The story can not end here though. Because even now, the doubt still lingers and the hope still stands.
Because if it were that an innocent man was sent to his death by the justice of the state to atone for the death of another innocent man, then the death penalty ceases to become an instrument of justice and becomes an instrument of injustice.
It is easily taken for granted that innocence is like a feather and guilt is like a brick and that such is the easy appearance of things always disinclined against the person of the accused.
Yet in a criminal case, when life is pitted against life, the person of the accused and the person of the victim when measured, each against the other, on the scales of justice measure equally.
For in our justice system, the feather and the brick must suppose no weight in and of themselves at the beginning of every criminal trial.
The prosecution must prove weight. The defense must seek to dismiss it. And the bench always bear in mind and heart in the singular interest of justice that these appearances matter.
In the case of Troy Davis, conscience is compelled by the peculiarities of his appeal to re-examine the case from the beginning of the trial where innocence is presumed until guilt is proven beyond reasonable doubt.
It may lead many to a re-examination of capital punishment in the United States.
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Peace is not an end to our battles but the beginning of our winning them.
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Mabuhay po tayong lahat! God bless all His nations of the one family of the nations of the children of Mankind.
Breaking the Siege
Healing Work