WHEN WE SPEAK OF PEACE
- we do not mean to say -
we shall have no more enemies.
When we speak of peace
- we mean to say -
we shall fight to reclaim our right
- as a free and sovereign nation of the earth -
to triumph over our enemies,
seen and unseen, both natural and man-made.
(Choosing to Belong)
If we do not understand peace,
what do we promise ourselves by our reaching out for it?
If peace were the most unpopular thing on this earth,
would we still willingly reach out for it - unless -
we are all convinced it is something worth our having?
O my beloved Country,
can we love a thing that is eclipsed to our hearts?
- selah -
Peace,
the peace we together strive toward -
is never but a mere word.
For peace is more meaning than word;
it's essence is immense and its entirety
too large to be memorized.
We can not realistically commit peace into memory alone.
For peace and its timeless remembrance
can neither be served by intellect alone
nor by momentary passions that live and die.
Truly,
peace as it may appear
to the eye of our heart is important.
For we can never be half-way in our heart with peace!
(Those who give themselves up to the will of War
give themselves up to it - just as completely.)
Now,
peace is not a thing
to be held by the grip of a hand,
nor is peace a finite space in time,
something fleeting and meant to be lost.
Peace is not something we - as one nation,
may ever take for granted!
My brothers and sisters of the Promise -
Peace is a vision, a leading,
a pleading, a need, a volition, a truth;
it guides and comforts,
it rules and it warms,
it embraces and sets free...
Peace is that timeless spirit - unyielding and immovable -
that brings our generations together.
Peace is that unseen climate - constant and irresistible -
that works to bind our gifts and our freedoms
into one labor in time; one ascent of Country.
Peace is a constant of heaven on earth -
the inhabited earth
(a world inclined toward good will and virtue)
can never be built up in the absence of it
for no nation may prosper without it,
nor Country prevail outside of it.
For our peace is as a light
- a civilizing light and a beacon of Man -
without it the darkness of the unknown earth yields not
for without it entire nations fall into disarray
and even angels lose their way.
Without peace, my beloved nation,
there literally can be no more tomorrows
for without it all our dreaming is at a dead end.
- selah -
If we do not understand peace,
what do we promise ourselves by our reaching out for it?
So we choose peace today
and let peace take us into itself tomorrow.
By thus we secure ourselves
against the buffeting winds of the storms
that prevent our peace process
from taking a firm hold on the ground of our Republic
- its own native soil!
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