"People's Inhumanity to Humanity"

I do not want to sadden this pageant with reminders of wars in the last 100 years, or of the Revolution that separated our America from our former mother country, or of the war, horrible as it was, that separated brother from brother.

Our world would be a better place if we were not killing civilians -- men, women and innocent children. But this happens when we go to war. Sometimes, the slaughter of innocent civilians continues for years after a country has been invaded, conquered, stormed, or the borders re-negotiated.

I do not understand why we find ourselves so often at war with another country over the religion or politics of a nation.

From the bottom of my heart, like many of us here today, I, too, have lost brothers, uncles, fathers, husbands. Many have also lost sisters, mothers or cousins in warfare.

My mission in life is so simple: to get along without war.

I humbly beg the world to get along very simply indeed.

In this day of war-torn countries, unemployment, hunger, poverty and child hardships, each citizen is called upon to look within themselves to help find a solution to our own problems.

Sometimes when we go to war, we try to liberate a country from the civil rights abuses its citizens humbly endure under a murderous tyrant. War tries to solve human rights abuses. Yet, war itself is such a violent and destructive action.

Perhaps each of us, in our own hearts, can find one small place where we can do some good:

Put aside your anger and hurts of today or yesterday, for they are like sores that fester into boils.

Put aside your jealousies and intolerances of the past, for they are like cancers that spread throughout your soul -- they poison your sweet nature.

Fight evil with goodness in your heart.

It is time for all this inhumanity toward our fellow human beings to stop, within each of our hearts, one person at a time.

Thank you.