My brothers and sisters, I stand before you here today with God as my witness, and change as my aim.
When I look around me all I see is hypocrisy not democracy,
All I see is duplicity not sincerity.
All I see is racist faces and double standards.
All I see is war, torture and pain,
Not just in Palestine and Iraq, but also all over the world in every single country.
We, my friends will not tolerate this,
We shall march thorough the doors of justice hand in hand opening them with the key of patience, to a land of peace and prosperity.
All this murder must end because my friend:
Tomorrow I see a bright day,
Tomorrow I see a lightened way
Tomorrow I see harmony
Tomorrow I see a place where the Muslim will shake the hand of his bothers and say to each other “peace be with you” from the depth of their hearts
Tomorrow I see a place where there is no difference between Muslim, Jew and Christian.
Tomorrow I see a place where all the people respect and treat each other with love.
Tomorrow I see a place where we won’t be judged by our color or faith country or government but by our character and actions.
For tomorrow to come we must not hide our heads in the sand.
But hold our heads high with dignity and pride and say “we’re gonna make it”
We must not dwell in the miseries of our magnificent yet troubled past.
The key word is treatment, for this will lead us to the aim.
I say to you today
Wake up young children
You are the future
Stop all this hate and torture
You have nothing to lose
Everything to gain
We’re the children of the world who suffer all day but we children of the world will make it better someday.
We shall be better, yes we shall,
Because it was our World, it is our World, and it will remain our World, whether it’s Yesterday, today or tomorrow.
- (Reem Al-Jabarti is a 14-year student at King Fahad Academy, London)
- Arab News Features 17 July 2003
