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| Unity, Freedom & Justice |
No matter where I am my thoughts always drift back home to Sierra Leone. Remembering the joys and the sorrows, the opportunities and the challenges, the good and the not-so-good. In seven months we will be celebrating (if I am permited to call it that) our fiftieth year of national freedom. It has been a challenging journey: this road to Unity, Freedom and Justice.
We have had no lack in encouragement. Voices of exhortations have come and gone. From the words of Governor Clarkson's Prayer to the Sierra Leone Love-One-Another campaign; these voices have implored us toward self-responsibility, greater awareness, compassion, tolerance, restraint, generosity, love and forgiveness. Here we stand today at the dawn of our year of Jubilee.
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| "Never Again" |
My fellow countrymen what have we to show?
What have we to celebrate?
By the grace of the Almighty, we have been spared from the consequences of our greed, intolerance, jealousy, corruption, apathy and indifference. For this we are deeply grateful. As we resolve in our hearts - "Never Again" we know we are committing to the freedom we have always pursued. Freedom to create our own happiness while at the same time respecting the freedom of others without regards to status, religion or creed.
As we approach the nation’s fiftieth year anniversary, we do so with hope and anticipation but also with sorrow, shame and regret. How we manage these emotions is a mystery.
However, my fellow countrymen we must keep hope alive. We can take this year to mark the end of the old era of pain and suffering. And the beginning of a new dawn of peace and prosperity. We will weep and mourn for all our mistakes and failures; for all the sufferings we've brought on ourselves and on our children. We will forgive and ask for forgiveness. We will send gifts to our enemies. We will mend broken relationships. We will respect our leaders and hold them in high esteem and accountability. We will respect our nurses, teachers and policemen. We will love our children – our future hope.
Finally, we will wipe our tears, wash our faces, put on our finest and celebrate the birth of a new beginning. High! we will exalt thee; Realm of the Free.
God bless Salone.
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| A New Dawn |
