If I come from a generation where we spoke for peace
as if our lives depended on it,
I come also from a family where service to our country
is an honor.

Many men and women in my family were proud to wear the uniforms
in which they served.

It is with pride that I speak for a peace
that encompasses those under attack on our own shores.

The two are not necessarily contradictory.

Soldiers in preparation for battle
are likely to cherish home and family
and the blessings of a peaceful existence where war is a distant memory.

I speak from an embattled homefront
where freedom is an illusion,
and the memory of a peaceful existence is distant.

May our shared hopes for a peaceful future
bring us together on this day.