My grandmother and grandfather lived in a house surrounded by gardens:
roses, raspberries, daisies, dahlias, rhododendrons, fruit trees,
and beyond them a beautiful formation of rocks.
I liked to climb to the top and look down at the garden.
My grandmother made raspberry custard, read me stories.
My grandfather believed that we could all live together in peace.
He thought that when nations could not get along,
sports among nations -- baseball, football -- were a way to channel hostilities
into a more creative energy.

Now, knowing that I am trapped in a terrible computer game
where inhumane players use real human beings as pawns,
I see clearly that as a way of destroying our culture
evil appropriates fine ideas it cannot understand.

My grandfather and my grandmother found it very difficult to believe that evil exists.
So do I; so do all of us.
I don't know how to stop those who gamble with our lives;
But I think it will help to stop denying that it is happening.
Perhaps if those of us who have lived in fear for so long,
can step out of the shadow,
that might be a start in taking back our homelands.
To restore our faith in truth, goodness, and happiness,
we need to acknowledge that our bodies, our souls, our environment are being assaulted.

We ask for freedom. We ask for peace on earth.