Kon’nichiwa. I’m Celeste Zappala, from Philadelphia. I’m very grateful to be with you tonight and very humble to be in your midst. I bring you greetings from Military Families Speak Out, an organization of 4,000 families in the U.S. with soldiers serving in Iraq, who are opposed to the war in Iraq.
Our motto is “Bring them home now, take care of them when they get here, and never again go to war based on lies. Our organization is made up of mostly mothers, wives and sisters of those serving in Iraq. But I come to you tonight as a mother and grandmother. I’ve come to tell you that I lost my oldest son in the war in Iraq. And when we buried my son, Sherwood, my family and I made a promise to him that we would speak the truth about this war, we would speak the truth about all war that no war is justified. And we have come to know that it is not enough to just be against war, but we be for peace.
It has been my honor here in Japan to learn the stories of mothers and Hibakusha, and women and children in Nagoya, in Kyoto, in Osaka and here in Hiroshima and I am grateful for every story that they shared with me. I have learned so much from you about persistence, and faithfulness, and unity. I’m glad to take this message back to the people at home.
In Philadelphia, I belong to a peace church, and when my church friends learned that I was coming to Japan, they began to fold cranes as a sign of solidarity and peace. So I am glad to bring some of the cranes with me that I give to you with my heart, with my hope and know that there are 900 cranes that hang in the peace church in Philadelphia, and we are praying for you and for your work for peace.
When I was little, my mother used to say to me that people are capable of great cruelty but they are also capable of greater love. And I believe that it is that love that we carry in us that we can and must use the power of it to build a world of peace for our children. I join my heart to yours in that struggle. Arigato.
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