This ladies and gentlemen is not a lecture. So please don't be frightened. You know, I had to sit through so many long-winded lectures when I was at University that I swore. I would never perpetrate that act of violence on anyone. I'm not here today to give you a sermon because believe me. I'm not a holier-than-thou person. I can remember an article which referred to me as Joan of Arc. Well, all I can say is / Joan of Arc. I don't believe Joan of Arc ever had a dry martini in our life. I'm sure she didn't smoke and when necessary I can swear with the best of them if it's if it's to Save a Life if it's to save a life, I want to try and mentally walk you through the streets of Belfast. The only communication that I can give you today comes from in here and up here and when my grandfather says when a woman reacts to a situation, she generally generally reacts with her heart and then she uses her head and when she starts using the both Abandon Ship, I believe that I believe that My story is one of the of great pain. It's a story of man's inhumanity to man. It's a story of religious conflict where people kill each other in the name of God. It's a story of children whom we refer to as oxidants of War. It's a story of a very success Aya tea. The story of Ireland my country and believe me when I tell you I love my country and I don't think that one drop of Irish blood has been worth any of the things that have happened. I suppose I better start at the beginning. That's usually the best place to start, isn't it? I'm a product of a Jewish grandfather. You'll see that I wear my Star of David with great pride because I loved him very much. He had a great influence in my life. And my Jewish grandfather came across from Poland and was on a fishing holiday in Ireland. We have great fishing in art in Ireland and he decided that he loved the country so much that he may very well. Come back. You see in the meantime, he'd met this wonderful lady. My grandmother whose name was Mary my his name was Joseph. That ladies and gentlemen is not a pun. That's what their name was. And he came back to Ireland armed only with his little English dictionary and he settled in Belfast and my grandmother was a presbyterian and my father consequently was brought up a presbyterian. He met my mother Margaret a Catholic they married I was brought up a Catholic and when I got old enough to reason I wanted to be a presbyterian that was my choice because my family did not put any pressure on me as regards My Religion. They were pretty wonderful but in the Irish situation, you will understand that that's being mongrelized. If you're not Catholic or Protestant what in the name of God are you, you know, people never knew whether I was a bad Catholic or a good Protestant and that suited me fine. You'll have to forgive me. I'm going to have to take a little taste of water. I'm on a medication called on TV because I have vertigo as a Of a Bomb Blast and I don't want to start staggering all over the stage in case you think I'm drunk just a second. It's terrible, isn't it have even started to talk in Africa tasting water? Well, that's Grand that's like nectar of the Gods. Anyway, I was brought up in this environment and I went to Catholic schools. And when I was 16 years old, I applied for a job as a tele odd girl. Now one does not have to have the brains of Einstein to pick up a telephone and write down an advertisement, but I was refused the job because of my religion because I had Catholic schools, you know up until I was a certain age and I was Furious. I remember looking at this man. There was only one man in the room. It was he and I only so nobody else overheard the conversation and I remember standing up and looking at this man straight in the eye and he was about six foot eight. Yeah. I just looked up at him and I said, I don't know who you are Mister, but someday I'm going to have your guts for garters. Wasn't that an awful thing to say? I mean, I'm terribly ashamed of myself now for having donít, you know, but I was so mad at him. I can remember getting a bus home and I cried the whole way home. You see he taken away my pride and when I got into the house, my father said Betty that's their loss and he handed me back my pride. I then proceeded to go to university where my parents wanted very the lawyer Betty the doctor. And could well, that's my Jewish background and my grandfather Betty the lawyer Betty the doctor, you know. But I came out with a it's not commonly known I have a PhD in political science and philosophy and my father was absolutely Furious because he couldn't understand how it ever earn any money with political science and philosophy. Well, I never have earned any money, but at the same time I've been able to put those two subjects. I hope to go juice in this world that I live in while in University. I became involved in a movement called civil rights. Do any of you remember the name of Bernadette Devlin will Bernadette Devlin was involved in civil rights at the same time as I was and is a pretty wonderful young lady the only God love her. The only problem is her her politics of the politics of violence and my Politics the politics of peace. Because I really believe that to be a non-violent person. It's really, you know, you have to be a little bit more courageous. Non-violence is the weapon of the strong. That's what I believe because it's terribly easy to retaliate and it's part of our nature to slap somebody's face of they slap us. It's a goes against our nature not to retaliate so you have to have a certain amount. I think of of an intercom not to retaliate in violent situations anyway. Civil rights became violent and I could no longer be associated with it. So I went quietly for many many years. I worked in many areas for peace. Knocking on people's doors talking to the trying to convince people that we kept killing each other in Ireland. There was no way forward people say to me. Do you want a United Ireland? Yes, it would be lovely lovely of my country was United but my work is to unite Northern Ireland then surely the rest will follow very quickly. Once we unite the north then Ireland. I believe will Unite. On August the 10th 1976 and I still have a very hard time talking about this all these years later. So please bear with me if I get a little emotional because you see I'm talking about children and in August the 10th 1976. I was driving home from my mother's. And I heard shots ring out and you know that you live in a terribly sick society when you can recognize gunfire and I knew that it was a shot from an SLR, which is a self-loading rifle used by the British Army and a normal light, which is a high-velocity gun. It has a sort of high-velocity ping. Well, I heard the ArmaLite far and then I heard the LSR. And right in front of me a car careened out of control. I was the car behind it and slammed into three beautiful children and their mother on the children's names were John Joanne and Andrew Maguire. I'll never know why God let me witness that I don't know whether any of you are in the medical profession or have seen a child I of natural causes. but I know that even if a child dies of natural causes or something awful like leukemia, the pain is unbearable, but when you see children slaughtered that's what it is in war. They're slaughtered then something inside you as a woman schnapps. I can remember getting out of the car and it's like something that's an action replay age ever watch at a football match and they give you these action replays and slow motion. That's what it's like in my mind. It's never diminished that memory. It doesn't go away and I still have nightmares about it, but maybe God has his reasons for that too. I got out of the car. I went over and I picked up Joann. She was at one side of the street and her blonde curls were at the other and I made a promise to a dying child. I said you don't know me darling, but I love you and I did what every other woman in this room would have done or man. I just let a child on my arms. God we said I even say that was such blase and as you know, I let a child died in my arms. That child should never have died. Never have died. Only the insanity of War doesn't ever ask a child. That's why the book that I've written is called. Please let us live and when it goes into publication underneath the please there will be three black lines. It's a play please let us live. That's went something inside of me snapped. They call it the straw that broke the camel's back for me. That's exactly what it was. Their mother on was very seriously injured. That was on a Tuesday. We buried the children on a Friday and did not regain Consciousness for two weeks. Only to be told as soon as she opened her eyes that she lost her family. Can you imagine the pain of that? It's difficult to lose one child but to lose three children in one day must be beyond belief. I never could feel arms pain the depth of it, but I shared some of it with her. So after I got over the terrible emotion of it, I went I'd armed with my little notebook and paper. My sister said you are nuts in the head and I probably am I mean, I probably am because you see I truly believe that humankind can live together in peace and human and with great humor Humanity among them. I really believe that because I've seen that starting to happen in my own country. Let me tell you what we've done. After I went dry and collecting signatures, who was it who said nothing is as strong as an idea whose time has come I forgotten one of the wonderful writers of our time. I can't remember who it was. I think that's what happened. I think thousands of women were failing. Just what I felt absolute horror at what was happening on our streets, but fear how does locked in fears very contagious. It is extremely contagious and why you live in fear? Then you truly don't follow God. He told you to fear nothing, you know. Anyway, I broke these barriers of fear and within six hours we had seven and a half thousand signatures for peace. It was rather like being the Pied Piper of Hamelin. That's how it felt women were saying to me thanks be to God somebody's going to say something. Thank God. Somebody's going to say something. I've never been on television in my life. I've never spoken publicly in my life. I've never done a lot of things that the work of Peace demands that I do, but believe me, I do them willingly. I do them for the children in Ethiopia Cambodia Afghanistan because I hope that I gave them a voice somewhere. Our movement was born that day, isn't it terrible that we have to wait on an awful tragedy before we do anything? Isn't it awful that maybe we're going to have to wait for the first nuclear attack before we do anything? People do not see what's on their doorstep. They only see it when it's in their living room. And by then it's far too late. Far too late. That's what happened in my beloved, Ireland. From the land of Saints and Scholars to the gun culture where everybody thought he was John Wayne. To watch a change like that and one's country is not pleasant. You're watching it. Now in the United States, you're becoming a gun culture. You know, I see on little cars as I drive along this truck insured by Smith & Wesson. And I feel like getting up and saying to the person sweetheart. You should really put in the back of your van. This truck insured by God, you know, because that's who ensures everything for us. Anyway, the peace movement was born and I went on television and I asked the women of Arland with no disrespect to the men if they felt as I did would they join me in her Ali the following Saturday? Then I started to pray. And the Press were saying to me mrs. Williams how many people do you expect to turn up? I hadn't thought of that, you know might already been two or three but I was trying to act very brave and I said well, I've met up them with the aunt of the children were a cardigan who'd heard what I'd done and I knew that she and I were going to be there, you know, so I said well, they'll be mairead cardigan to myself and whoever else decide God decides to send along. Who's a miracle happened that day in the city of Belfast an absolute miracle? And if you don't believe in the power of the Holy Spirit start because I seen it working. It was incredible busloads of women busloads double-decker buses 345 double-decker buses. Drove up and women spelled off the buses. Nobody knew who was Catholic. Nobody knew who was Protestant. And for the first time on our history nobody cared. It was just the most incredible experience. We had a little non. There's always fun and everything you do. There was a little nun who brought all her sisters. She had the sisters of the Immaculate Conception or something. I'm not quite sure what their names was, but I love radical nuns. I absolutely love them because they can move mountains this little-known arrived very red face and I seared said to run our nuns at home are still inhabit, and I said to her God's holy name Mother Teresa what happened? You know, she's not Mother Teresa of Calcutta. This is a different Mother Teresa. And I said what happened to you said all the big Brave man of our land blocked the entrance to the convent. I said, what did you do? She said we had stood up our skirts and climbed over it. I'm absolutely positive that nobody's ever seen mother trees is leg and her life, you know. So then I said to her Mother Teresa, let's offer this up to God. Let's thank him for the miracle that we've seen today sing a song. What if she start to sing. God bless our Pope. And then she went from in this all happened in three seconds. She went from God bless our Pope to Faith of Our Fathers, which is another very highly Catholic song to abide with me. What should and abide with me Rose up ten thousand voices in unison sung abide with me and a media person came over and said to me would you like to say anything and I said, no, there's nothing to say it's all being said, I think there there was a series of Raleigh set up then the media started to Create us. You know what? I mean. They were calling us ordinary Heist wives. I don't know about you, but I've never met an ordinary housewife of you. I'm still waiting for the day when somebody will introduce me to an ordinary housewife. There is nothing ordinary about my mother. There's certainly nothing ordinary about my grandmother. She was an extraordinary lady, you know baked all our own bread got to be of if somebody had bought a loaf of bread in the store. My grandmother called him lazy that they weren't brought up 12 children and in a two-bedroom home and you could literally have eaten off her floors. Do you think there's anything ordinary about that? I certainly don't and every one of them turned out to be fine citizens. Do you think there's anything ordinary about that? I certainly don't one of the most responsible jobs in the whole wide world. Is being a homemaker and the whole makers are never given the credit for what they Julie do being a mother is the most responsible job in the world, I think and I'm a mother and I know it's a very responsible job. So when people call themselves Ock, I'm just a homemaker. I want to shake them and say you're just a what you're a miracle maker of you can run a home. You know, you're a miracle maker. Well our women in Ireland are just while I'm standing here talking to you today. The work goes a piece goes on a daily basis because let me tell you what we did. We had the worst housing conditions in Western Europe the worst unemployment problems in Western Europe the worst social problems in Western Europe. We had a war going on where people were killing each other in the name of God. We'll have to break down this fallacy to were churches blessed people. May the best man win. God doesn't create Wars ladies and Gentlemen We Do We so-called intellectual, huh? Jeremy somebody they were so educated. They were stupid. You know, I've met a lot of those type of people. I really huh. They were so intellectual. They were dumb. We're dealing with that. We're dealing with military budgets of blow your mind. We're dealing with things that break your heart two weeks ago. I was in Omaha and I went out to a farm where they were foreclosing on the farm and I saw the pain of a family that have been there for 200 years. Why do we let the back of the backbone of the United States of America get broken like that? We've got to do something about that. We women have got to do something about that because all these fellows at the top, you know, pardon me for saying but I've no disrespect for men. I'm married to a mom. I have to find songs and I love them all dearly. But so I'm not one of these rank feminist. Let's kill all the men we can do it ourselves. You know, what I would say is come on fellas. Just move over. Give us a chance. Give us one crack at the whip. We cannot screw it up any worse than you've done. I didn't say that to get Applause by the way. My father made the mind-bending a mark of saying Betty you realize that Northern Ireland has a problem for every solution. Why was that man? Right? I hate it when he's right. He's always right, you know, but nonetheless ladies we tackled. The Press were putting is done is the Petticoat Brigade in the report. He's putting his down as ordinary hise wives and my coworker in the movement more a cardigan at that particular time was not even married. He who so the couldn't how they addressed her as an ordinary housewife is beyond me. She's next. She was an extraordinary young unmarried lady, you know, but they had her an ordinary housewife and to a large degree they damage is damage to our work because it didn't look as though we had too many neurons, you know gray matter. It was just all these emotional women going out and crying and throwing their hands up to heaven and shouting Hallelujah and God was going to drop a dime. Boy that they read us wrong. They killed us off a dozen times and then that have to come back and asked us what we did. We've opened 17 factories. We had an unemployment problem of 16 percent overall, but pocket areas without Ron as high as eighty four percent without a job that's social violence at its worst. And when you have that kind of violence in ghetto areas, then you have trouble because you have a lot of people with time in their homes and violence becomes a normal way to do things. We've gotten 14 factories. We started our first factory with two people that non-employees 1650. We make eyeglasses every time you wanted a pair of eyeglasses. We had to send in England. We find silica sin the sand around the shore to Ireland's and Island. So there's tons of sound you know, and we find silica sand the sand we started to make our own eyeglasses that progress to binoculars and all sorts of optical things ever. We have the most beautiful horse flesh in the world on a par with Kentucky because I know we swap studs so I know that Kentucky gets Irish horse flesh, and I know that we get Kentucky Horse flesh. So it must be good, you know yet we didn't have a saddle. Every time you want the decided we had to send England we started our own salary. I mean instead of looking for the answers from the top dine. We did something real different. We started creating the solutions from the bottom up you give a guy a job and you give them a good wage coming in and he buys a house and he gets the car and why on Earth would he want to go out and be violent anymore, you know, but before you can say we couldn't go to the terrorist organizations and say to them night. Look I'll be good boys. But dying your gums and stop making them bombs and everything in your life is going to be great. What we had to do was show them another way to do it. We had to show them how you can achieve exactly the same results without firing one shot since our movement started as of yesterday and I get a report on a weekly basis are violence has dropped eighty nine point seven percent my lots of big drop. We've opened factories and areas whether it was the greatest need whether we're 84% without a job. We had DeLorean comment on God love John DeLorean and I'm not going to kick a dog when he's dying because I think John Deloreans a genius I really do and I've seen as product but the only thing is ladies, you know that if you've got $60 common in a week and you spend sixty one you're in big trouble, you know, but if you have got 59 dollars coming in a week and you spent 58 then you'll balance and you very well might make it hard John DeLorean come to Ireland and did it the way we have done it. We take our orders then we make the product. That's the way we started it and I John DeLorean come in and hard about 12 men and built his car to order DeLorean would still be there today on people would still be employed doesn't that I mean isn't that signed Common Sense? Isn't that all it is? Well, let me tell you about the thousands of women in Ireland who are working with strictly signed Common Sense the Mary's and the jeans and the margret's and the myrrh AIDS and the Debbie's and the Tracy's I'm giving you right and I all their love because they tell me everywhere I go where I talk to women. Please give them our love and tell him to keep us in her in their prayers. You see they may be aarush but they're your sisters. They may be all those miles away, but they're your sisters and we need every prayer we can get our hands on waging. We Gene we call Early Gene because she's four foot eleven. She lies about her height. She says she is 5 foot, but you actually four foot eleven was the first manager s of a factory left school at the age of 14 didn't have any quote unquote formal education, except the education of life and bringing up a children on a very small income. I said Gene. Have you can bring up eight kids on a very small income. You can run a factory. She's on and 17 factories, man. Because she goes around showing everybody else how to do it. Bottom line is always make sure you have that two dollars extra the end of the week. And everything else is paid isn't that signed common sense? That's what I think. That's our factories are running then comes our school. Oh how I love to talk about our school. We decided that long-term. You see everybody was looking for miracles for Northern Ireland. There aren't any there aren't any you can't brush under the carpet 300 years of Irish history. I'm not going to talk to you about Irish history because you'd be here the rest of the day and you know, I haven't got that kind of time and I'm sure you haven't I majored in Irish history, so I know what I'm talking about. But you can't wipe out 300 years of History overnight. You have to deal with all the problems as they come along one at a time and believe me. We have plenty of them. But once you start doing these things in the community people start to respect you and they no longer think, you know, we become partner of the fabric of Ireland. I read an article in Parade Magazine a couple of weeks ago. It said we were dead scared the life out of me because the last time I was, you know, everybody I know at homes live in and Braden them working, you know, the only pity is why didn't they call up narrator? I they didn't bother to do that. Anyway, we opened our first integrated School. In Ireland's history. It is called Ligon college now. It's a wonderful school because we didn't just start that school to make pet pot Catholics or pet Protestant side of our children. Our academic curriculum is incredible and we have been open three years and last year. We were top school in our and all of Great Britain. Now, what do you think a lot for an achievement? Ordinary Heist wives that are less. You know what I mean? It's incredible what you can do. It's incredible. If you only have faith in yourself that you can do it one person can make a difference. Why does everybody think that everybody has to be famous? Well, I suppose if I didn't have a Nobel Peace Prize you wouldn't have asked me here today, you know. But basically, you know and I say this no matter where I go. I'm very proud to carry that label as a female and as a piece worker and I wouldn't tarnish it as God's my witness. The only thing I have is my truth sometimes I wish before I get up to speak. I can have a Bible and say I swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help me God because that's all I have is my truth. But the only qualification that I need to be here really really ladies and gentlemen is the fact that I'm a mother that's number one to me. I don't want my kids to die in war. I've seen too many children killed in War. I don't want my son to join armies or I want him to live and enjoy his life. I want him to really believe that if you care about your neighbor, then you'll be concerned as to whether he has a loaf of bread on a stable or not. You know, if you really care about your neighbor you'll be concerned if he has a drinking problem you'll be concerned. Beats up his wife if you're truly. That's what's gone wrong with the world. We just don't care about each other. Let me tell you in case anybody hasn't told you guys today that they love you. I do what's so hard about saying. I love you. God said it to everybody he met Jesus of Nazareth told everybody that he looked huh. I'm not saying I'm Jesus of Nazareth. Please. Don't get me wrong. Neither. Am I Billy Graham or a bible-thumping whatever it is. I'm a person with a deep belief that God loves every single one of us that were made in His image and he never made us to kill each other. They never made us to kill each other. I'd like to see if there is another War we send all the government's to war and leave the young people at home. You know, let's send the government store. So that's our work in Ireland that goes on a daily basis and this is also very difficult for me to talk about but I have to talk about on the mother of the children. She was my best friend in the world and I loved her with my heart and soul last year on committed suicide. I guess she just couldn't live with the pain any longer. You know, I try very hard not to miss her but it's it's difficult to me not to miss somebody that you love this as much as I love and now I try to use it in my work because I know that the kind of pain that she suffered there's only one place for her to be and that's on the right hand side of God, and I know that she helps in our work so our next school which will be opening in a few weeks time. I think the greatest Memorial please forgive me, ladies and gentlemen, I'm very sorry. I hate to cry in public. I always think it's a human weakness, but It's very painful. Anyway, we're opening our next School in Autumn of next year and it's going to be called the on McGwire center of learning. So the greatest Memorial we can give to honest educate the children together. I've seen many people die in my country. Now I'm starting to see people live and there is great. Joy, you will hear the bad news from Ireland because the media for some unknown reason always seem to want to report what went wrong in our world yesterday never what went right wouldn't it be lovely if we could be like that song that beautiful Canadian lady sings. What's her name? Not gorgeous lady who sings we sure could use a little good news today, you know, we have a newspaper which we print and it's called and night the good news only you'd be amazed at the not at the number of beautiful articles. We can put into our newspaper just by the good news only, you know, the world's become an awful place the world really I I've told you about Ireland and what we're trying to do and you'll hear less and less and less in the media about my country and mairead and I hopefully God willing if we do our job correctly sure we're going to do ourselves out of a job and isn't Wonderful. I want to go back to to be in Betty who can sit behind the Venetian blinds and binds the grandchildren on many. I haven't got any grandchildren yet, and I hope I don't get any for a couple of years but you know, but that I you know, I truly want to do that. But my commitment to peace is 100% believe me. I live it. I breathe it. I pray for it. I work for it. I'm totally committed to loving my neighbor. I totally committed to that it's you know, something ladies and gentlemen, it's almost impossible to kill somebody you love outside of the crime of passion. But it wouldn't if they also difficult just to kill somebody you like, you know, I was in Russia a few years ago and I met with a Babushka, you know, who the Busch car. Those are the little ladies who refused to let the Communist Regime destroy God the Babushka with their little they lost their men in the second world war and they worked to keep God alive and Russia. Do you know something I find more faith in Russia then I find New York mind. It's very difficult to find any faith in New York, you know because I don't consider New York to be America. This is America, you know and if there's anybody out there from New York, no disrespects, you know because it's just a it's a personified as am our Dallas or dentist are all those. Oh my God, you know the people the people in Europe have a twisted view of the United States. They really have they see it through Dallas and J are and they see it through dentist and Joan Collins and you know to say that it's a moral would be the understatement of the century. Everybody's hopping in and out of bed with everybody else. You know, every other mean is it blows my mind to think that that's the kind of impression people in Europe have a moment of Americans because you and I both know that that's not so That is not so American. People are generally God-fearing good honest to God don't dine the Earth people. So as I go around here, I could try to clarify that mist myth. I always say where do we minute? You don't know Americans Americans are not dentist in Dallas. They even have Jr. On the television and in Japan dubbed Josh eat the far better not open his mouth to say a word that man, you know, because everything he says is evil. I'm sorry for having to drink all this water, but that aren't Evite stuff that they've got me on just dehydrates me. So badly, you know, I feel like a prune standing up here. I'm very happy about my work because I see such Joyce but I also deal with tremendous sorrow. I have to have a sense of humor. That's for sure. I was taken to meet the Holy Father this one John Paul. I must confess. I'm very dubious of anybody who could stand kisses the ground. You're not just it doesn't you know, it just doesn't ring true to me and I he's a lovely man, he truly is a lovely man. The only thing is he said he's about three three and a half thousand years behind times as regards women, you know, and I had to straighten him out a few points. You know, I said the day is a slave your are over and didn't didn't you know that Emily Pine cars got the vote. I don't think he likes me. He told me was very worried about world hunger. I said, I'm also very worried about one Conger. But if I were you Holy Father, I wouldn't worry that much about it's a Michelangelo. So I don't know whether I'll ever get in through the voting and doors or not. I'm not particularly concerned as to whether I do or not and I'm not saying that in a demagogy schwate believe me I'm saying it because I thought what I said to the Holy Father was true, if you're sitting in a morsel am surrounded by works of art which are Priceless and you are concerned about world hunger than the something wrong with you. You know, I know that if my children needed food, I'd go to the pawn, you know, I may wear jewelry and I may have but I look on my kids will never starve not while there's a poem not what I can sell it there only. Sessions, so don't worry about world hunger. If you have in a position to do something about it do something about it. I also said the same to the Queen of England. So I suppose that evens it up doesn't it the total do the only thing I have is my truth and people don't like to hear that too often, you know, the truth. Another thing. That's very popular unfortunately. I always say that if I can reach one person in any cried of people that I'm talking to then I'll have done a good day's work. But if if God's good today may be able to reach more than one. I want to leave Ireland sitting there for a little while and take it in another few streets that I've walked. You see since I became a Nobel Peace Prize winner for some unknown reason people think you have all the answers and you're a VIP and you're famous and I don't feel one bit different than I ever did accept God's been very good to me and that I can get an opportunity to spend time in places like this and share with my sisters and brothers in the United States of America because I believe that we're all interdependent on one another people. Tell me I speak with a funny accent will Saudi Ava what does it matter? You know, how important is it? We can communicate with love. If nothing else we can communicate with love that speaks all languages that every one of them. We figured as the world had been so good to us. We got a Nobel Peace Prize. We got the people's Peace Prize. All of these things involved a lot of money and we poured it into our movement there. We were Opening Our factories and our groups were starting to be self-supportive. And and we said we'll look God's been good to us. Now. It's our turn to be good to somebody last were less fortunate than we are. So I've been traveling on quite a regular basis I to Ethiopia. I came back two months ago. It's a great way to lose weight. I'll tell you great. I used to be about a hundred ninety eight pounds. Ammonia. We slip of a thing now. My husband says slowly but it's awfully good for the figure but not to worry. Anyway, we pack Vans trucks as you call them here big trucks. So as we can get into the interior because they had terrible dried and then they had massive rains which made it even worse to get into the Hinterlands. Let me tell you the story of one Village in Ethiopia. And this was our last Village by this time. I was quite amazed ciated and had body lice and all the lovely things that go with with having to live and In those awful circumstances that are brothers and sisters are because they're our brothers and sisters to they really are, you know, and I met a woman who had walked four hundred and fifteen Miles with twins to try and get food for them. She had to make a decision on the journey which twin that she was going to have to let die because she knew she didn't have enough milk to feed the two of them. So she left one on the road and walked with her all over other one and when she got to the Village her child was dead. Anyway, that's one story. We were at a supplies at this time. We'd given everything we had away and I managed to contact a man called Gunner barovik who's head of a newspaper called freighter lands violin, which is rather on the part of the New York Times and he's turned out to be a dear dear friend of mine, and I said governor and God's holy name. Please get us help if there was a field Hospital 35 minutes by air but had we taken the children by Road. They wouldn't have made it because the roads were so bad. It would have taken us four days to get them there and we knew that they didn't have four days left. Anyway to cut this long story short, which are he's people find impossible to do Gunner bar, Avec goddess and a lighter aircraft the following day one of those little aircraft that only supposed to hold six people plus the pilot. and on that Journey 35 minutes by air we put 40 children. Excuse me. Let me rephrase that. We put 40 pieces of human garbage because that's what we have reduced these children to into that aircraft and in 35 minutes 17 of those children died. You see when I hear people talking about defense. I wonder what on Earth kind of defense they're talking about no dite the dead and dying are very happy that they are being defended so well. They're defending me so well, they very well might kill me. I want you to think about these things. The realities of our world are this we spend three and a half billion not million. Billion dollars on arms and ammunition and better ways to kill each other. We're trying to conquer space why those we can go up there and kill them? We haven't learned to live together ourselves. We're talking about Star Wars. where does this insanity and one of the most famous presidents that the United States had was Truman and he said the buck stops here. Unless we do something in this beautiful area North Dakota. This is my third time here. By the way. This isn't a first for me. I've been here before and God willing I'll be here again because you have nuclear weapons buried here and it's very dangerous area because don't think the Russians don't know where your weapons are any more than we don't know where there's are. Of course. They do first strike will be at anywhere that has missiles First Strike. I want you to think about that. The reason I want you to think about that as this Mankind has never yet developed a weapon that he has not used from the slingshot right through. Oppenheimer said the atomic bomb will never be used never be used. Nodites the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki where I was last year. Can tell you a different story when children are still being born? With the results of radiation hideously malformed children. It's got to stop it has got to stop. So, how do we stop it? We work for it. Peace is not going to fall out of the sky. We work for it. We pray for it. We March for it, but we work for it. If any of you thought that you were coming here today to hear that intellectual academic lecture. No doubt. You will know I know that you're in the wrong room. I don't give them I talk about the bottom line. Every time the bottom line for me is I want my kids to live. I'm 43 years old and may coming. I don't mind saying my age H doesn't bother me besides every newspaper prints it, you know, and I have never known what it's like to live without War. I personally have never known what it's like to live without war or the threat of War ladies I beg of you and I'll get Dinah my knees. If necessary take up the gauntlet of Peace fight for the right for your children and your grandchildren to survive. Tell the man with the gun in their hands that they're not speaking for you anymore. Please do it. Please do it. I'm not going to risk to ridicule President Reagan. I think enough of that has been done already. He's a lot to live down from around. The only thing that I am going to say is it pains me greatly to see a wonderful country like this ruled like that. That's all I'm going to say on the subject. It pains me greatly and we have a Margaret Thatcher in England who to me is Ronald Reagan and drag so Leadership, why do we have to follow leaders who want to make a strong what is wrong with day and wake? You know, there's one country in the world has never had an army its policing Force us to change every four years. Do you know what country I'm talking about? Costa Rica and it's bordered by Nicaragua and Colombia. It's never had a war. Why attack something the count defend itself? That's no fun. Think about all these things please I want to read for you. I was at Regis College in Denver a few weeks ago and they had a replica of that awful wall that wall in Washington have any of you ladies seen that wall in Washington. Thank God it's there, but it is hideous. Thank God it's there to remind us just how many beautiful young men and women gave their lives for a cause. They didn't even understand the cause of Vietnam and I was approached by a lady and she said to me Betty I know that you go about lecturing and talking to other women. Would you promise me that you'll read my letter everywhere you go. I said I will it's a promise. I've never had to break. So it's a very painful letter but I want you to read it because this is to me. This is the woman in Ireland. This is the woman in the Lebanon. This is the woman wherever there's war. Who loses when there's war we do we lose our children. We lose our husbands. We don't want to take any more of those losses. I don't I don't ever want to lose my husband not for the insane reason of or here it is. Vanity be gone. I'll have to put my glasses on isn't it awful to be vain? Dear bill today is February the 13th. I came back to this black wall again to see and touch your name. And as I do I wonder if anyone ever stops to realize that next to your name on this wall is your mother's heart a heartbroken 15 years ago today when you lost your life. And as I look at your name William our stocks, I think of harm many many times. I used to wonder if you were scared or homesick and that strange country called that Vietnam. Oh God Bell how it hurts to write this letter but I must face it then maybe someday I can put it to rest. I know that after I talked to your friend Jim. He must have been very sad because he had to relive it all over again and spent a lot of time crying. But before I hung up some I told him that I loved him. I loved him for being your close friend and for sharing the last days of your life with you and for being there when you died, How lucky you were to without a friend like him and how lucky he was to have had a friend like you. They tell me the letters I write and leave on to this horrible wall are waking all these up to the fact that there is still much pain even after all these years. But this I know my darling son. I would rather have had you for 21 years and all the pain that goes with losing you the never to have had you at all. How much more pain do we going to suffer before we put an end to war, you know, and I like to finish by say I'm you know, really and truthfully truthfully when you go through letters like this. You'd have to be made of stone. Not to let it emotionally effect, you know and I really loved lenders Spanglish is just a sweet wonderful lady who lost her son. I want to finish by saying for you the decoration of the community of the peace people. We have a simple message for the world from this movement for peace. We want to live and love and build a just and peaceful Society we want for our children as we want for ourselves our lives at home at work and at play to be lives of joy and peace. We recognize the DeBell such a life demands of all of us dedication hard work and courage we recognize that there are many problems in all societies which are a source of conflict and violence. We recognize that every bullet fired and every exploding bomb makes the work of Peace more difficult. We reject the use of the bomb and the bullet and all the techniques of Was we dedicate ourselves with God's help to working with our neighbor near and far day in and day out to building that peaceful society in which the tragedies are world has known are a bad memory and a continuing warning. Thank you very much indeed. Ladies and gentlemen.