For Peace

Unkranian Sasha B recently delivered this speech to her classmates in the school's Fabrications contest.  I’m giving this speech for peace. I come from a place where not everything is as good as I want it to be. In my country, The Ukraine, people are fighting for independence and for freedom. They fight until the death; they fight for their mothers and children. They fight for a brighter future. It started a year ago when a bunch of young people went out into the plaza of my capital and started a revolution. They started as a group of 100 people, not a big number for a country with 48 million people. They were standing for European integration. After a month that plaza saw 3 million people, normal people with families, with jobs.  They were standing until the end, but a in while the police started attacking these people and some were being shot. It was terrible and when people understood that it was the handiwork of our old President, he ran away. For half of the year my country was without a President. The protests in the plaza stopped but we got attacked by our neighboring country: they took a big piece of our land. Then they put their army in the region closest to mine and started fighting: this still continues.  I want you to understand one thing. Why do we fight? Why can we not live in peace? I want you know what peace means.  If you look up peace in the dictionary, chances are it will say something about tranquility, and non-violence. If you search for a synonym, it might say a truce. I think peace is far more than just a truce. A truce, in my mind, is an agreement to stop fighting. If we are to achieve peace, we must, every day, make a positive difference. "Peace begins with a smile." I absolutely agree! It’s said that a smile can light up a room, so imagine what a world of smiles can do. If every day someone does something kind for someone, it will create a ripple effect. Think of when you drop a stone in a pond. It generates a small ripple at first, but after a while, that little ripple has spread throughout the entire pond. Now, think of world peace. If someone apologizes to someone else, and they do the same, imagine what we can achieve! Yes, many people know the definition of peace, but only a few understand and practice peace. Peace is the mother of progress. Without peace, a nation cannot make any progress. So peace is ever desirable. Peace is the feeling that all's right with the world. How do I feel it? When everyone around me in my family, my circle of friends, my neighborhood, and my nation is happy, eager to love, to accept and to relate, I feel at peace. Also, to me it means following what my heart says and sharing mutual trust and respect for people around me. Peace starts with me. Sasha B, Hope ‘17