At the luncheon in honor of MEA Laureates of the MEA Kasha J. Nabagesera and Muhanad Al-Hassani on 13 October in Geneva, Robert Fulghum, well-known author and Patron of the MEA, asked me to read what he would have said if he could have come to the event. I think it is so beautiful and pertinent to human rights defenders and their supporters worldwide that I share it with you here. I am sure Robert Fulghum would have no problem with anybody using it as long as credit is given:

Please do not bow your heads, but allow your eyes to look around the room and notice those present.

Know that the finest blessing a meal can have is the presence of great company.

With such companions as these this meal could not be more blessed.

What the gods may do is often difficult to discern or understand.

What people like you do and continue to do is clear :

  to lift and set free the human spirit

  to keep alive the flame of basic rights

  and to support those men and women are willing to live and to die for the sake of human freedom.

May the meal sustain your bodies as your values sustain meaning in your lives.

May those who are not here to share this meal know that bread is being broken here for their sake.

May the cause of human rights never end, but go on as long as human beings are on the earth.

Let us continue . . .

Amen.”

This entry was posted on October 23, 2011 at 17:36 and is filed under Human Rights Defenders, MEA.

Tags: al-Hassani, Kasha, Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, MEA, prayer, Robert Fulghum, support