12

11

An old freedom song reminds us - "Ain't but one thing we did wrong; stayed in segregation a day too long. Ain't but one thing we did right; that's the day we started to fight!"

The Petral Fellows You all bear witness to the thing done right, and to the truth that the struggle for liberty goes on - here Washington Norfolk, in every part of the United States, across the surface of the earth.

Over its ten-year existence, the Petra Foundation has recognized individuals People to People engaged in efforts to combat racism, violence, poverty, abuse, giving sad testimony to the lack of a single source of injustice.

Instead, separate threads woven through history form a rigid coil, a noose that too often stangles human freedom and human rights annnd binds together those forces which oppose them.

It is through the efforts of those honored tonight and over the past decade that the noose will be severed and eventually cut.

As Robert Kennedy once said:
"Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of these acts will be written the history of each generation. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring these ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."ⁱⁱⁱ

To the Petra winners, past and present All of you; you have created a current that can change our world.

We thank you. We honor you.

-0-
i James Bond, "Commencment Address," Berea College Reporter. June, 1892, Berea, Kentucky.
ii Washington Post ar A19 (October 7 1998).
iii Robert Kennedy, "Day of Affirmation Speech," Capetown, South Africa, (June 6, 1966).