My dream is that one day, all people will live without fear, in real peace, with no fighting and no hostility.
Interpretation
This quote expresses a hope for a world where people coexist without fear or conflict.
Phan Thi Kim Phuc's quote envisions a future where humanity can achieve true peace, free from the burdens of fear and hostility. It reflects a longing for a harmonious existence, where collaboration and understanding replace discord and violence, inspiring individuals to strive for a more compassionate world.
In practice
This quote can be used during a speech on global peace initiatives.
I wished I died in that attack with my cousin, with my south Vietnamese soldiers. I wish I died at that time so I won't suffer like that anymore... it was so hard for me to carry all that burden with that hatred, with that anger and bitterness.
My name is Kim Phuc, though you likely know me by another name. It is one I never asked for, a name I have spent a lifetime trying to escape: 'Napalm Girl.'
People ask me a lot, 'How can you smile all the time?' I tell them, 'I was never angry. God created me this way. He created me laughing and smiling.'
I never thought that the child who was a famous symbol of war would one day be invited to become a symbol of peace.
For years I bore the crippling weight of anger, bitterness and resentment toward those who caused my suffering. Yet as I look back over a spiritual journey that has spanned more than three decades, I realize the same bombs that caused so much pain and suffering also brought me to a place of great healing. Those bombs led me to Jesus Christ.
The more I prayed for my enemies, the softer my heart became.
So let us persevere. Peace need not be impracticable, and war need not be inevitable. By defining our goal more clearly, by making it seem more manageable and less remote, we can help all peoples to see it, to draw hope from it, and to move irresistibly toward it.
Each side has legitimate aspirations - and that's part of what makes peace so hard. And the deadlock will only be broken when each side learns to stand in the other's shoes; each side can see the world through the other's eyes. That's what we should be encouraging. That's what we should be promoting.
War can be avoided, and it ought to be avoided. I want no war.
Each moment is a chance for us to make peace with the world, to make peace possible for the world, to make happiness possible for the world.
Without peace and without the overwhelming majority of people that believe in peace defending it, working for it, believing in it, security can never really be a reality.
Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures.
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