is what you find in their country of these means that raise their standing, and grant them strength, security, sovereignty, and success.
And one cannot escape certain factors that weigh upon the conscience — nay, that draw a black veil over the heart — as one compares and weighs, and looks at one's own country with the eye of true, disinterested patriotism.
In this brief hasty sketch, I am at a loss where to begin speaking of America. She contains such causes of advancement as would require huge volumes to give them their fill of study and scrutiny, and to render them what learning demands by right of publication and proclamation.
Shall I pass over the enchanting beauty which the Supreme Creator bestowed upon her, so that she sleeps upon the arms of the two oceans, great and magnificent, her face radiant with the waters of her rivers and lakes, her plains and forests and matchless waterfalls, and her fresh green hills, where soul and eye draw abundant provision from the springs of beauty in her regions?
And I start with alarm at saying of her the word "sleeps," she in whom everything speaks of energy, wakefulness, and glowing, radiant vitality.
From universities and hospitals that hold thousands, to museums, exhibitions, and national libraries gathering the spoils of thought and the creations of minds, which they display as masterpieces to the millions of thirsting minds that search to gain ever more knowledge and learning.
And there are public gardens, buildings and bridges, playing fields and swimming pools, theaters, and ordered, well-planned roads, in the belly of the earth and upon its back, such as bewilder the mind.
And those vast stretches over which rise the factories, equipped with the newest machines, worked by armies of mighty forces night and day, in steadfastness, diligence, and energy.
I saw some of them teeming with lights in the darkness of the night, and there appeared then to my mind those talents lying latent in the sons of my country, sunk in deep slumber in plain and mountain, lost and squandered.
And I pictured, in the depths of my heart, those strong, active hands of our young men, seeking work and finding none, and so growing used to
Great public gardens in San Francisco
idleness, and losing the true life that is the due of youth.
No unemployment spreads there — for all the abundance of productive machines, and the multitude of automatic methods that save time and labor — everyone who seeks work finds it, in every field, and so lives free and dignified, relying upon himself.
And I saw woman in the various fields, young girl and old woman alike. Neither does age deter her, nor dependence keep her seated.
I saw the young girls walking from early morning with grace, energy, and speed, each toward her destination. And I saw
one of them leading a political election demonstration, carrying a flag which she waved to hundreds of men and women, who followed her, shouting what she shouted. And I heard her address the crowds that listened to her, and I found between her and the man none of those vast distances which still lie between man and woman in our country. Nor shall I ever forget that lady of eighty years whom I met one night at one of the stations, waiting with the travelers for the train, to journey to Niagara Falls. My ears disbelieved when she told me her age, while I marveled at her energy and her self-reliance, and honored her, as I set her side by side with the eighty-year-old women of our Eastern lands.
And there, in the mighty building — the United Nations building — where the leaders of the world gather to decide its fate, and to decide the fates of the peoples in every quarter of the earth. Will they ever, I wonder, succeed in removing the powers of evil from existence?!!
And the Security Council! How often
Mr. Munir Mahmasani and his two sisters, Salwa and Widad, in the White House park