Gibran

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" I believe in you, and I believe in your destiny.

I believe that you are contributors to this new

civilization.

I believe that you have inherited from your

forefathers an

ancient dream, a song, a prophecy, which you can

proudly lay as a gift of gratitude upon the lap of

America.

I believe that you can say to the founders of this

great

nation, " Here I am, a youth, a young tree whose

roots

were plucked from the hills of Lebanon, yet I am

deeply

rooted here, and I would be fruitful. "

And I believe that you can say to Abraham Lincoln,

the

blessed, " Jesus of Nazareth touched your lips when

you

spoke, and guided your hand when you wrote; and I

shall

uphold all that you have said and all that you

have

written. "

I believe that you can say to Emerson and Whitman

and

James, " In my veins runs the blood of the poets

and wise

men of old, and it is my desire to come to you and

receive, but I shall not come with empty hands. "

I believe that even as your fathers came to this

land to

produce riches, you were born here to produce

riches by

intelligence, by labor.

I believe that it is in you to be good citizens.

And what is it to be a good citizen?

It is to acknowledge the other person's rights

before

asserting your own, but always to be conscious of

your

own.

It is to be free in word and deed, but it is also

to know

that your freedom is subject to the other person's

freedom.

It is to create the useful and the beautiful with

your own

hands, and to admire what others have created in

love

and with faith.

It is to produce by labor and only by labor, and

to spend

less than you have produced that your children may

not

be dependent upon the state for support when you

are no

more... "

 

From A Third Treasury of Kahlil Gibran, titled " I

Believe in You " in Mirrors of the Soul.