I have a dream in Sri Lanka!

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Killinochchi, go back to Mulutivu, go back to Trincomalee, go back to Batticaloa, go back to Jafna, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the Sri Lankan dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day Tamils of North of Sri Lanka and the Sinhalese of South will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, LTTE with its vicious racists, with its Tamil Diaspora having their lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Sri Lanka, little Tamil boys and Tamil girls will be able to join hands with little Sinhala/Muslim boys and Sinhala/Muslim girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the Sri Lanka with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if Sri Lanka is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the Central hilltops of Sri Lanka. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of Dumbara. Let freedom ring from the Jungles of Mulativu!

Let freedom ring from the North of Sri Lanka!

Let freedom ring from the South of Sri Lanka!

But not only that; let freedom ring from East of Sri Lanka!

Let freedom ring from West of Sri Lanka!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Nuwara-Eliya. From every mountainside of Badulla, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, Tamil men and Sinhala men, Hindus and Buddhists, Muslims and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"