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Ambassador Perry's Speeches at Amistad Farewell Ceremony |
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Written by June Carter Perry
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Saturday, 02 February 2008 |
Your Worship the Mayor,
Honorable Ministers,
Members of the Diplomatic Corps,
Ladies and Gentlemen, good morning.
I am honored to here as the representative of the United States Embassy and the United States government in Sierra Leone. It is my pleasure to be included in this program to bid farewell to the crew, students, and support staff of the Amistad ship as well as the many people from the Amistad America organization and the Freetown Amistad coordinating committee who made the visit possible. In addition, I’d like to thank all those from the tourist board who worked so hard to make the Amistad’s stay in Freetown a success.
I invite you to join me in welcoming the many American visitors we have with us this morning, including those from Connecticut, the home of the Amistad Freedom Schooner. They have shown immense commitment to solidifying the people to people relationships between Americans and Sierra Leoneans, and we hope those relationships will grow stronger as a result of this visit.
The Embassy’s activities surrounding the visit of the Amistad were varied, and we enjoyed them all very much. Our Public Affairs Section’s Essay Contest awarded prizes to three very talented and deserving Sierra Leonean students. We screened the film Amistad for over 100 students at the Embassy. Our personal interactions with the Amistad staff and the crew have been truly delightful. I thoroughly enjoyed my tour of the ship, and I hope you all had the opportunity to see it. Now that the ship is ready to depart, we have begun to assist the Amistad America organization in connecting schools in New Haven Connecticut with schools here in Freetown, enabling them to correspond through e-mail exchanges, webchats, and photos.
It is fitting that we are here to commemorate the visit of the Amistad in the first few days of Black History Month which recognizes the rich diversity and history of the United States and its many people. The Amistad incident led to what is likely the first civil and human rights case to appear before the Supreme Court of the United States. Since then, our courts and those all over the world have deliberated on hundreds of similar issues, bringing the world closer and closer to a place where the rights of all people are sacrosanct.
Thank you for coming here today and thank you for your enthusiasm. I look forward to sharing this monumental visit with each of you.
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