My Special Personal Message to the People of Addis Ababa for June 23, 2018
Posted on June 21, 2018, 7:10 pm By

To all of my readers, friends, supporters and young people in Addis Ababa and to all of my Ethiopian brothers and sisters:

For the first time ever, I write to all of you directly to ask a special favor.

I need someone to stand in and stand up for me at Mesqel Square on June 23, 2018 and represent me in showing my full and unqualified support for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

I wish I could be there to join all of my brothers and sisters who will be out showing their support for PM Abiy Ahmed and his extraordinary leadership. But at this time, I am not able to do so.

I have been your voice for thirteen long years.

I have delivered your message of suffering and abuse to the world every week, without missing a single week, for thirteen years.

Now I am asking you to be my voice for one day on June 23, 2018.

I need each and every one of you, who have read my articles and heard my interviews defending Ethiopian human rights, demanding the release of political prisoners and fighting and speaking truth to those who have abused their power for well over a quarter of a century, to represent me personally at Mesqel Square on June 23, 2018 and deliver my message to Abiy Ahmed.

I ask you to tell Abiy Ahmed for me that I support him and his vision of peace, reconciliation and love (or in a single word ETHIOPIAWINET) in Ethiopia fully and without reservation.

I ask you to tell Abiy Ahmed for me that I will work with him, however long it takes, to end once and for all time the politics of hate and division in Ethiopia.

I ask you to tell Abiy Ahmed for me that I will take that long walk to freedom with him on the two roads Mandela named for us: Goodness and Forgiveness.

I ask you to tell Abiy Ahmed for me that I share fully his fundamental belief that our unity in our humanity (Ethiopiawinet) and plurality overwhelms our enmity in our ethnicity.

I ask you to tell Abiy Ahmed for me that though “they shall come out against our people one way, they will surely flee before us seven ways.”

I ask you to tell Abiy Ahmed for me that we will wage peace and reconciliation with him in every neighborhood, hamlet, village, town, city and region of Ethiopia. We will wage peace and reconciliation with all our might and with all the strength God has given us.

I ask you to tell Abiy Ahmed for me to come follow us as we go forward together in our united strength as ONE people of Ethiopia.

I ask you to tell Abiy Ahmed for me that truth crushed to earth in Ethiopia shall rise again.

I ask you to tell Abiy Ahmed for me what Kwame Nkrumah said in 1963 at the inauguration of the Organization of African States, “Ethiopia Shall Rise.”

I ask you to tell Abiy Ahmed for me that Ethiopia shall rise and shine forever like the morning sun over the African continent.

I ask you to tell Abiy Ahmed for me that we are ready to build that shining city upon a hill called “The Beloved Ethiopia” where justice, equality, human rights and the rule of law shall roll down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.

And don’t forget to tell Abiy Ahmed, we love him and love conquers all!

Please, please be my voice on June 23, 2018 at Mesqel Square!

Yours,

Alemayehu

ETHIOPIAWINET TODAY

ETHIOPIAWINET TOMORROW

ETHIOPIAWINET FOREVER! 

About

Professor Alemayehu G. Mariam teaches political science at California State University, San Bernardino. His teaching areas include American constitutional law, civil rights law, judicial process, American and California state governments, and African politics. He has published two volumes on American constitutional law, including American Constitutional Law: Structures and Process (1994) and American Constitutional Law: Civil Liberties and Civil Rights (1998). He is the Senior Editor of the International Journal of Ethiopian Studies, a leading scholarly journal on Ethiopia. For the last several years, Prof. Mariam has written weekly web commentaries on Ethiopian human rights and African issues that are widely read online. He played a central advocacy role in the passage of H.R. 2003 (Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act of 2007) in the House of Representatives in 2007. Prof. Mariam practices in the areas of criminal defense and civil litigation. In 1998, he argued a major case in the California Supreme Court involving the right against self-incrimination in People v. Peevy, 17 Cal. 4th 1184, which helped clarify longstanding Miranda rights issues in criminal procedure in California. For several years, Prof. Mariam had a weekly public channel public affairs television show in Southern California called “In the Public Interest”. Prof. Mariam received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1984, and his J.D. from the University of Maryland in 1988.

Categories: Al Mariam's Commentaries