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 | Speeches | | |
The President of the Republic Handing over Home Decoration Awards at Haljala on 24 August 200324.08.2003
Dear People,
Honourable County Governors,
Each of us has a home. The older one grows, the brighter grow his memories of his childhood home. We are deeply touched when we think about it. A strong and safe home does not arise by chance. A tidy, clean and beautiful place of residence takes time, care and love. When a home is strong in emotional terms, it also looks beautiful. These things just belong together. How to rate them? Are we not short of words for that purpose? Home - that's more than words can tell.
It's a great honour and a privilege for me to stand today before you and to hand over the annual Home Decoration Awards. Believe me, it was not easy to make this choice. Isn't it true what we say: you don't like it but take my eyes and look again.
We have not called for renovating houses and apartments but for changing attitudes to land, to what is surrounding us. The Estonians are ancient country dwellers and have cultivated the soil since time immemorial. The oldest signs of that are lying at Rebala, just beside this very Tallinn-Narva road, and in many other places elsewhere in Estonia. Our ancestors wanted to settle down here for this land was their home.
And now, where we are facing the choice if we want to be one of the European countries or to be left on our own, there is nobody who would do our job for us since that's our own duty. There is nobody upon whom we could saddle the care for our country. Therefore, thank you very much for having shouldered this work. That's the way we are making our country even stronger. In this way every individual becomes better. Without a sense of home we would end up homeless. Is that where the desire to go and seek one's fortune in the world and the fear of losing one's national identity originate?
Let's remember Koidula. For her it was important that to her home always belonged a garden, even if just a tiny one. Betti Alver had only a couple of flower beds at Tähtvere but she always had plenty of flowers, and every spring she was glad when migrating birds returned and found their way to her home at Koidula Street. Home is a human value. Home joins generations together.
Dear Listeners,
Thank you for having loved your lands. Thank you for having cherished your country. Thank you for the delight your beautiful homes, gardens and wonderful flowerbeds have offered to the eyes of all of us.
Our independence is based on beautiful homes; our homes make our freedom safe.
Thank you!
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