In Part I of "Eyes on the Prize," we alerted our readership of the importance of working for high ideals, what the ideals are and how we must stay focused to attain them. In case some of us have forgotten them, we would like to repeat them here. There is no question that the territorial integrity of our country is of paramount importance hence the reason for the current surge in patriotic duty among Ethiopians the world over! As we rise to protect our country’s territorial boundary however, we must be clear beyond the shadow of a doubt that it is all and not a part of our territory that we are after! Put in another way, our endeavor is not only Asseb but also Adolis and every other inch of our historical land historically protected by the lives of our fallen heroes! It is our responsibility to make sure that the mission and belief not only of Ras Alula and Zeray Deres but also of those others before them that walked the path from Axum to Adolis, prevail over that of the fascists of Italy! Our history and our ownership are not that of Asseb alone but the entire territory currently known as Eritrea!

There are those among us willing to settle for Asseb alone. And a thinking of that kind deserves and must be dusted into the dustbin! It is thoughts of the caliber of the latter, which has given room for the birth of robotic devils willing and eager to live by the evil creed of the colonial status quo. We must not be afraid to be called "warmongers" by those engineered from birth to serve as natural executioners of designs designed to extinguish not only our historical ownership to all, all the way to the islands in the Red Sea but also to our very existence as a people of a rich history and character!

We must not too, be intimidated by the hyperbole of "another thirty years of war." Such a talk is a scare tactic by those yearning to render us defeated and landlocked. We must never heed to such an advice; it is not only without our indispensable interests at heart but also erroneous in fact. We must realize that united there is nothing we can not accomplish! We do not even have to go back and long to prove that there will never be "another thirty years of war." What took place two years ago is the living testimony of what unity can accomplish! Although the disciples of Mussolini bluffed by the "sun never rising," it only took three days for the Ethiopian armed forces to prove them wrong! And had it not been for Shaebia’s protégé in the heart of Addis Ababa, the disciples of Mussolini would have been confined to the refugee camps of the Sudan or rendered global nomads! Clearly, united not only we will be able to reclaim that which is ours in no time but also restore whole those brothers and sisters of ours lost to the evil blue prints of colonial Italy!

In part one of "eyes on the prize," we also screamed of the importance democracy in our country. We believe that Ethiopia is yearning for governance by the rule of law; Mother Ethiopia wants democratic laws enshrined in a democratic Constitution and not tyrants backed by the barrel of the gun! Put in another way, what our people want is freedom not only to breathe air but also breathing a cacophony of ideas! We need to come together as never before to build a mechanism to set up a governmental system where ideas of all types can be freely expressed and the best ones molded into a democratic constitution with teeth and force no tyrant would ever dare to mess around with! Such we need not only for the sane, lawful, fair, stable, compassionate, and equitable Ethiopia vital for our existence but also for the mission to open and clear all roads to all towns and villages of Eritrea heavily mined with the evil thoughts of colonial cluster bombs!

As we aim into such a glorious destiny, we must be cognizant that such a wonderful objective can not be accomplished without the consent of all the citizens of Ethiopia! And that consensus for such a mission is attainable only if and only if we set aside our petty or hidden agendas and focus on those that matter for all of us and the beautiful country of our which has reared us tenderly! That means the struggle that we are undertaking, the New York march or others, must be driven by the interests of all of us and not by the interests of our petty interests or interests of parties to which we may belong. We must stop from attempting to exploit for our selfish interests the selfless patriotism currently running high amongst our people! It would be recklessness at its pinnacle if we march to advance our hidden interests; dialing for hidden agendas and hidden interests can not only deny our country and people their right for a democratic rule but also throw our country right into the hands of our enemies! It is also stupid and in fact idiotic to think, in this day and age, that sectarian interest would have room in our country!

It is time that we learned the good lesson by now. We have practiced sectarianism for a long, long time; hundreds of years if not thousands of years to be exact! We need to move from this pathology and change course to a collective vision, common interest and common mission. We need to turn course to thinking for all of us and for the well being of our country! And nothing else can address the collective interest other than democracy. Hence the need for us to focus on achieving this cherished treasure that our people and country desperately need without thought for our sectarian selfish interest but for our collective good!

It is disturbing to see here and there that we still have some among us who can never get it (maybe they are Shaebia agents!). They still think that selfish or sectarian interests can prevail in our country. There are still murmurs of "code" words of which "Weyane" is the most favored! Putting it bluntly, there are still some people who think if only they can come to power! They believe that they can impose their brand of governance and have life thereafter forever! People of this viewpoint need to stop and think! Our Ethiopia will have none of that anymore!

We have been hurt so deeply that we have become acutely allergic to sectarianism; we have an urgent need to breathe freely not only air but also a multitude of ideas! The writing is on the wall that we either are allowed to breathe freely or we will die of asphyxiation! And make no mistake about it, we would be taking down our beautiful country with us!

It can not be overemphasized to drive the point that if the best interest of our people, the entire Ethiopian people including those living in Shaebia’s Eritrea, we must then stop condemning in whole sale! Weyane means revolution and Weyanay a revolutionary, and make no mistake about it there is no Weyane/Weyanay in Tigray who stands/stood for the disfigurement of Mother Ethiopia! Only the half casts with variegated minds dressed in Tigrayan lexicon can stand for the causes of the disciples of Mussolini. And as events of the last year clearly show, Tigray has purged and cleansed herself of such maladies!

We need not die nor take down our country with us. We have options and at that noble ones. We can work for our collective interest and for the interest of our country. We can put the interest of our people and country first and dump our sectarian interests to the dustbin! As we march in New York or elsewhere, we urge our people to keep focused on the important things that are truly in the interests of our country and our people. Accordingly, we urge our people to think of the interests our country and people as they walk the streets of New York or the streets of Addis or elsewhere in the world! And as we march we must think of our heroes currently languishing in the prisons of Meles. The pictures of Siye Abraha, Bitow Belai, Tamrat Layne Layne and Dr. Taye Weldesemayat must march with us! After all, the true test of our commitment to democracy and justice is our commitment in the defense of the wronged.