The men and women at the correction center are battling addictions and the results of childhood abuses of the most horrific nature. They are at war with their past and need encouragement to continue the battle for wholeness.

I took the address Washington made to his soldiers before the battle of Long Island in 1776, and changed some of the wording to help make it applicable to the men and women there.  

  "The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether we are to be freemen or slaves; whether we are to have any property we can call our own; whether our houses and farms are to be pillaged and destroyed, and be consigned to a state of wretchedness from which no human efforts will deliver us.

The fate of our unborn progeny will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of our selves. Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of a brave resistance, or the most abject submission. We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or to die.

Let us, then, rely on the goodness of our cause, and the aid of the Supreme Being, in whose hands victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble actions.

The eyes of all of our family are now upon us; and we shall have their blessings and praises, if haply we are the instruments of saving them from the tyranny that faces us.  

Liberty, property, life, and honor are all at stake. Upon your courage and conduct rest the hopes of our bleeding and insulted families. Our wives, children and parents, expect safety from us only; and they have every reason to believe that Heaven will crown with success so just a cause. The enemy will endeavor to intimidate by show and appearance; but remember they have been repulsed on various occasions by brave men and women."