Brian’s guests are multicultural, multilingual. “I have 25 to 30 languages on this pavement.” Sony from China painted a Chinese proverb for Brian in Chinese: “Treat your old people as you should and extend this to the old people of others. Treat your young people as you should, and extend this to the young people of others.”

Brian wishes that the British government would adopt this proverb and stop “killing the children of Iraq and Afghanistan,” who are, he believes, as beautiful as the British children. “I see the world’s children going by here and all their different colors. Which one of them is more cute and more lovable than the other? They are all the same. They are all beautiful in different ways, like the flowers in the field.”

For the same reason, father-of-seven Brian Haw has been away from his own children for four years. “How can I look my own child in the eye, in the face, and say I love my child while I allow my country to torture and murder your child?”

Then he expresses sorrow for the children of Afghanistan. Afghans, too, visit Brian. “Up in the mountains in Afghanistan, they know all about me.” Also, from Turkey, he hosted Mustafa, who brought over a placard in Turkish for display on the pavement.

And in addition to the nice, supportive guests, Brian receives aggressive ones. “I get everybody here. I get the best and the worst, lovely people and wicked ones.” As a former carpenter, he considers himself capable of telling good people from bad ones, just like telling good furniture from bad furniture.

The number and variety of visitors encourage Brian, giving him a hint that he is having an influence, and proving that one individual can make a difference. “You’re where you are, doing what you are meant to do, and I’m where I am doing what I am—we are all part of a picture. ... The reason it’s not happening is that there are too many pieces missing, and there are too many good people who should be standing and doing their part, but people are discouraged and frightened, and they are encouraged to think ‘What can I do? I am nobody.’ Hey, you are not; you are somebody.”

“You imagine if all of the good people were to stand up all at once: Wow! That’s it; we’ve had enough. We will stop this terrible business [of war].”

Brian’s spirit of resolve is stimulating his perseverance to continue his protest—possibly the longest in history—on “his pavement,” even though the British government has tried to stop him in every way. Most recently, on April 6, 2005, the Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill was passed, banning unauthorized protest within a one-kilometer radius of Parliament. The Act was passed primarily to stop Brian Haw’s demonstration.

But Brian is still determined to go on. He believes the law is unjust. “How can you have a law to stop me from saying ‘Stop killing our kids’? ... My country is breaking the greatest law of all [by invading and occupying Iraq] and I am supposed to be the guilty one because I am saying stop it? We have to stand up for what is good and what’s right.”

He is planning to appeal in the High Court and pursue every way possible to carry on his protest, and he calls upon all activists and supporters not to give up.

“To the good people of America, and the good people of Britain, and the good people of Egypt, and the good people everywhere: Time to get up, people. Time to stand up for justice. Hope. Salam (peace). `Adl lil jami` (justice for all). Shalom. Love. Peace. Justice for All. Peace Now. In sha’ Allah (God willing).”

As Brian wrapped up his words, he got distracted by a group of deaf and dumb children who started to communicate with him via sign language with the help of their interpreter. He welcomed them, as he always welcomes his guests, and bid me farewell.