Grant Us Brotherhood

Memorial Day was recently recognized in the United States. The last Monday of May each each year in the United States is a day that commemorates the men and women who died while serving in the American military.

Phil grew up in a military family. His father was a career military officer and a veteran of World War II. It is estimated that some 60 to 72 million people died in World War II, of which some 25 million were in the military. Phil was an Army Officer and a Vietnam veteran. He and I, like so many others, attache a great significance to Memorial Day. We are mindful of those who have served and died and are still serving, giving their lives in service.  We are both mindful of their families and friends.

Some years past the two of us traveled to Pennsylvania to visit Phil's father, then 92, now deceased. WE drove to Washington, D.C., to visit the graves of his first wife, his mother, and his father's second wife - Phil's stepmother - at Arlington Cemetery. We also visited the National WWII Memorial, opened in 2004, which Phil's father had never seen.

Phil and his father share, along with likely so many military veterans with whom Phil grew up and served, with whom is father grew up and served - the following sentiment expressed in President Roosevelt's address on Flag Day in June 1942. This sentiment is no doubt timely for so many:

Citing part of the prayer by poet Stephen Vincent Benét, he said:
"Our earth is but a small star in the great universe. Yet of it we can make, if we choose, a planet unvexed by war, untroubled by hunger or fear, undivided by senseless distinctions of race, color or theory. Grant us that courage and foreseeing to begin this task today that our children and our children's children may be proud of the name of man.

The spirit of man has awakened and the soul of man has gone forth. Grant us the wisdom and the vision to comprehend the greatness of man's spirit, that suffers and endures so hugely for a goal beyond his own brief span. Grant us honor for our dead who died in the faith, honor for our living who work and strive for the faith, redemption and security for all captive lands and peoples. Grant us patience with the deluded and pity for the betrayed. And grant us the skill and the valor that shall cleanse the world of oppression and the old base doctrine that the strong must eat the weak because they are strong.

Yet most of all grant us brotherhood, not only for this day but for all our years-a brotherhood not of words but of acts and deeds. We are all of us children of earth-grant us that simple knowledge. If our brothers are oppressed, then we are oppressed. If they hunger, we hunger. If their freedom is taken away, our freedom is not secure. Grant us a common faith that man shall know bread and peace-that he shall know justice and righteousness, freedom and security, and equal opportunity and an equal chance to do his best, not only in our own lands, but throughout the world. And in that faith let us march, toward the clean world our hands can make. Amen."

Phil and I hope that you, too, share this sentiment, that you lead in this direction, that you lead toward what you want rather than move away from what you do not want.

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