A creed for May and for life
“What do you know … it’s May already (with apologies to whoever wrote that song, you remember?). It doesn’t seem possible we’re heading toward the middle of the year. Does it?
That’s the question. It’s been one heck of a mess the last couple of months but … there we go again … a but always seems to be there. Or here. Seriously, it has been an unusual period for American historymaking. Who would have thought when that little baby 2020 showed up to welcome a new year we’d face the uncertainties that have occurred? But things will continue to settle down. Uncertainties will be obliterated. And a return to the good old USA will be on everybody’s lips.
You question that? You don’t think so? Oh, come on … this is the United States of America and, in spite of many unexpected crises that have occurred during the past 244 years, they have been overcome. Butt kicking has solved many of the problems and this corona is heading that way.
Let’s really enjoy the spring days of May even though some of these days may be dazy… but there will always be daisy days to greet us if we help it happen. May is a special month with several happenings that have become legacies: Mother’s Day when we honor that special person in our lives, followed by Memorial Day, when we remember and honor and thank those who have built and defended our country.
There is one other May happening that is normally a celebration day during May. That’s right, it’s Graduation Day for those little guys and gals who grew up to become adults and who have conquered many obstacles, tests and sometimes crises. It is then we honor them on their graduation as they accept the challenge for their life’s future.
What about Graduation Day? This year? No school for more than month, school out for the summer. Graduation may or may not be celebrated in the traditional manner. I’d bet all of the seniors in
Westside Eagle Observer country will be feted, maybe with even more pomp and circumstance than usual. I’d bet more than a quarter on that one.
This brings me to this week’s ’cuff congratulating the seniors as I have for many years pounded out on the old Underwood but now on that little SmithCorona (dadgum-it, there’s that word again. Forget it.).
This week’s ‘cuff for and to seniors and to every citizen or would-be citizen is a two-paragraph composition describing what we’re all about and our challenge for the future. The two paragraphs were written by a man following that awful World War I and during a time of that other death-causing Spanish virus that wreaked havoc in the USA that year: 1918!
William Tyler Page, 18681942, wrote these words that year, and in that year the U.S. House of Representatives adopted them.
Page later became a page (messenger) and later rose to be Clerk of the House until 1931.
For many years, Congressman Jim Trimble, representative from Dist. 3, sent copies of that document to all graduating seniors in Northwest Arkansas. I still cherish mine, printed on simulated parchment, I received on that graduation day, almost 70 years ago. The document is called “The American Creed” and what was true some hundred years ago is still a creed that every graduate … yes … every citizen should recognize, honor and follow. The American’s Creed I believe in the United States of America as a government of the people, by the people, for the people; whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed; a democracy in a Republic; a sovereign Nation of many sovereign States; a perfect Union, one and inseparable; established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice and humanity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes.
I believe it is my duty to my Country to love it; to support its Constitution; to obey its laws; to respect its flag; and to defend it against all enemies.
So, graduates, please read this creed, absorb its truths, and follow its duties, and your lives and the lives of all who follow you will create a legacy that is always positive and honorable. Best wishes for all your lives and God Bless America.