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FOOTPRINTS
by Alfred Stanley Baker
1920-1996
In the span of our time on this earth
there are few among us who will be privileged to accomplish
those things for which monuments are erected.
For the majority, the only records of
our having passed this way will be the ideals we plant in
the heart and mind of those continuing their journey.
We, born to a free society, begin this
journey with carefree innocence of our inherited
responsibilities. This is right and proper. To make, and
to end this journey, in the same blitheful spirit can be
likened to the man who walks along the seashore…the next
tide will wash away his foot prints and no one will ever
know he passed this way.
This then makes that individual’s
journey here without meaning. The world is poorer for his
having come, and made no contribution…but no poorer for his
having departed.
If these tenets be true then we each
have a responsibility to perpetuate those ideals upon which
this land of freedom was founded…has prospered and has shone
with a brilliance of hope to all mankind for a better life.
We then have a privileged
responsibility unique to man in his quest for personal
recognition.
We should, by the example of our action
and personal philosophy, show all men that security in his
freedom is his personal and daily responsibility.
We should, by a daily devotion of
loyalty to the ideals upon which our nation was founded, and
rose to preeminence, reassert our dedication and
determination to build upon the rich heritage that is ours.
Only we, as responsible individuals,
can determine the permanence of our footprints. |
