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.