The Youth of America

I recently read an article from the Stuart Foundation, an article written by Kathryn Bradley. Bradley wrote, “This year and this month mark the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America. Through government campaigns, school projects, conversation, social media, and other facets of life, we are asked to honor the past by reflecting on the nation’s history, and to imagine what the next 250 years could look like....I believe we cannot

reflect on America at 250 without recognizing and celebrating the ways young people are

already shaping the world and communities around them.”

I want to give you another quote to read, a quote that you may or may not agree with. “The

children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.”

It may surprise you to learn that this quote came from none other than Socrates in

399 BCE. Of course this statement is a generalization. There are many situations in which children grow up and become ideal citizens of our communities, contributing in so many ways to make this great nation a better place in which we can grow and thrive. With this article I wish to single out one group of young people that I had the privilege to address in a program having to do with their graduation. They were graduating from a class of young men and women involved with the Civil Air Patrol.

The CAP was founded on December 1, 1941; the Cadet Program, dating back to October 1, 1942, and both have been engaged in serving this nation from WW II to Korea, to Vietnam, to Iraq, to Afghanistan, and all in between. This Cadet program offers youth between the ages of 12 and 18 the opportunity to serve as volunteers in their communities, receiving training in leadership, aerospace, and military customs and courtesies. They are taught principles such as integrity, volunteerism, respect, and excellence. Their motto is Semper Vigilans, “Always Vigilant.” This is not just a slogan, for there is substance behind all they do.

Let me introduce you to their creed: “The Mission of the Civil Air Patrol Cadet Program is to

provide the youth of our nation a quality program that enhances their leadership skills through an interest in aviation, and simultaneously provide service to the United States Air Force and the local community" (CAP Regulation 56-16).

Recall again the shocking events which led up to the destruction of the US fleet at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. This devastation was invited by our failure to be Semper Vigilans! This was followed by the tragedy of September 11, 2001.

Hopefully, it is due to the efforts of organizations like CAP to prevent such disasters in the future. So, we are blessed by young people today who seek the opportunity to serve our nation and commit to such principles and follow through with the conviction that they will never place comfort, ease, and indifference ahead of duty and conviction. We are blessed with youth who keep foremost in their minds the words of the wise man of the biblical Book of Proverbs: “To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing in righteousness, justice and equity; to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth - Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance” (Proverbs 1:2-5).

Let us take the opportunity today, as veterans and civilians alike, to thank our young people who choose not the words of that song, “Que Sera, Sera, what will be will be...the future is not ours to see, Que Sera, Sera." Rather, let us commend our young people who lived out the principles involved in choosing the harder right instead of the easier wrong, and who strive to live out these higher principles and with the grace and power of God to capitalize on them. When our youth commit to these things, they will make a tremendous difference in shaping, not only who they are, but what this nation becomes.

I commend our youth to our Heavenly Father's keeping and close this message with the Cadets’ Prayer of West Point:

O God, our Father, Thou Searcher of Men's hearts, help us to draw near to Thee in sincerity and truth. May our religion be filled with gladness and may our worship of Thee be natural. Strengthen and increase our admiration for honest dealing and clean thinking, and suffer not our hatred of hypocrisy and pretense ever to diminish. Encourage us in our endeavor to live above the common level of life. Make us to choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong, and never to be content with a half truth when the whole can

be won. Endow us with courage that is born of loyalty to all that is noble and worthy, that scorns to compromise with vice and injustice and knows no fear when truth and right are in jeopardy. Guard us against flippancy and irreverence in the sacred things of life. Grant us new ties of friendship and new opportunities of service. Kindle our hearts in fellowship with those of cheerful countenance, and soften our hearts with sympathy for those who sorrow and suffer. Help us to maintain the honor of the Corps untarnished and unsullied and to show forth in our lives the ideals of West Point in doing our duty to Thee

and to our Country. All of which we ask in the name of the Great Friend and Master of men. — Amen.