President's Message for December 14, 2015

An observation:

 

                On December 9, when many of you were wrapping Christmas presents for the families we support, I had the opportunity and privilege to attend a reception for one of the 75 remaining living recipients of the Medal of Honor.  The recipient was former Army Staff Sergeant Ryan Pitts who is from New Hampshire. Sgt. Pitts is an impressive 30 year old man who reluctantly wears the Medal of Honor, but does so nonetheless for the nine men who died in the fire fight for which he received the medal.  He humbly made it clear that the real heroes that day were the “nine men who made the ultimate sacrifice so the rest of us could come home.”

 

                The reception featured a video with small segments of interviews with about 120 Medal of Honor recipients some of who have since died.  To a man (there has been only one female recipient because the award is a combat related honor), they all acknowledged that they were doing what they were trained to do and they fought as they did to protect their brothers in arms for whom there is a distinct bound that most of us will never know.  What struck me, however, was that so many of them used the term “service above self”.  While that has been the motto and theme of Rotary for a century it meant so much more in the context of individuals who were willing to give up their lives to protect our freedoms and to protect their fellow soldiers.

 

                Interestingly, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society has established a foundation to, in part, go into our schools and promote selfless service.  They are not there to promote the military per se.  They are there to ask students to give of themselves to help others exactly like Rotary does every day.

 

                I personally cannot fathom the level of courage and commitment that our military personnel must have to do their job, but I certainly appreciated the opportunity to see “service above self” taken to a level that is hard to imagine.  I know that service above self is not just a group of buzz words for Rotary but for the military it is way more than a motto.  If you ever have the opportunity to listen to a Medal of Honor recipient take it.  It will give you a whole new perspective on your own life.

 

Bill