Fourth Degree members: 

On October 22nd in Rock Falls, we had several Brother Knights that achieved the Fourth Degree level of membership in the Knights of Columbus. They are: Paul Aloisio, William Blair, Michael Fulco, Thomas Handschuh, Jacob Nice, Dan Sester, and Steven Voris. The Fourth Degree is all about Patriotism. How appropriate is it to have Veteran’s Day three weeks later. Veterans have displayed their patriotism so that we have the freedom that we enjoy. As Master Paul Isherwood said, some veterans bear visible signs of their service: missing limbs, a jagged scar, a certain look in the eye, etc. Others may carry the evidence inside of them, a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg, or perhaps another sort of inner steel, the soul’s alloy forged in the refinery of adversity. Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem. You cannot tell a veteran by just looking, he is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure that the armored personnel carriers didn’t run out of fuel. Or he is the bar room loud mouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th parallel. She or he is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbin every night for two solid years in Da Nang. He is the POW who went away one person and returned another—or didn’t come back at all. He is the Quantico drill instructor who has never seen combat – but has saved countless lives by turning slouch, no account rednecks and gang members into Marines, and teaching them to watch each other’s backs. He is the parade riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand. He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medal pass him by. He is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb Of The Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor dies unrecognized with them on the battleship or in the ocean’s sunless deep. He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket, palsied now and aggravatingly slow, who helped to liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come. He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being – a person who offered some of his life’s most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so that others would not have to sacrifice theirs. He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known. So, remember each time you see someone who has served our country, just lean over and say “Thank You.” That’s all most people need, and in most cases it will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or were awarded. Two little words that mean a lot, “THANK YOU.” It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier, who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protestor to burn the flag.I am proud to serve as your Faithful Navigator.

Please call me anytime if I can help you.