We are men who lead, serve, protect and defend, whether we are giving out Coats for Kids, donating wheelchairs, lending a helping hand in disaster relief efforts, supporting local pregnancy centers or providing top-quality financial products.
Lecture 19 – March 2025
It was chilly that morning of November 10, 2010, as the crowd began to assemble in Belanger Park, on the banks of the Detroit River at the Mariner’s Memorial Lighthouse in River Rouge, Michigan. A similar crowd gathered at the Mariner’s Church in Detroit. The ceremony began at the appointed time. A few short speeches and appropriate hymns marked the 35th anniversary of the sinking of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald. The observance included the ringing of a ships bell, twenty-nine times, once for each of the twenty-nine men who went down with their ship thirty-five years earlier. Every November 10th the ships bell at the Mariner’s Church in Detroit is rung twenty-nine times in memory of the thousands of mariners who have lost their lives on the Great Lakes.
The Chippewa Nation has a tradition that says that Gitche Gumee, the body of water we call Lake Superior, never gives up her dead when the storms of winter come early. A few months after the sinking Gordon Lightfoot wrote, recorded and released The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. When most recordings spent a few weeks at best on the nation’s popular song list The Wreck spent an unprecedented more than 20 weeks on the chart in both the US and Canada. You couldn’t dance to it, it lasted seven minutes and it had no discernable beat or rhythm. It simply told the story of the ship sinking and the loss of those twenty-nine lives.
A few months ago, I wrote about respect. At the time I was speaking about the lack of respect for our National Anthem. I have recently read a short series of novels that deal with the aristocracy in Ireland about the late 1890s. As Americans we have tended to dismiss much of the pomp and circumstance that our ancestors experienced. We have retained some of it.
Ever notice that people stand when the President enters the room. No one sits in the Oval Office until invited to do so. It is a sign of respect for the office of the President, not necessarily for the individual. It is a sign of respect for the Head of State of any country to stand in their presence.
Socially, we are expected to stand when a woman approaches us. We open doors for her, we pull out her chair for her to be seated. Respect. When attending a play, concert or even the movies we should not enter the venue if the performance has started unless directed to do so by an usher. We should not carry on a conversation with another person during the performance out of respect for the performers and those attending the performance.
Our cell phones are probably the most intrusive devices made by man. In church or at a performance turn it off or at least put it on ‘vibrate.’ At a meeting or on a date turn it off and ignore it by keeping it in your pocket. If you are expecting an important call, let others know that you are and ask them to forgive you in advance. Anything else can wait. Before they were invented, we survived just fine.
In church we stand when the priest starts down the aisle toward the altar. We remain standing until he sits. We genuflect or bow toward the altar. We stand for the gospel. We should not carry on conversations in church out of respect for others who are there to pray. Just as we would stand should a head of state were to enter the room we should stand when a priest enters the room.
Growing up on the shore of Lake Ontario, I witnessed many gales on the Lake. The lakes begrudgingly give up the mysteries they possess. I recall that several years ago a wooden warship was discovered in Ontario. The cold water had preserved it well so well it was identified and reported that it had gone down prior to the War of 1812. The treaty that ended that war outlawed warships on the Great Lakes unless both the US and Canada agreed to allow them for a special occasion. Somewhere in Ontario there is a US military aircraft. Four were on a training flight over the lake. Suddenly there were only three. Although a search was begun immediately there was no oil slick, no parachute, and no wreckage. The missing pilot made no distress call. Neither the pilot nor the aircraft were ever found. I guess that bell also rings for him.
