peratb Official Organ Of The Slavonic Benevolent Order Of The State Of Texas, Founded 1897 HUMANITY
BENEVOLENCE
BROTHERHOOD
Postmaster: Please Send Form 3579 to: SUPREME LODGE, SPJST, P.O. Box 100, Temple, Texas 76501 VOLUME 03, NUMBER 21 MAY 21, 1975
FROM THE EDITOR'S nESK Memorial Day, May 26th, we pay tribute to those who gave their lives . . . Today we pause to remember . . . with gratitude and respect . . . the men throughout this nation's history who answered the call to arms and lost their own lives so that we can live in freedom and dignity for almost 200 years. Today we count our blessings; we also consider their cost. Nobody ever said it better than Abraham Lincoln: ". . from these honored dead we take increased devotion . . . to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion." Today let's pledge ourselves to just and lasting peace. It may be appropriate and justifiably proper at this time to remember that the life we live did not come by the simple wave of a magician's wand but came about as a result of heartache, blood, sweat and tears. If we individually, as a society, state, or nation ever lose sight of the fact that ours is a hard-won freedom, then we have indeed lost what our forefathers foresaw for us. * * With the Southern District Sokol Slet approaching in Corpus Christi, Saturday, June 7th, and Sunday, June 8th, we are printing Part I of an article written by Brother John Stasa about the history pf Sokol Corpus Christi. In a personal letter to your editor, Brother Stasa
FOOD FOR THOUGHT A good neighbor is a fellow who smiles at you over the fence, but does not climb it. There are two ways of meeting difficulties; you alter the difficulties, or you alter yourself to meet them. • • The man who trusts men will make fewer mistakes than he who distrusts them. stated that since they have so many members in their gymnastic organization who do not read Czech, he felt it beneficial to have the history of the organization written in both languages so our younger readers can see what devotion has been contributed to the cause of physical culture in the past by devoted members of our Society. We, indeed, agree with him and state, as previously, that physical fitness certainly should be the goal of individuals and groups alike. It is in the letter section and we will print Part II next week. We hope you will read it, because it does reveal how much sacrifice went into the various efforts to build our state and country into the great physical and intellectual giant it is. Some
of the Sokol credos are "No personal glory, no personal gain," or "Within a sound body is a sound mind." etc. It may interest our readers to know that very few Sokol members have ever been rejected for duty in the U. S. armed forces because of physical fitness. A great number of our SPJST members are also members of Sokol and we wish them well, always. While we are on the subject of "personal glory or gain" brings to mind a trip we took in August 1954 and visited the gravesite of Thomas Jefferson and saw, in person, his tombstone. We reprint from last week's issue, center front page, the epitaph he wrote for himself: "Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration or American Independence, of the statute of Virginia for religious freedom, and father of the University of Virginia." — Jefferson If you will notice, although Jefferson was the third President of the United States, he was 13.9t possessed with the vanity to state that fact in his epitaph; he rather stressed his interest in the freedoms he believed in instead of the glory or pomp and ceremony of having been President of our United States. Let us all take more time to declare our Oellfiefs