Tecumseh Letter from "Act of Valor" Movie

Act of Valor Letter - Father to Son at Death

TECUMSEH

Live your life that the fear of death
can never enter your heart.
Trouble no one about his religion.
Respect others in their views
and demand that they respect yours.
Love your life, perfect your life,
beautify all things in your life.
Seek to make your life long
and of service to your people.
Prepare a noble death song for the day
when you go over the great divide.
Always give a word or sign of salute when meeting
or passing a friend, or even a stranger, if in a lonely place.
Show respect to all people, but grovel to none.
When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light,
for your life, for your strength.
Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living.
If you see no reason to give thanks,
the fault lies in yourself.
Touch not the poisonous firewater that makes
wise ones turn to fools and robs their spirit of its vision.
When your time comes to die, be not like those
whose hearts are filled with fear of death,
so that when their time comes they weep and pray
for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way.
Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home.

Lesson from Climbing a Tree...

Do you remember the simple pleasure of heightened vision after successfully climbing a tree?  Are we not built for enhanced vision and joy?  Created for the big picture and the pleasures of the Creator's work?

Philanthropist Takes the Long Term View in Africa

“If you’re thinking you’re going to go into some difficult part of the world and solve some challenging problem, the first five years will be the worst,” says Greg Carr. 

Greg Carr decided more than a decade ago, when he was in his late 30s, that he wanted to devote all his time to philanthropy. In 1999, Mr. Carr, who co-founded the company Boston Technology, started a foundation that bears his name and also gave $18-million to help Harvard University create the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy.

Lincoln on Reconciliation

Abraham Lincoln

Second Inaugural Address

Saturday, March 4, 1865

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Weeks of wet weather preceding Lincoln’s second inauguration had caused Pennsylvania Avenue to become a sea of mud and standing water. Thousands of spectators stood in thick mud at the Capitol grounds to hear the President. As he stood on the East Portico to take the executive oath, the completed Capitol dome over the President’s head was a physical reminder of the resolve of his Administration throughout the years of civil war. Chief Justice Salmon Chase administered the oath of office. In little more than a month, the President would be assassinated.

“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

Holy Saturday

“Holy Saturday.” - a day of waiting. The day-in-between, the day between earth and heaven, hurt and healing, waiting and receiving, faith and sight. It’s Saturday, but Sunday’s coming . . .

Fundraisers Need to Understand Tax Forms

Fundraisers may not have to fill out their charity’s informational tax return for the Internal Revenue Service, but they need to know what’s in it, said a speaker at the Association of Fundraising Professionals meeting in Vancouver this week.
Audrey Kintzi, senior development director at St. Mary’s University of Minnesota, told fundraisers it’s no long acceptable to say they don’t have anything to do with the informational returns, known as Form 990s.
“You should know the 990 as well as the finance department does,” she said. “You are the face of the organization.”
In addition, Ms. Kintzi said, fundraisers need to realize that donors are looking at the tax forms and other documents to learn more about the organization and how their contributions have been spent.
“If you don’t think donors are reading it, you are sadly mistaken,” she said, adding,  “They’re reading those documents and asking questions.”

Navy Jet Crash in Virginia Beach

Two Navy pilots ejected from a fighter jet after dumping loads of fuel to avoid a major explosion Friday, sending their unmanned plane careening into a Virginia Beach apartment complex and engulfing several buildings in flames, officials said.
Seven people, including both pilots, were injured, officials said. The Navy said both aviators on board the jet ejected before it crashed around noon and were being taken to hospitals for observation.