Chef de Chemin de Fer Ted
Lang
Good Morning Fellow
Americans.
I bring you greetings from Voiture
Nationale. Nationale Officers, Grand Officers, Voyageurs, Dames
and Guest. It is an honor to stand before you today as we
together start yet another year in La Societe. Who would have
thought a farm kid in the sewer cleaning business would have
the opportunity to serve in this honored capacity.
It is only possible because of the
leadership, the training and the caring of those who make up
the membership of Voiture 594 and Grand du Illinois and I thank
them very much for that.
I want to thank Verlin Funkhouser for
appointing me as one of his Aide de Camps, when he was grand
Chef de Gare in the year 2000, for it was in that position,
that placed me in the catapult, that has landed me on this
platform today.
I would like to thank everyone in this
assembly today for your service to La Societe and the
contributions you have given to me the past 8 years. I have
gained more than I can ever repay from your leadership. Thank
you.
I would like to thank my friends Dan
Puckett and Jerry Brady for their friendship this past year and
wish them the best of luck in the future. On behalf of Dan and
Jerry, I would like to thank our friends Bernie and Terry
Sampson for training each of us this past year. It was
certainly a big help. Thanks for the nomination and your vote
of confidence. I will do my best as not to disappoint
you.
Yesterday a vote was taken concerning
our membership requirements, whether you agree or disagree,
that vote is now history. Now we must work together, united as
one group for the good of La Societe. Because divided we will
fail and our organization will fall to its death in a short
period of time. In 2002 we had
over 51,000 members…and today we have 37,000 members. In the
1920,s the American Legion was going down hill in membership.
It was the 40 et 8 who signed members by the tens of thousands
and saved the American legion organization. Voyageur William
Mundt of V-24, Bloomington, IL signed 509 new Legion members in
one year.One year they signed over 111,000 new members and 5
years later brought in over 211,000 new members.
Today we need to help ourselves and we
need to do it quickly. We must all realize the importance of
doubling our membership, if we intend to stay alive. Each
district needs to have a least one wreck per year, as does
Grand du FL. We need to bring back the fun to our organization.
We need to promote all of our programs to our youth and the
general public.
We need to STAND UP FOR AMERICA while
we still have the chance. We must keep IN GOD WE TRUST in our
everyday lives. It surely must be right, as it’s on the money.
The Preamble to their Constitution of every state in the Union
states “In God we trust”. Lack of prayer and the Pledge of
Allegiance were not intended by our founding
fathers.
We must fight hard for one Flag, one
country, one culture, and one language. We must rebuild
America, by standing up for America, and therefore unifying
America. No other country could defeat us in a hot war, but
they have taken advantage of the cold war by introducing hate
and discontent among the American people and are making great
strides in disrupting our morals and values started by our
founding fathers. Aristotle once said; tolerance is the last
virtue of a dying country.
We must work with all veteran
organizations and promote our Americanism programs, our Flags
for first graders and respect for our Flag, our elders, and our
leaders as it was intended many years ago. May we never forget
our POW/MIA programs and continue to honor those who have, and
are giving their lives, so that you and I may continue to live
in peace and freedom.
Our foods are destroying our bodies,
per the wishes of our enemies, requiring even more so the need
for nurses and our nursing scholarship programs.. Our youth of
today will replace us in the future and it is our obligation to
make sure they are properly trained to do so.
We must continue to protect life,
smaller governments, lower taxes, family values, control our
borders, and support democracies. Remember can’t never did
anything, but “can do” can accomplish any and all missions. I
can only ask that each of you return the favor and sponsor a
new member, just as someone sponsored you, when you joined.
Perhaps everyone cannot do this for one reason or another. In
that case, sponsor two or three and help us achieve our goal.
If we will double up, we can do double the programs, provide
double the service for our communities and at the same time
have double the fun in doing so. I can only ask that you simply
try, before saying no. All it takes is “just ask’s.
Working together for a common goal, we
can achieve. In fact, we could probably move the world, if we
had a place to put it. I look forward to serving with you. In
closing, I would like to ask each of you to do 4 things for me:
I would like to ask you to drink, steal, swear and
lie…
- I ask you to drink of the
opportunities you had to serve your country.
- To steal the time to make your
dreams come true.
- To swear that each day is the
beginning of the best part of your life.
- And lie down and thank God that
you live in the freest nation in the world.
May God bless our men and women in our
Armed Forces! And may God bless the United States of
America!
Thank you
Ted Lang
Chef de Chemin de Fer
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