The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1959-04-10
JOSEPH BREIG
New States.
Old Friends

In the usual meaning of the words, | have never
been in Alaska, And have never been In Hawaii. But
in spirit, | have visited both! My mind has adventured
where my body could not follow.
1t is difficult to describe the vividnesS of my inn
pressions of such distant places. | am an ~inveterate
reader; and what see on the printed page is almost
more real than reality. Certainly it is more romantic.
Ihave shouted "Mush, you malemutes,' as | travel
led the Yukon territory with Jack London and Robert
w. Service. And the woman who kissed him-and
plnched his poke-Was the lady known as Lou. And
the inky smoke, in a greasy cloak, went streaking down
the sky
WITT CHARLEY CHAN. | have solved manv j
mystery under the mysterious moon of Hawaii. / think
of the islands as the land with language that is
music, Molokai-mole oh-kah-ee, Waikiki-wah-eekee
kee, The words are articulated beauty. strangely
familiar because of their kinship with American Indian
terms | have heard from childhood.
| grew up on a river called the Kiskiminetas.
Observation-Disclosures How it trips off the tongue
and sets the nerves of rhythm to tingling. Nearby
HAY-lah) and the Allegheny AL-eh-GENN-ee). More
than once, | have seen the sun setting in a lake known
as Oconomowoc h-CON N-oh-moW-Wock1.
But there is a peerless gentleness, a kind OF
Woolng, a makinglove with ~syllables, in the Hawaiian
place-names, as if those who selected them wished
to embrace the very geography. Mauna Koa, the
White Mountain; Mauna Loa, the Long Mountain
kllauea with its great crater. To recite the Islands
is to utter poetry-Hawaii, Maui, Kahoolawe, Lanai.
Molokai,. Oahu, Kauai. Niihau.
ON MoLoKAI. at the base of a sheer cliff over
looking the sea, ugliness and beauty met in a titanic
still conflict; and beauty eventually won because good
ness came to its rescue in the person of a man filled
with the spirit of Christ. Father Damien, the "Leper
Priest, towers in history and will tower taller and
taller as the centuries pass; and Hawaii will tower with
him.
l'have never been in Alaska with its SHOWS and
glaciers and indomitable masculine vigor. | have
never been in Hawaii where nature is like a maiden
beckoning. But it is as old friends and boon adven-
turers that welcome them into the Union as the 10th
and 50th of the United States of America.
America, | think, is the most astounding work of
human minds that the earth has ever seen. It is the
nation made of many nations, many races, many
PHILOSOPHERS, many religions, many cultures. And the
thing that makes it one is a simple fortnight state
ment of a theological truth.
I'VE HOLD THESE TRUTHS to be self evident,
that all men are created equal; that they are endowed
by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that
among these rights are life, liberty and the pursuit
OF happiness; and that to secure these rights, govern
ments are instituted among men,"
There stands the greatest and deepest political
statement ever placed on paper by a human hand.
We are created; we are endowed by our Creator; and
1t is the business of government to treasure and de-.
fend that endowment. This is the heart and the soul
or the United States of America; it is for this that the
Flag has flown from the time when its stars numbered
Is until now when they are so. s.,
Zone nation, indivisible under God, with liberty
and justice for all" This is the meaning of America,
and 1t is to this that Alaska and Hawaii are adding
their strength and loyalty. And for the support Of
this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection .
OF Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each
other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.