Editor’s Note: The following Daily Ray of Hope was published May 30. Along with a letter to the editor from Larry Wapnick, we offer this “ray of hope” again, believing the message to be increasingly relevant for our time.

Never before probably has the need for interfaith commitment

been nearly as great as it is at this very moment.

– Walter Cronkite 

Larry Wapnick:

Pictures are worth a thousand words…. however the words spoken at the dedication of the US Military Ceremony at Iwo Jima in 1945 went deeper. ” Here lie men that if they had lived would have done great things. Who ever is bigoted makes a mockery of what they have died for. Here lie men of different races, colors and creeds, Christians and Jews side by side and together in eternal peace!” These words by Chaplain Roland Gittleson echoed through out the free world as he dedicated this Cemetery following the horrific battle for Iwo.

The Chaplain’s dedication speech describes bigotry and intolerance, but most important the equality of all men. Our Veterans have paid the highest prices for our freedoms, let us in LIFE understand the meanings of tolerance and respect, only in this way can we continue to survive as the offspring of the “Greatest Generation That Ever Lived”!

Larry Wapnick