A LOOK BACK: KAPPA HISTORY
dedication.
quality operation throughout its jurisdic- tion? The Grand Chapter, therefore, is not in competition with its Provinces and Chapters; the one complements the other. Each is essential to the success of the other. Any less an attitude that this belies our Ritual, our Creed, and our Constitution, and could very well result in our undoing. I find it difficult to speak of reclamation and dedication in one breath and discreteness among the sev- eral elements of Fraternity on the other, be those elements spiritual or material. Only by the satisfaction of these de- mands can we vindicate our announced purpose of achievement and make of it as compelling a value to posterity as it was to our Founding Fathers. Here is the means for inspiring and retaining the interest of members. I have greatly more faith in the creation in the maintenance of basic interest through the medium of brotherhood and high-level admin- istration than in reclamation, however, compelling the appeal. Basic interest must assuredly be inspired prior to Fra- ternity membership, and such interest is not possible where Kappa Alpha Psi is without benign and informed personal meaning. As we work together over the years ahead, let us develop a vigorous sense of membership. Let us recapture the unquenchable spirit of yesteryear and proceed in the great task that events have devolved upon us. Let us dwell together within the shadow of the ever- lasting heroes who saw to our beginning or gave year-to-year assurance to this fiftieth Grand Chapter celebration. This, my brothers, is dedication. As with reclamation, I have little faith in the actuality of rededication. The very need for reclamation suggests the possibility that there was little or no original Fraternity-centered interest. And by the same token, the need for rededication suggests the likelihood that there was little or no fundamental Fraternity-centered consecration. What is commonly thought of as an approach to rededication is, in reality, an appeal
for dedication, the period of membership notwithstanding. As we stand upon the threshold of anoth- er fifty-year period of progressive contin- uance, we are challenged as never before to maintain a quality of brotherhood and administration that will conduce to the dedicated and sustained interest even of our most illustrious members. The goal of Kappa Alpha Psi is more than policies, principles, and procedures; it is now and to all eternity the triumph of spirit over matter, integrity, and moral steadfastness over caprice and unrestraint, fusion over fission, responsibilities over rights, appre- ciation over deprecation, and a posture that is perpetually true to the principle of PHI NU PI. When speaking of dedication, I am re- minded of the words of the Prophet Eze- kiel: “A new heart will I give to you, and a new spirit within you.” Heart and spirit were given us at the time of our found- ing, embedded as they are in the soul of Kappa Alpha Psi. We give repeated utterances to faith in Fraternity, but faith without works is dead. We are assembled on this Golden Anniversary occasion to set our faith to work, to test it, and ourselves in our planning for this day and tomorrow. As we work together, let us grow together in unity and dedication. Within a few hours, I will go from here as your sixteenth Past Grand Polemarch, thoroughly satisfied that I, my subsidiary officers, and a dedicated membership have done everything believed possible to advance the Fraternity of our deep affec- tion. Hopefully, we have pleased the ma- jority and have not too greatly displeased the minority. Give God the glory!
We who are consecrated to the Frater- nity must demonstrate that our Found- ers were right, that the principles upon which we were established and upon which we must build across the years ahead are sound of conception and practical of execution. We must not simply talk about new frontiers; we must formulate and traverse them. I sometimes fear the existence of a delu- sion that Kappa Alpha Psi has arrived and is entitled to an easy leadership. If this fear is justified, let us undeceive ourselves. Leadership is not a right; it is a privilege that must be earned and re-earned day after day, over and over again. The hard facts of survival will inevitably strip away our false sense of security and arouse us from an easy affluence to a growing sense of respon- sibility for ensuring the Fraternity of our conception. The tomorrow of Kappa Alpha Psi demands circumcision or spiritual purification today. It demands the placement of whatever is reasoned to be in the Fraternity interest above petti- ness and personal aggrandizement. It demands vitality in administration. It demands avoidance of routine thinking and acting. It demands supplementation of aggressive civil rights actions with a meaningful program at every Fraternity level for the social, educational, and eco- nomic orientation of youth against the day of reckoning. It demands increased perception of the Grand Chapter as a necessary instrumentality for the recog- nition of Kappa Alpha Psi as a national Greek-letter organization, without which that “good old Kappa spirit” would be nonexistent, and many of us would have to content ourselves with membership in local clubs purely social in character. May I pause here to say that the Grand Chapter has the continuing responsibil- ity for coordinating and directing the affairs of the Fraternity, for setting the pattern and rhythm of administration, and assisting the maintenance of a
I asked my God where my soul might be,
I sought my God, and he eluded me
I sought my brother out and found all three –
My soul, my God, and fraternity
Goodbye, and good fortune.
54 | FALL 2021 ♦ THE JOURNAL
VIRTUAL 85 TH GRAND CHAPTER MEETING
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