Thank you, President Oaks.
My dear brothers and sisters, I too want to
express my appreciation for that beautiful
choral number and for the privilege of being
with you this morning.
It is a thrill to know that you are the children
of the Lord who have been chosen to come forth
in these last days to do his work, and I learned
on my recent visit to your campus that you
are well aware of the world’s problems:
the disease, the hunger, the poverty, the
immorality, man’s inhumanity to man.
I saw that you are seeking solutions, thoughtfully
considering the opinions of others, scientifically
seeking the methods, and interacting in ways
that may well prepare you to unite and boldly
declare that you will follow Jesus Christ
to a final victory.
This is not to be a game that ends in a tie,
nor is it to be one where there is a strategic
plan for a last-second shot.
It is to be a victory where evil and unrighteousness
will be bound and the children of the Lord
will be free to be safely gathered into his
kingdom.
To some, this may seem like an impossible
dream at this point in time, but I assure
you it is possible and it will happen.
However, it can only come about through the
efforts of honest men and women who are committed
to dedicate their lives to its accomplishment.
I feel sure that to some it may seem impossible
that George Washington could have ever freed
the colonies from the power that controlled
them.
I’m sure it must have seemed impossible
that those colonies could ever unite after
the battles of Lexington and Concord when
that congress had studied and debated for
nearly a full year.
I’m sure it was a weary but happy John Adams
who wrote to his wife, Abigail, after his
tireless efforts in that congress:
Yesterday the greatest question was ever decided
which ever was debated in America, and a greater
[question] perhaps never was nor will be decided
among men.
A resolution was passed without one dissenting
colony that these united colonies are, and
of right ought to be, free and independent
states.
Notice the insight when he added:
You will think me transported with enthusiasm,
but I am not.
I am well aware of the toil, and blood, and
treasure, that it will cost us to maintain
this Declaration, and support and defend these
states.
Yet through all the gloom, I can see the rays
of crashing glory.
I can see that the end is more than worth
all the means.
And those were not just idle words when those
men pledged their lives and their liberty
and their sacred honor.
It was not a flamboyant or a glamorous gesture
when they signed that document that declared
to all the world that there were some compelling
arguments necessary for them to break from
the power that ruled their lives.
The move for independence came in an age of
mental enlightenment, as recognized by Norman
Cousins in his book In God We Trust.
“The seeds of the free mind,” he said,
concerning that time, “seem to sprout at
the same time.
Ideas have a life of their own.
They can be nourished and brought into active
growth by a small number of sensitive, vital
minds which somehow seem to respond to the
needs of the total organism, however diffused
the parts of that organism may be.”
And so it was with the ideas that brought
men to pledge all that they had, in fact life
itself, to the founding of this nation.
The precise phrases of the Declaration of
Independence seemed to occur to many men at
the same time.
The framers of the Declaration of Independence
had the thrill of recognizing that what they
were thinking was being thought by other great
minds.
What Thomas Jefferson did was to bring the
words, the need, and the moment together.
We know from the revelations that the Lord
raised up these good men to do this mighty
work.
It was no accident.
The remarkable and joyful thing is that these
young men and women who lived two hundred
years ago accepted the challenge of their
time so effectively.
Laced throughout their writing is the evidence
of their reliance upon a divine guidance.
They appeal in the declaration itself to the
world court on the grounds that what they
did was in answer to that higher law of God
which provides that all men are endowed by
their Creator with certain unalienable rights.
Our founding fathers had such faith in man.
Listen again to the words of Norman Cousins:
The American Founding Fathers . . . believed
deeply in the ability of a human being to
learn enough in order to take part in self-government;
in the capacity of people to make sense of
their lives if given reasonable conditions
within society itself; in the responsive power
of men when exposed to great ideas; in people,
to stand under the due process of law; in
man, to make basic decisions concerning his
religion or his politics or anything else.
This is the faith that our Heavenly Father
has in us.
Inspired by the Lord, the Prophet Joseph Smith
said, “I teach them correct principles and
they govern themselves.”
In the mighty struggle before the world was,
God stood firm for the resolution that men
had to have their free agency so they could
progress.
Our Heavenly Father has continued through
the ages to offer us knowledge and wisdom
and also to allow evil as well as good to
exist, so that men might have their options.
A sense of destiny seemed to be with the Americans
from their earliest encounter with this continent.
Listen to John Winthrop’s words in the 1600s.
He said, “For we must consider that we shall
be as a city upon a hill.
The eyes of all people are upon us.
So that if we shall deal falsely with God
in this work we have undertaken and so cause
him to withdraw his present help from us,
we shall be made a story and a by-word through
the world.”
In Louis Untermeyer’s foreword to The Britannica
Library of Great American Writing, he supports
this fact and yet he recognizes the great
diversities of America as he describes it
and its people:
This is a country of contradictions.
Restlessness, a love of movement for its own
sake, is distinctly an American trait, but
so is the love of the land and the desire
to get one’s roots deep into it.
Americans are avid for experiment.
They will buy and try anything new.
But they are also devoted to the status quo,
to things as they are and to letting well
enough alone.
They are nostalgic about the last (and lost)
frontier; they lament the passing of the past;
yet they believe in the ever-expanding limitless
future.
They are isolationists, and they also see
their country as the pivotal force of the
world.
They are a hybrid product of many kinds, creeds,
and colors from every possible racial group,
and yet they are a race apart, a polyglot
people to whom the letters U.S. mean not only
United States, but personally “us” .
The typical American cherishes his contradictions.
He is both proud and complacent about the
size, vigor, and variety of his country, a
country intensely devoted to ancient doctrines
and the Good Book.
And yet he knows that within less than fifty
years, this same country has produced two
new Bibles, The Book of Mormon and Science
and Health.
He is likely to seem naïve, apt to regard
his nation as the New Jerusalem and himself
as one of the specially privileged elect,
one who echoes the declaration of John Adams,
“I always consider the settlement of America
as the opening of a grand scheme and design
in Providence for the illumination and emancipation
of the slavish part of mankind all over the
earth.”
Yet his very boastfulness stems from a sense
of wonder; he shares a gigantic vision which
in the midst of vast prairies and breath-taking
plateaus rears sky-scraping cities of incredible
industry and luxury.
Here we are, you and I—Americans of diverse
backgrounds, trying to understand our destiny,
celebrating the significant event of the founding
of this country, and looking at two hundred
years of contradictions and magnificent events
side by side.
Our view of history is tempered by revealed
truth.
This country came forth with divine planning
and help to provide a climate in which the
gospel could be fully restored.
Men of all nations were brought together into
the melting pot so that they might be prepared
and ready to hear the word of God.
At this crossroads in time you stand, quite
naturally ready to examine this country’s
history.
Take care how you look.
History is not an easy thing to understand.
Therefore, read widely, think deeply, and
judge wisely.
We cannot alter the pages of history, but
we need to understand what was done in the
past, even if it was not all praiseworthy
or of good report, so that we might avoid
mistakes in the future.
Errors should not blind us to the good that
our nation has contributed to the progress
of mankind.
As a country we have contributed much in the
field of government.
No other constitution acknowledges that the
source of power reposes in the people and
that only that power which they delegate belongs
to the state.
The sober, thoughtful system of checks and
balances has stood the severe test of traumatic
challenges.
This principle of checks and balances stands
as a torch in the night.
We need to keep that torch burning.
The idea of democracy itself has to have new
champions.
Only about one-fourth of the nations in the
world are functioning as democracies.
The temptation to wield power is great, and
most of the world is still struggling to be
freed from the fetters of oppressive governments.
No matter how benevolent the dictatorship,
control of human life is a terrible price
to pay.
A free country is an American dream.
Keeping that dream alive in your minds and
hearts is a continuing responsibility.
Don’t be discouraged by errors, foolishness,
or selfishness.
Don’t be cynical when you observe that not
everyone has found the opportunity that you
know in this America.
Liberty, freedom, democracy, and trust in
God—these are, as John Adams said, our “rays
of crashing glory,” worthy of our ongoing
support whatever the cost.
They can be ours; we can be free if we will
be free.
The Lord has told us this in the scriptures.
He has told us that this is a blessed land
and it will be free only as long as the inhabitants
serve the God of this land.
Remember the words of 2 Nephi 1:7:
Wherefore, this land is consecrated unto him
whom he shall bring.
And if it so be that they shall serve him
according to the commandments which he hath
given, it shall be a land of liberty unto
them; wherefore, they shall never be brought
down into captivity; if so, it shall be because
of iniquity; for if iniquity shall abound,
cursed shall be the land for their sakes,
but unto the righteous it shall be blessed
forever.
So what is it, my young friends, that you
can do for America?
Commit yourselves to serve the God of this
land.
Live according to the truths that he has revealed.
Knowing what we know, none of us should do
less.
There is so much that you can do to be of
help to others and thereby live more fully.
Have you walked the hospital corridors and
seen the suffering men and women so wracked
with pain that they can hardly shuffle one
foot in front of the other?
Who will find the medicines to cure these
ailments?
Have you seen the despondency in the eyes
of those whose disease knows no stopping point?
Who will find the cause?
Have you watched with a lump in your throat
while someone you loved courageously inched
forward on an unsteady leg after extensive
surgery and an amputation?
The therapy is so long and so hard.
Who will care enough to see that the hours
of struggle and heartbreak are guided until
new muscles are developed to take over the
unaccustomed task?
Who will prepare the children to receive all
knowledge through more effective teaching?
Have you wondered how to solve the difficult
problems of land pollution?
Somewhere there are answers, and someone will
find them.
Have you a symphony or a hymn in your soul?
Are you getting the knowledge and the discipline
so that the world may hear it someday?
Who will discover the perfect diets and serve
the meals that will allow people to perform
up to their full potential?
Have you seen the waste of human life in the
slums of the world?
Who is going to find a way to stop the deadly
cycle that leads to such ruined, wasted life?
How about the energy crisis or the overriding
of existential philosophies?
Who is going to make the contact with morality
a reality?
Are you?
Now is the time of your preparation.
You will be better able to help your country
if you come to your tomorrows having made
the best use of this precious time.
You will be of less value if you try to build
your life upon expediency and false principles.
We all have this responsibility.
Shakespeare said it this way: “Be just and
fear not.
Let all the ends thou aimest at be thy countries,
thy gods, and truth.”
As you explore that unknown country inside
of yourself, look for the talents and dream
the dreams that will make you aspire to great
and noble things.
Then what you leave behind will be a great
country; a strong, stable family; a life of
significance; a torch still burning bright
as the founding fathers gave to you.
In our day young women are encouraged to reach
out and fill their potential in many ways.
It is important in so doing that they think
carefully about the years ahead.
It is important to use wisely these years
of preparation to fill their minds and hearts
with dreams and with learning and with the
eternal perspectives which the gospel provides.
The Church cannot afford to waste any of its
precious human resources.
Neither can our nation.
Both must use resources in ways that will
be in keeping with true values and divine
approbation.
Women should approach their options and their
choices thoughtfully and carefully.
When they choose to rear children and thereby
build strong family units, they should realize
that such a choice offers both challenge and
fulfillment.
It cannot be merely a spare-time option if
we are to give our nation strong, stable families
that are society’s hope for existence.
No society in the history of the world has
ever survived the breakdown of the family.
So it must be with thoughtful hearts that
we hear and heed the prophet’s present-day
counsel to strengthen family units.
The choices made in planning any career, occupation,
vocation, or avocation should be those that
will have the strongest influence for good
upon family units.
As a leader of nearly a million Latter-day
Saint women in the Relief Society organization,
I would use my full power to persuade every
young woman to accept with joy the opportunities
of her divinely given role as a woman.
Be she a student, homemaker, wife, mother,
teacher—whatever her chosen profession—she
can exemplify womanhood at its best.
She can stand for faith and high ideals that
will be an inspiration to all around her and
to the new and upcoming generation.
She can be a guide to them and thereby help
them to build that high type of character
without which we can never have a strong nation.
God has told us that men and women are not
to be the same.
We are of equal worth in his eyes, but we
are not the same.
So there are activities for which women are
best suited and their are activities for which
men are best suited.
For example, I would not encourage any young
Latter-day Saint woman, especially one just
out of high school, to become a military enlistee.
Lately into my hands have come brochures designed
to persuade our young women to enlist in the
military services.
I know that many factors, including the extremists
of the women’s movement, have compelled
the government not only to encourage but also
to actively recruit young women into the military
ranks.
As I have looked at the thrust of their appeal,
I see page after page enticing young women
to enlist.
The blandishments for enlistment come in very
appealing packages.
The emphasis is on personal opportunity, travel,
challenge, training, and money.
The success of this strong recruitment effort
for women is dramatically apparent in the
statistics.
The Salt Lake Tribune in October 1975 carried
an article by Barry Rohan of the Knight newspaper
staff.
He said, “This fall nearly half of the freshman
ROTC classes are women students.
The office of the assistant secretary of defense
reports great strides in increasing the number
of women in uniform.
The result of these efforts has been that
the number of women serving in the military
has increased from 55,000 in 1973 to 97,000
in 1975.
The planned goal is 120,000 by 1977.”
This gives us some idea of the success of
the recruitment program.
A recent article in the Deseret News called
it “the latest military invasion—women.”
I feel that the regimentation of military
life places a great strain upon most women
who would enlist in military services.
It is difficult for them to live under the
pressures of putting their lives so completely
into another’s charge, resigning their actions
so completely to another’s discipline.
A recent letter from some concerned parents
is typical of some others I have received.
It illustrates some of the problems to which
I refer.
This letter reads:
Dear President Smith:
Some time ago we received a phone call from
our daughter.
She is in the army.
She was crying over the phone.
In fact, she was almost hysterical.
She felt she had not one friend on earth.
Those she thought were her friends had deserted
her and were in fact persecuting her unmercifully—for
one reason, because she is a Mormon.
To say “we were in despair” is an understatement.
A second letter was enclosed with the letter
from these parents, and let me read it to
you in part:
I am your daughter’s Relief Society visiting
teacher.
My companion and I were at first unable to
locate her.
When we did, we found a depressed and mixed-up
young lady.
I’m not connected with the military, and
I soon had my eyes opened to the unfortunate
circumstances in which young girls in the
military may find themselves.
How very difficult it would be to keep gospel
standards in my mind when one was continually
subject to the rowdy, cigarette-filled barracks,
the regimentation of being dumped into a job
for which one is neither suited nor trained.
Since that initial visit, and on following
visits as she became aware of the Church here,
a distinct change came over her.
As far as her work would permit, she attended
many ward functions, and all were aware of
her friendly presence.
One could almost measure the light that came
back into her lovely eyes.
She began to smile as she realized that people
cared.
You’re going to be welcoming home a very
special daughter, and I shall miss her because
she is my friend.
I shall always be grateful to her for showing
me the change that can come into one’s life
when he grasps firmly the iron rod.
I would hope that all Latter-day Saint young
women would think long and hard about the
regimentation of enlistment in military service,
for our experience with young women in the
military is very disappointing.
A career military officer who is a good Latter-day
Saint observed, “I have seen both sides
of the story—clean, wholesome young ladies
who have lived their religion and who have
anxiously and effectively shared it with others.
And then I have sadly witnessed some of these
young ladies become engulfed in the filth
and mire; unfortunately, the majority of the
cases fall into the latter category.”
Very little moral guidance is provided by
the military.
Each person sets his own set of values.
The result is consistent with current trends
in society.
As Latter-day Saints, however, we are committed
to live according to a God-given set of values.
Moral integrity is not what we say is right.
Moral cleanliness and integrity will always
be that which God has revealed.
Whether we live that way or not is up to us.
The special conditions of regimentation, assigned
living quarters, make it difficult to remove
oneself from unwholesome environments and
their consequent pressures and temptations.
We must do our best to keep ourselves free
from situations that might cause us to compromise
our standards.
Now, as I’ve voiced my concern for a young
woman choosing to become enlisted into the
regular military ranks, I am at the same time
in favor of military service organizations,
such as the ones you have here on campus.
One of my daughters found great growth as
she participated in and was commandant of
Angel Flight here at Brigham Young University.
She learned personal discipline.
She found pleasure in her associates.
The Angel Flight Drill Team was particularly
successful that year, and she took pride in
their accomplishments.
I raise my concerns about service in the military,
particularly for young women, because I want
them to make knowledgeable choices.
At the same time I recognize the great good
of the military.
I have personal knowledge of the great good
being accomplished throughout the world by
Latter-day Saint military personnel.
I have seen their good influence as I traveled
through the Far East countries with the General
Authorities for the area conferences.
I saw many people who had accepted the gospel
and its teachings because of the lives and
the examples of good Latter-day Saint military
men and women.
I pay them high tribute.
I know that we need such leaders who give
their lives to protect our country from destruction
and who will keep alive the ideals of morality,
Christian living, and freedom upon which our
democracy is founded.
They are a strength to our country and to
our Church throughout the world.
I know that a dedicated, strong, technically
trained, well-directed military is vital to
maintaining the good life, the free society,
the American dream.
Since its founding, however, this country’s
freedom has been won and maintained largely
by a male military which was and is supported
by wives, mothers, sisters, sweethearts especially
dedicated to the principles of freedom, but,
in my judgment, making their contribution
to its cause in ways best suited to women.
I hope that women will do in the future as
they have done over and over again in the
past—save families.
I remember with pride the women who have been
willing to help when the need arose.
In the revolutionary period most of the women
maintained homes and families while their
men were at war.
Some of them, like Molly Pitcher, fired cannons
when the need was upon them.
Pioneer women built great, strong homes, but
they too fired guns when they had to.
In periods of national emergencies women have
always been able to rise to the occasion.
During World War II, for example, many thousands
of women gave valued service in the military.
But even in wartime the home front is at least
as vital to victory as is the battlefront.
Without it there can be no victories on any
front—in wartime or peacetime.
So whatever else we do as women, we need to
remember that God has given us the home front
to defend against all assault.
There are many options open to women today,
and Latter-day Saint women are caught up in
the challenge of this change in society, but
we cannot with conviction turn our backs on
the divine counsel that women are the homemakers
of the world.
As we build a strong home front we provide
a supporting line of defense in times of war
and peace that is absolutely critical and
irreplaceable.
Even our national anthem reflects this thought,
as in the last stanza we sing, “O thus be
it ever, where free men shall stand, between
their loved homes and the war’s desolation.”
America is the great ongoing dream of democracy.
America deserves the commitment of our lives
to maintain this dream.
America’s essential ingredients are morality
and integrity if we are to preserve this land.
America is a land of personal choices and
responsibility.
America is where you can fulfill your destiny.
Nobody can tell you what the years ahead will
hold for you.
You can be sure there will be happy and tender
moments.
You can be sure there will be days of exciting
achievements, and you can be certain there
will be “down” days and problems you cannot
anticipate.
This is the nature of mortality.
Your real job is to do whatever comes your
way and refine your soul in the doing.
You can map out a general path.
You can commit to living truth as you see
it.
You can through your actions tell the world
that you are not ashamed of the gospel of
Jesus Christ.
Then, wherever you are, whatever you choose
to do, you will be building his kingdom for
your children and your children’s children.
What will this next two hundred years hold
for our native land, this land of promise?
What do you promise to this great land of
promise?
If you promise a life of moral purity and
integrity, then you again give our nation
the fundamental building blocks of greatness
and liberty.
Without these gifts you give only ashes, for
you destroy this great, free land.
As I stand here today I remember Deborah,
a mother, a poetess, a judge in Israel who
rallied her wavering and oppressed countrymen
to battle to accomplish the work needed to
save the children of the Lord in her day.
Deborah’s greatness lay not in her physical
strength but in her moral leadership, in the
confidence she inspired that the Lord would
aid those who fought for a righteous cause.
May we have that same greatness.
May we have the vision our founding fathers
had of a free nation.
It is worth all the sacrifice it took to create
it, and it is worth all the sacrifice it will
take to maintain it.
Thomas Jefferson gave an eloquent reminder:
“The people,” he said, “are the only
sure reliance for the preservation of our
liberty.”
It is my prayer that as American citizens
each of us will search his soul and, as George
Washington counseled, rededicate himself and
“labor to keep alive . . . that little spark
of celestial fire—conscience.”
With that conscience and with the Spirit of
the Holy Ghost we, men and women, can accept
the challenge of our time and contribute effectively
to that which our nation needs the most.
We can dream dreams for a future of growth,
solutions for problems not yet solved, and
hope for the future.
We can build a foundation of moral virtue
that gives strength and stability as our part
in that final victory which will make it possible
for the children of the Lord to be safely
gathered into his kingdom.
May this be our promise to this land of promise,
I ask in the name of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
