‘Provider of opportunities’
By JAMES A. MARPLES
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In the 1920s, Dr. Bagdasar Krikor Baghdigian, who was born in Husanic, Armenia, but a naturalized American, gave lectures on the Chautauqua Circuit near where he then lived at Holliday, Kansas (a Kansas City suburb). Most of that ghost-town is covered by a landfill today.
He lectured about America’s “spiritual mission” and “glorious destiny,” reminding his audience that our freedoms and liberties are what enables good accomplishments to happen. Dr. Baghdigian was very civic-minded. He was a member of the Scottish Rite Masons in Fort Scott, Kansas, and later moved to Denver, Colorado.
In March 1953, he summarized his beliefs by saying: “Civilization is the provider of opportunities.” He noted that “while civilization provides opportunities to all alike, their uses depend on individual initiative and ambition.” How true. He also said: “The very security of our Republic is measured by the individual development of its citizens”. In Dr. Baghdigian’s viewpoint, having good citizenship encompassed more than just existing, it involves pride of citizenship, daring to dream, daring to stay true to that dream no matter what. Do we consider what life would be like if the perks of ‘civilization’ such as electricity, clean water, available food, medicine, plumbing, automobiles, computers and even money were taken-away? We’d be a primitive jungle. People depend upon other people. Years ago, Americans relied mostly on other Americans for sheer survival. Now, we ingest medicines blindly which are made in China, India or elsewhere. Americans borrow to the hilt, and foreign nations cajole us to THEIR own benefit..not ours. Our vary national-security is at-stake. America doesn’t need to be pompous, but we should take care of our own first. We accept people of various faiths. Freedom is good. But, the fundamental respect for Judeo-Christian principles is paramount. Our young people need “the drive” and enthusiasm and access to services to be patriotic Americans once again, by thinking American, producing American, and patronizing America’s farms and factories. We need to get back to our roots.
