Candidate:

George E. Lawhon LR18750

From Chapter:

California 6, Santa Clara County

For Office of:

Director

FOR THE GOOD OF THE ORDER

"Duty calls me to enter into an aspect of the title subject that is unpleasant at best.  While I personally did not encounter anything of the sort at the Reno Convention, there are folks in the National Korean War Veterans Association who apparently feel that their payment of dues entitles them to inflict verbal damage upon other members, in the form of correspondence and other misplaced venues that are abusive and outrageous to an unacceptable extreme.  I first encountered this when helping the Resolutions Committee, when its Chairman asked me to review ten ‘resolutions’ that had been submitted to him.

"In the strictest sense, none of the submittals to the Resolutions Committee qualified for acceptance, since they were not prepared in accordance with the Standard Procedure manual in either content or form.  It did appear that seven (7) could be presented to the Board of Directors with recommendations for at least conditional acceptance.  That left three (3) that would have to be rejected not only for noncompliance to format; but also for not using the resolution process instead of submitting their complaints to the Ethics & Grievance Committee.  Moreover, not only were they presented with no supporting evidence for any of the accusations, but that they came dressed, no, cloaked in a tone and an attitude of anger and disrespect.  It was trash talk at its worst, because it came from KWVA Officers as an indictment against another elected and sworn officer of the organization.

"In another case, a KWVA state department officer sent a 16-page letter to the Board of Directors.  Its content was an indictment of a previous disciplinary action taken by the Board.  His letter contained no evidence to support his complaint; and although he had been advised by the KWVA Attorney and the Judge Advocate of the correctness of the Board’s conduct and performance, he persisted.  Reading the letter, which contained a scolding lecture on the proper use of Roberts Rules of Order, one could only wonder if he was a proxy for others, since he was not present at the disciplinary hearing concerned.  I must add that he wasn’t very familiar with Roberts Rules Of Order.  Had he informed himself correctly, he would have had no cause for his complaint.  Again, even done properly it would have to be submitted to the Ethics & Grievance Committee.

"Such behavior is not for the ‘Good of the Order,’ an organizational state of which Father Stegman spoke so simply, so elegantly, and with such purity of purpose at the Reno Convention.

"Doing some research through the KWVA website, to better inform myself of recent and past history, I came upon a very timely source, a ‘President’s Update,’ dated June 13, 2005, that explains what ‘good of the order’ means.  Here is the link:  http://www.kwva.org/update/archives/i_update_050613_faircloth_good_of_order.htm

"It is a common sense presentation on the issue of which I speak, written with such clarity that I can add very little to what Jimmy Faircloth, our General Counsel gives you there, except for this:  Each member of the KWVA, in application for membership, agrees to support the organization’s ‘rules of order,’ which in our case consists of our Bylaws and the Standard Procedure Manual (SPM) that implements said Bylaws.  We are thus duty bound to that obligation, each and every one of us.

"Please read Attorney Faircloth’s wise counsel.  More than two years after it was available to us all, it is still timely.  It explains the organizational illness with which we are infected, and offers reasonable recommendations as to a corrective medicinal course to its cure.  Right here, right now, this essay is my small attempt at a start on that path.

"In the case of an officer, there is a higher duty to the organization.  Each officer, upon assumption of office, must swear an oath, as follows:

"It is my opinion that those who engage in unnecessary attacks on their fellow members are not meeting their obligation to the fraternal order to which they gave their word, and in some cases their sworn oath to uphold, protect and preserve.

"A person can well be defined by the manner with which they perform to their obligations; in fact you ARE your obligations.  To those of you who indulge your self-centered, willful ways in anger, and who do not give respect to the order to which we all belong:  You know who you are, and so do those who observe and suffer from your actions.  Be assured that had you behaved this way in the outfit in which you served the probability of a court-martial or severe sanction would be high.  Fortunately for the many, there are only but a few of you.  That does not lessen the threat to the order that you represent, which is that your attack, unlike those who choose to do it from without the order, is from within, and from what should be a trusted position.  From what I heard at the Convention, patience of the many towards your behavior has worn very thin.  Their attitude is: enough, already.

"Not one person in our order has the time to waste on such self-destructive behavior, especially those who wish to serve and preserve.  You know the drill, gentlemen:  ‘Lead, follow, or get out of the way.’

"At the Reno Convention, Father Len Stegman reminded us all of his daily commitment, "Here I am O Lord; I want to do Your Will.  What would You have me do today?"  That’s good enough for this Airman.

"Although I joined this outfit in 1996, except for paying my dues, I confess to contributing little.  This year I helped bring a Department into existence, and assisted Messrs. Dauster and Mac Swain in their duties.  I pledge right here, right now, to do more, to help where I can with my small talents and skills.  As I promised at the Convention, I consider it my duty to call, fax and email my United States Congress Person and both Senators to give us our federal charter.  I hope each and every veteran who reads this will do the same, and do it today.  We should all be persistent in our focus towards that goal:  To get our charter.

"As Father Stegman pointed out; we can’t fix yesterday, tomorrow is not yet here, only today is ours to use.  How we do that is our choice.  I choose duty.

“Duty, honor, country”:  A common call to us all that truly goes way, way back.

"Without duty, duly performed, there is no honor.  Without honor given to the order, there is no country.  That applies not only to the service in which you served, it is a standard just as meaningful to the fraternal order named the National Korean War Veterans Association.  May God bless us, each and every one, and yes, America, too!"

Respectfully and fraternally to all..

George E. Lawhon R018750
California Chapter 6, Santa Clara County
Secretary, KWVA California State Department
www.dcakwva.org

george@lawhon.org