Photo By Emily McCamy | Army Lt. Col. Alexander Conyers, Joint Task Force Guantanamo's 525th Military Police...... read more read more
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By Vaughn Larson
Joint Task Force Guantanamo
GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba – Army Lt. Col. Alexander Conyers, 525th Military Police Battalion commander, challenged his audience at last week's prayer breakfast to leave the world a better place than how they found it.
"That phrase is daunting to the average person, and I consider myself an average person," Conyers said. "But we also use the phrase, 'It's a small world.' Once you realize just how small, you really can make a difference."
Conyers observed that the U.S. military is largely comprised of small-town residents seeking to make a difference.
"After serving our country, we are much better equipped to make the world a better place," he said. "We know what right and wrong look like."
Conyers spoke about personal satisfaction drawn from accomplishing tasks only he could do, in part because only he would do it. He also referred to Nehemiah from the Old Testament, the Jewish cup-bearer to the Persian king Artaxerxes who sought a leave of absence to rebuild Jerusalem.
"Nehemiah knew he had to go home," Conyers said, using the story to emphasize civic responsibility. He spoke of some of his own actions, such as donating a building to a youth mentoring program and persuading a county board to relocate a public social service office out of the space it had used in the county jail. He also started his own college scholarship fund after realizing that conventional scholarship requirements often left out deserving students.
"Somewhere in America, someone needs your help," Conyers explained. "Someone needs your assistance. If we don't reach out, they may not be reached.
"There's no greater feeling on this earth than helping someone else," he added.
Conyers named his scholarship after the poem, "The Bridge Builder," by Will Allen Dromgoole, which details how an old man crosses a perilous gorge and then builds a bridge even though he will not cross that way again.
"The builder lifted his old gray head: 'Good friend, in the path I have come,' he said, 'There followeth after me today a youth, whose feet must pass this way. This chasm, that has been naught to me, to that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be. He, too, must cross in the twilight dim; good friend, I am building this bridge for him.'"
This is the first prayer breakfast in the past year that has not been led by a flag officer. It is also the first prayer breakfast in the past year sponsored by the 525 Military Police Battalion instead of Joint Task Force Guantanamo.
| Date Taken: | 01.23.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 01.27.2009 09:08 |
| Story ID: | 29326 |
| Location: |
| Web Views: | 297 |
| Downloads: | 262 |
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