As we gather here today we are part of an international organization comprised of people from many

nationalities, cultures and faith traditions who are bound together by our common goal of peace
through fellowship and better understanding and our guiding principle of service above self. I believe
the following words from Chapter 37 of Paul Harris’s book, My Road to Rotary, published in 1948 are
appropriate:

“When an individual, a sect, a clique or a nation hates and despises another individual, sect, clique or
nation, he or they simply do not know the objects of their hatred. Ignorance is at the bottom of it.
Ignorance is a menace to peace. The higher the general average of intelligence (and I believe he meant
by intelligence knowledge), all things else being equal, the less the disposition to be meddlesome,
critical, and overbearing. Individuals and nations owe it to themselves and the world to be informed.”