CHARLESTON: STRONG AND UNITED

By: Mike White, SIOR, CCIM, Broker-in-Charge

This is not the column I had intended to write this month. My semi-annual forecast can wait one more month, for this column is dedicated the nine Godly souls of AME Emanuel and the Great People of Charleston: 

   O God, our Father, Thou Searcher of human hearts, help us to draw near to Thee in sincerity and truth. May our religion be filled with gladness and may our worship of Thee be natural.

I have drawn strength this week from the words of the West Point Cadet Prayer…memorized years ago and recited alongside my Brothers and Sisters in Arms from all races and backgrounds….

   Strengthen and increase our admiration for honest dealing and clean thinking, and suffer not our hatred of hypocrisy and pretence ever to diminish.

 Hate will not win, when Love Conquers All.

   Encourage us in our endeavor to live above the common level of life. Make us to choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong, and never to be content with a half-truth when the whole can be won.

 That most important verse, “choosing the harder right”, lifts one above the bias that visits our minds and knows only how to destroy.

   Grant us new ties of friendship and new opportunities of service.

What a lesson in compassion the families have taught us all these past ten days. In true Charleston tradition, I pray we all will strive to greet every stranger with kindness and respect, knowing that this is the legacy of those we lost.

   Kindle our hearts in fellowship with those of a cheerful countenance, and soften our hearts with sympathy for those who sorrow and suffer. Help us to maintain the honor of the Corps untarnished and unsullied and to show forth in our lives the ideals of West Point in doing our duty to Thee and to our Country.