Never Never Never Give Up

Keynote Address upon Receiving the Global Peace Ambassador Award by
Prem Guragain

Peace Peace

Prem Guragain Speaking as a Keynote Speaker during World Peace Day Celebration "Let there be Peace for All,Let it Begin with Me NOW."~ Prem Guragain, Global Peace Amabassador

Throwback Thursday: Albert Einstein and his wife, Elsa (second from right), on vacation with friends in Palm Springs, California in 1933.

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Youth Leadership Conference at Shree Pashupatinath and Buddha Mandir, Norwalk Speech by Prem Guragain during Youth Leadership Conference....

Happy Buddha Jayanti.

Peace Peace

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Prabisha Adhikari - Topic 3 likes. "Shanti Ko Maarga Buddha Timile Maanava Laai Dekhayau"

John Morton-Finney lived an extraordinary life. He was born in 1889, and he faced barriers that made education and professional success difficult. But he never stopped trying. He served in the U.S. Army as a Buffalo Soldier with the 24th Infantry Regiment, went on to earn 11 college degrees, taught for 47 years, and became a lawyer later in life.

John passed away on January 28, 1998. He spent more than a century learning, teaching, and working in the law. He kept going when most people would have stopped. Few people know his story, but it shows what a lifetime of persistence can look like.

(Photo: John Morton-Finney)

Peace Peace

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1. शान्ति भित्रबाट सुरु हुन्छ — मनको नियन्त्रण नै साँचो शान्ति हो।

2. शान्ति प्रेमलाई कर्ममा उतार्नु हो — शत्रुप्रति पनि प्रेम।

3. शान्ति न्यायसँगै टिक्छ — न्याय बिना शान्ति स्थायी हुँदैन।

4. शान्ति आत्म-अनुशासन हो — अरूलाई जित्नुअघि आफैँलाई जित्नु।

5. शान्ति सत्यको साहस हो — एक्लै भए पनि सत्यको पक्षमा उभिनु।

6. शान्ति करुणाबाट जन्मन्छ — प्रत्येक प्राणी सम्मानयोग्य छ।

7. शान्ति हिंसाको अस्वीकार हो — बलले मौनता ल्याउँछ, सद्भाव होइन।

8. शान्ति क्षमाशीलता हो — घृणाको चक्र तोड्नु।

9. शान्ति सेवा हो — गरिब, बिरामी र उपेक्षितको उत्थान।

10. शान्ति मानवीय मर्यादाको सम्मान हो — कुनै जात, वर्ग वा वर्ण श्रेष्ठ हुँदैन।

11. शान्ति धैर्य हो — कठिनाइमा पनि कटुता नराख्नु।

12. शान्ति परिवारबाट सुरु हुन्छ — घरको मेलमिलापले संसार बदल्छ।

13. शान्ति प्रकृतिसँग सन्तुलन हो — पृथ्वीको सम्मान गर्दै बाँच्नु।

14. शान्ति नम्रता हो — साँचो महानता झुक्न जान्दछ।

15. शान्ति साहस हो — नैतिक साहस हतियारभन्दा शक्तिशाली हुन्छ।

16. शान्ति संवाद हो — निर्णयभन्दा पहिले सुन्ने कला।

17. शान्ति लोभको अन्त्य हो — असीम चाहनाभन्दा सन्तोष।

18. शान्ति सबै धर्मलाई जोड्छ — बाटा फरक, हृदय एउटै।

19. शान्ति दैनिक अभ्यास हो — नारा होइन, जीवनशैली।

20. शान्ति मबाट, अहिले सुरु हुन्छ — व्यक्तिगत जिम्मेवारीले विश्व बदल्छ।

“सबैका लागि शान्ति होस्।
यसको सुरुवात मबाट होस्।
अहिल्यै।”
— प्रेम गुरागाईं

Peace Peace

1. शान्ति भित्रबाट सुरु हुन्छ — मनको नियन्त्रण नै साँचो शान्ति हो।

2. शान्ति प्रेमलाई कर्ममा उतार्नु हो — शत्रुप्रति पनि प्रेम।

3. शान्ति न्यायसँगै टिक्छ — न्याय बिना शान्ति स्थायी हुँदैन।

4. शान्ति आत्म-अनुशासन हो — अरूलाई जित्नुअघि आफैँलाई जित्नु।

5. शान्ति सत्यको साहस हो — एक्लै भए पनि सत्यको पक्षमा उभिनु।

6. शान्ति करुणाबाट जन्मन्छ — प्रत्येक प्राणी सम्मानयोग्य छ।

7. शान्ति हिंसाको अस्वीकार हो — बलले मौनता ल्याउँछ, सद्भाव होइन।

8. शान्ति क्षमाशीलता हो — घृणाको चक्र तोड्नु।

9. शान्ति सेवा हो — गरिब, बिरामी र उपेक्षितको उत्थान।

10. शान्ति मानवीय मर्यादाको सम्मान हो — कुनै जात, वर्ग वा वर्ण श्रेष्ठ हुँदैन।

11. शान्ति धैर्य हो — कठिनाइमा पनि कटुता नराख्नु।

12. शान्ति परिवारबाट सुरु हुन्छ — घरको मेलमिलापले संसार बदल्छ।

13. शान्ति प्रकृतिसँग सन्तुलन हो — पृथ्वीको सम्मान गर्दै बाँच्नु।

14. शान्ति नम्रता हो — साँचो महानता झुक्न जान्दछ।

15. शान्ति साहस हो — नैतिक साहस हतियारभन्दा शक्तिशाली हुन्छ।

16. शान्ति संवाद हो — निर्णयभन्दा पहिले सुन्ने कला।

17. शान्ति लोभको अन्त्य हो — असीम चाहनाभन्दा सन्तोष।

18. शान्ति सबै धर्मलाई जोड्छ — बाटा फरक, हृदय एउटै।

19. शान्ति दैनिक अभ्यास हो — नारा होइन, जीवनशैली।

20. शान्ति मबाट, अहिले सुरु हुन्छ — व्यक्तिगत जिम्मेवारीले विश्व बदल्छ।

“सबैका लागि शान्ति होस्।
यसको सुरुवात मबाट होस्।
अहिल्यै।”
— प्रेम गुरागाईं

Imagine being a fly on the wall when Albert Einstein met Irène Joliot-Curie.

The two Nobel Prize laureates met in March 1948 at Einstein’s home in Princeton, New Jersey, USA. What the two of them talked about is unknown, but perhaps Irène Joliot-Curie’s mother Marie Skłodowska Curie (who was a friend of Albert Einstein) might have been a topic that was up for discussion.

Einstein was awarded the 1921 physics prize for his work on theoretical physics, whilst Irène Joliot-Curie was awarded the 1935 chemistry prize for her work on new radioactive elements.

The Man Who Integrated the Pentagon's Top Floor: General Roscoe Robinson Jr.

The four-star general sat in the NATO briefing room, the only American in the room who couldn't eat at certain lunch counters back home just twenty years earlier.

His uniform matched theirs. His rank outranked most of theirs. But Roscoe Robinson Jr. knew something the other generals didn't: the U.S. Army that now placed him at the highest military table in the world had once assigned him to an all-Black unit because white soldiers wouldn't take orders from someone who looked like him.

This is the story of how a boy from St. Louis became the first African American four-star general in United States Army history.

The Sixteenth Man
In 1951, when Roscoe Robinson Jr. graduated from West Point, he became the sixteenth Black graduate in the institution's 149-year history.

Sixteen. In nearly a century and a half.

Robinson grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of a middle-class family. He attended Sumner High School, spent a semester at Stowe College, then a year at Saint Louis University before winning appointment to West Point in 1947.

When he walked across the stage to receive his commission as a second lieutenant, Robinson joined the Army at a strange moment. President Harry Truman had ordered the desegregation of the armed forces in 1948. But orders from the White House don't change things overnight.

The last all-Black unit in the Army wouldn't disband until 1954.

So Robinson's first assignment? An all-Black unit with white leadership, sent to fight in Korea.

Pork Chop Hill
Korea was brutal. The winter of 1952-53 was one of the coldest on record. Men froze to death in their sleeping bags.

Robinson served as a platoon leader and rifle company commander with the 31st Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. He fought in the battle for Pork Chop Hill—men died there by the hundreds, clawing for control of a piece of ground that mattered only because the other side wanted it too.

For his actions, Robinson received the Bronze Star for valor.

Here's what the medal citation doesn't tell you: Robinson was leading men who, in any other context, might have refused to follow a Black officer. White soldiers who had never taken orders from a Black man suddenly had to.

Robinson made it work by being better. By being calmer under fire. By bringing his men home.

The Assignment That Looked Like a Dead End
In 1957, Robinson watched his white peers get the plum assignments: the 82nd Airborne Division, the 101st Airborne—the jobs that would make their careers.

Robinson got Liberia.

The U.S. military mission to Liberia was staffed entirely by Black officers. On paper, it looked like a ghetto assignment. A place to send Black officers where they wouldn't be seen.

Robinson went anyway. He took his wife Mildred. They adopted their first child, a daughter named Carol, while in Africa.

Here's the thing about dead-end assignments: they're only dead ends if you let them be. Robinson used Liberia to develop diplomatic skills that would serve him decades later when he represented the United States at NATO.

Years later, Robinson told his son he "never had a bad assignment."

That's not naivety. That's a choice.

Vietnam and the Silver Star
By 1967, Robinson was a lieutenant colonel commanding the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division in Vietnam.

The 7th Cavalry. The same regiment that Custer led to his death at Little Bighorn.

Robinson led his battalion into Cambodia, attacking Communist military headquarters in an area called Fishhook that housed numerous enemy bases. The operation was a success. His battalion caused massive losses to North Vietnamese forces.

For his actions, Robinson received the Silver Star, the military's third-highest award for valor. He received it twice.

The citation reads: "The gallant actions and dedicated devotion to duty demonstrated by Colonel Robinson, without regard for his own life, were in keeping with the highest traditions of military service."

But here's what the citation doesn't say: Robinson was fighting for a country where, just a few years earlier, he couldn't have gotten certain assignments because of his race.

The Adoption
In 1963, while stationed at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Robinson and his wife Mildred got a call. There was a white boy available for adoption. Would they take him?

This was the middle of the Civil Rights Movement. Birmingham. The March on Washington. Dogs and fire hoses in the streets.

A Black couple adopting a white child in 1963 wasn't just unusual. It was almost unheard of.

"My parents said, 'We don't care. We'll take him,'" their son Bruce later recalled. "That's a huge message."

The family planned trips carefully. Traveling through the South with a white son and two Black parents could have been dangerous. They minimized stops. They kept moving.

But they also didn't hide.

Breaking the Color Line at the 82nd Airborne
In 1976, General Roscoe Robinson Jr. took command of the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

He was the first African American to command the division.

Think about that. The 82nd had existed since 1917. It had fought in World War I, World War II, Vietnam. Thousands of officers had commanded its brigades, its battalions. Not one of them had been Black.

Until Robinson.

His son remembers that Robinson wanted to set a command climate where race wouldn't be an issue. That sounds simple. It wasn't.

Robinson focused on soldier comfort—making sure troops had decent chairs, desks, basic amenities. He started commander's runs in the morning, running alongside his troopers, building unit cohesion one mile at a time.

"They all ran together," his son said. "They built this togetherness. They made morale go through the roof."

The Fourth Star
On August 19, 1982, the Senate unanimously confirmed Roscoe Robinson Jr. for promotion to general. He became the first African American four-star general in U.S. Army history.

(Daniel "Chappie" James had become the first Black four-star in any service when the Air Force promoted him in 1975. But in the Army—the largest, oldest, most tradition-bound service—Robinson was the first.)

His final assignment was as U.S. Military Representative to the NATO Military Committee. He served from 1982 to 1985, working with military leaders from fifteen other nations, representing the United States at the highest levels of alliance decision-making.

This was the man who, thirty years earlier, had been assigned to an all-Black unit because the Army wasn't sure white soldiers would follow him.

When he retired in November 1985, Robinson had served thirty-four years. His awards included two Silver Stars, three Legions of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star, and eleven Air Medals.

The Final Battle
On July 22, 1993, General Roscoe Robinson Jr. died of leukemia at Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital in Washington, D.C. He was sixty-four years old.

They buried him in Arlington National Cemetery, Section 7A, not far from the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. His grave marker is simple, like most at Arlington—name, rank, dates. Nothing flashy. That wasn't his style.

But if you stand at that grave and look across the rolling hills of headstones, you're looking at American history. The soldiers who fought at Gettysburg. The generals who won World War II. The heroes.

Robinson belongs among them. Not because he was the first Black four-star. Because he was one of the best four-stars, period.

What Robinson Knew
Near the end of his life, Robinson spoke at a memorial service at the 82nd Airborne Division Museum.

He talked about what soldiers do. What they promise.

Soldiers take a "very binding" oath to protect the Constitution, he said. "It means a willingness to die in defense of principles we all value."

Robinson knew something about those principles. He had lived through a time when the Constitution didn't protect people who looked like him. He had served an Army that treated him as less than equal.

But he also knew that the principles were worth defending anyway. That the Constitution, for all its flaws, pointed toward something better. That the Army, for all its racism, had given him a chance to prove what he could do.

His message, passed through his son, was simple: "We're as good as you. Give us the chance to prove it."

Robinson proved it. Not by shouting. Not by demanding. By saluting, doing his best, and never having a bad assignment.