COURAGE

March 15, 2026

We are at war, again. We, have the memories, of the war times before.

“Courage Disdains Fame And Wins It”

These words emblazon the frieze of the War Memorial at Yale College. Inside the silent parthenon like mausoleum, on white marble panels, are chiseled the names of every Yale student who has died in the wars since the Revolution. In 1969, three of us passed beneath this arch in our Marine Corps uniforms, headed for the First and third Marine Divisions in southeast Asia; Francis Boyer II, Merritt Kleber III, and myself.

Fran’s name, is on the marble wall.

Over these sixty seven years since that day, time and change and foolishness have wreaked great change in the War Memorial complex, contiguous to the Battell Chapel, where once William Sloan Coffin preached on Sunday mornings. The thought leaders of Yale College have decided that it should no longer be a ward memorial. They have decided that it should become a refuge for timid students, and for their comfort animals; a safe space for young people unsure of the courage required to walk through the hallways which still tell the hearts of men, of the hearts of men, centuries dead. Yet inside, etched for now and for forever, are the names.

Oh, what a great falling off is here observ’d.

What has gone wrong with the stately picture which once was Yale?

Swushy. Yale has gone, to swushy.

We assert here that the culture of child development in the Western Democracies has become courage deficient.

Every child now gets a trophy after the game, both those who won, and those who lost.

Every child now gets promoted to the third grade, without regard to second grade mastery, lest one of these children should come to feel bad about himself, or herself.

No grade school field trips to Central Park dare pause before the embattled statues of the Irish Brigade- the wounded and the dead from the Meuse-Argonne – at risk they might come to know who once, we had been.

We, have a problem..