A Tribute-To-Ambassador-Minor

A Tribute To
Ambassador & Mrs. Charles A. Minor
By
E. Hosea Minor and the Entire Minor & Sherman Families

On the occasion of your departure as Liberia's Ambassador to the United States of America, we extent to you our heartfelt thanks for being a Faithful Ambassador during the past four and one-half years. You have served with dignity, integrity, distinction, and respect representing the government and people of Liberia, and also representing the Minor and Sherman Families. Comfort has stood by you as a loyal companion, and a virtuous wife. We thank her for her love and support.

You accepted the position to serve Liberia in this capacity after the darkest days in the history of the Republic - fourteen years of civil war - a period during which thousands of Liberians lost their lives, grave human sufferings, and the destruction of public and private properties.

I am reminded of the poem "If" by Rudyard Kipling, which states

"If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!"

You have been a "Man", and for this, your family is grateful and, we thank God for you and Comfort, and for all that God has done in, by, and through you.

Now, our prayer for you and Comfort is that

"The LORD bless you, and keep you: The
LORD make his face shine upon you, And be
Gracious unto you: The LORD lift up his
Countenance upon you, and give you peace."

Numbers 6:24-26

The E. Hosea Minor Family & the entire Minor & Sherman Families