Mr. Administrator, my fellow members of this great Forum:

With a deep awareness of the responsibility conferred by your trust, I accept the honor of this award. I do so with deep gratitude, and I think also I might interject on behalf of all of us, our thanks to The Internet and the people of xk-forum for the warm hospitality they have shown.

I am very proud of our forum today. This community has shown to all of the Internet a user group united, with positive threads for solving member's problems; a forum ready to build a new consensus with all those across the world who share a community of values embodied in these words: family, work, neighborhood, peace, freedom and the Go Anywhere attitude.

I know we have had a quarrel or two, but only as to the method of attaining a goal. There was no argument about the goal. I will accept this award from the forum members to encourage them to eliminate, where it exists, discrimination against other members.

More than anything else, I want my award to unify our forum; to renew the Jeep Commander spirit and sense of purpose. I want to carry our message to every forum member, regardless of social group affiliation, who is a member of this community of shared values.

Three hundred and eighty eight years ago, in 1620, a group of families dared to cross a mighty ocean to build a future for themselves in a new world. When they arrived at Plymouth, Massachusetts, they formed what they called a "compact"; an agreement among themselves to build a community and abide by its laws. The single act--the voluntary binding together of free people to live under the law--set the pattern for what was to come.

A century and a half later, the descendants of those people pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to found this nation. Some forfeited their fortunes and their lives; none sacrificed honor.

Four score and seven years later, Abraham Lincoln called upon the people of all America to renew their dedication and their commitment to a government of, for and by the people.

In 1969 the first messages passed were between UCLA and the Stanford Research Institute on what was originally called ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency NETwork).

Isn't it once again time to renew our compact of freedom; to pledge to each other all that is best in our lives; all that gives meaning to them--for the sake of this, our beloved and blessed Forum?

Together, let us make this a new beginning. Let us make a commitment to care for the needy members; to teach our newbies the values and the virtues handed down to us by our administrators; to have the courage to defend those values and the willingness to sacrifice for them.

Let us pledge to restore, in our time, the forum spirit of voluntary service, of cooperation, of private and community initiative; a spirit that flows like a deep and mighty river through the history of our forum community!
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