Congressman Roger F. Wicker to present the 2006 Maddox Honor Lecture United States Congressman Roger F. Wicker (Mississippi) will present the 2006 Maddox Honor Lecture during the 62nd Grand Chapter. In 1988, Dr. Robert N. Maddox (Arkansas) established the Maddox Honor Lecture series though a gift to the Educational Foundation. Here is an excerpt from the 53rd Grand Chapter transcript of Dr. Maddox introducing the inaugural lecture.   The Sigma Nu Creed talks of Love, Truth and Honor. The Initiation Ceremony talks only of Honor. Have you ever thought about why? My opinion is that the first Initiation Ceremony was written by Founder

Congressman Roger Wicker (Mississippi)

Hopkins, and subsequent writers, including myself, have tried to stay true to his work. Every initiate of Sigma Nu swears on his Honor that he will do certain things. Our fraternity is called the Legion of Honor. Every person would have a different definition for Honor but my dictionary defines it: HONOR - One's word given as a guarantee of performance.

Dr. Robert Maddox (Arkansas)

During my collegiate years, I remember no discussions about Honor within my chapter of Sigma Nu. The subject just never came up. In 1955, I became a Chapter Advisor, and in 1957 a Division Commander. At that time there was a man named Dick Fletcher (Penn. State) from Headquarters touring the country talking about Honor and Sigma Nu being the Honor Fraternity. I also became involved with the Liturgy of our Fraternity and learned how intricately and completely Honor is involved in the making of each Sigma Nu. As I came to better understand what was being said, and what was in the Liturgy, I knew that I had found a code of living that satisfied the standards that had been instilled by my parents and I had been trying to attain in my daily life. However you choose to express it, living by

the principle of Honor is a goal for which we all should strive. If we achieve this lofty goal, the world certainly will be better for our having lived. I am only one of many who feel that there is a need today for more attention to ethical behavior, moral principles, Honor, or whatever you wish to call it in business, education, government, and money and/or office, however obtained. Too few consider the means and methods based by those considered successful or outstanding in achieving their position or status. Think of the impact if every Sigma Nu could be persuaded to rededicate himself to living by the Principle of Honor in his daily life. To learn to say of some anticipated action, "That is not Honorable. I will not do it." The Honor Lecture has been established to help achieve that goal. Living by the Principle is not easy. Some of the choices that have to be made are difficult. Most choices that must be made are not simple differences in black and white. . . Carl Sandburg wrote "Nothing happens unless first a dream."The Maddox Family dream is that the Honor Lecture will be one of the catalysts that leads more Knights of Sigma Nu to apply the Honor Principle in every act of their lives.

Congressman Wicker has served Mississippi's First Congressional District since 1995. He was re-elected to a sixth term in November, 2004. He landed a seat on the powerful Appropriations Committee in 1995 and serves on two Appropriations subcommittees: Labor, Health and Human Services and Education; and Defense. He serves on the Budget Committee and as chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority Congressional Caucus. For more about Congressman Wicker, please visit his website at: http://www.house.gov/wicker/.