Originally broadcast on CHED radio Tuesday, May 18th, 1965

If you are familiar with the laws of marine communication, you know that there are two periods each hour during which all marine radio equipment falls silent. For three minutes at a quarter past the hour and 43 minutes at a quarter to the hour, radio communication ceases on the high seas and from shore installations. These two periods are cleared each hour for the broadcast of distress signals. Except during these silent periods, marine radio bands are jammed with ship to ship and ship to shore radio transmissions. It is just one message on top of another. I was thinking, wouldn't it be a good idea to have two silent periods per day in our lives during which we all concerned ourselves with picking up distress signals from our fellow man?  So often after some tragedy has occurred in the lives of a friend, or within our family, we say “ I wish I had known. I wish they had told me. Maybe I could have helped”.  Well, if you are a perceptive person you can easily spot people who need help. They need someone to lean on for a while; someone to talk to; someone to be a friend.  In spite of the fact we are always surrounded by people, this is still a lonely world for so many. They cry out for our help, but we are all so busy, we are all sending out so many messages of our own that we feel are important that we fail to pick up the distress signals from those among us who need help.  How much better the world would be if twice each day we just shut our mouth's and opened our ears for the S.O.S’ s. How many lives could be saved if we got these distress signals loud and clear and then threw out the lifeline. Today, why don't you try turning into the needs of other human beings. Today, perhaps you can help someone in rough water. Tomorrow, maybe you will need that lifeline. What a pity so many human souls sink into the deep just because nobody, not one single human person heard the distress signal.