Yvonne Robinson's Motivation to eBack9, Inc.

THE MEASURE OF OUR SUCCESS:
A Letter to My Children and Yours
By:  Marian Wright Edelman

Lesson 13: Be confident that you can make a difference. Don’t get overwhelmed. Sometimes when I get frantic about all I have to do and spin my wheels, I try to recall Carlyle’s advice: “Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.” Try to take each day and each task as they come, breaking them down into manageable pieces for action while struggling to see the whole. And I don’t think you have to “win” immediately or even at all to make a difference.


In The Irony of American History, Reinhold Niebuhr said: “Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore, we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint.   Therefore we must be saved by the final favor of love which is forgiveness.”  Remember that sometimes it’s important to lose for things that matter and that many fruits of your labor will not become manifest for many, many years.


And do not think that you have to make big waves in order to contribute. My role model, Sojourner Truth, slave woman, could not neither read nor write but could not stand slavery and second-class treatment of women. One day during an anti-slavery speech she was heckled by and old man.  “Old woman, do you think that your talk about slavery does any good?  Why I don’t care anymore for your talk than I do for the bite of a flea.”  “Perhaps not, but the Lord willing, I’ll keep you scratching,” she replied.


A lot of people think they have to be big dogs to make a difference. That’s not true. You just need to be a flea for justice bent on building a more decent home life, neighborhood, work place, and America. Enough committed fleas biting strategically can make even the biggest dog uncomfortable and transform even the biggest nation, as we will and must transform America in the 1990’s.


Be a flea for justice wherever you are and in whatever career you choose in life and help transform America by biting political and business leaders until they respond.

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