Friday, May 14, 2004
David vs Goliath
I ran across this piece not long ago while cruising around the internet. I found it an extremely worthwhile read an a reminder that even one person can make a big difference:
Do the actions and thoughts and example of an ordinary individual matter?
Gandhi broke the back and spirit of British imperialism and created modern India.
Martin Luther King broke the back (but, sad to say, not the spirit) of institutionalized racism in America.
David Brower kept the Grand Canyon from being dammed.
Renee Askins got wolves re-introduced into Yellowstone and the American West.
An unknown Chinese man once stopped a tank in Tienanmen Square by simply standing his ground.
Daniel Ellesberg shortened the war in Vietnam by many months, if not years.
Someone leaked the photos of American military personnel torturing Iraqi prisoners in the Abu Ghraib prison.
Jon Marvel started what has become the Western Watersheds Project, which gives the landscape of Western America and all the flora and fauna living on it a chance to survive they did not have before.
Maria Montessori started a school based on the wisdom of children helping themselves and their peers and, in the process, learning to feel (and be) competent and self-assured.
Muffy Davis never quit.
Muffy Ritz rode across America.
Charlie French is an Ironman.
Robert Frost wrote, "Something there is that doesn’t love a wall."
Yes, each individual matters. What we do counts.
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Do the actions and thoughts and example of an ordinary individual matter?
Gandhi broke the back and spirit of British imperialism and created modern India.
Martin Luther King broke the back (but, sad to say, not the spirit) of institutionalized racism in America.
David Brower kept the Grand Canyon from being dammed.
Renee Askins got wolves re-introduced into Yellowstone and the American West.
An unknown Chinese man once stopped a tank in Tienanmen Square by simply standing his ground.
Daniel Ellesberg shortened the war in Vietnam by many months, if not years.
Someone leaked the photos of American military personnel torturing Iraqi prisoners in the Abu Ghraib prison.
Jon Marvel started what has become the Western Watersheds Project, which gives the landscape of Western America and all the flora and fauna living on it a chance to survive they did not have before.
Maria Montessori started a school based on the wisdom of children helping themselves and their peers and, in the process, learning to feel (and be) competent and self-assured.
Muffy Davis never quit.
Muffy Ritz rode across America.
Charlie French is an Ironman.
Robert Frost wrote, "Something there is that doesn’t love a wall."
Yes, each individual matters. What we do counts.
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