Northstar Gallery
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Northstar Gallery |
QUOTES A Collection Of Thoughts & Wisdoms On
Leadership and Service
A charging Tiger doesn't have an off switch!
A social conscience without personal relationship is
like cut flowers - rootless and soon to wither.
Be brave enough to live creatively. The creative is
the place where no one else has ever been. You have to
leave the city of your comfort and go into the
wilderness of your intuition. You can't get there by
bus, only by hard work, risking and by not quite
knowing what you're doing. What you'll discover will
be wonderful: yourself.
- Alan Alda
There is nothing new under the sun, but there are lots
of old things we don't know.
- Ambrose BierceIt has been said, and I believe not without reason,
that keepers of asylums who live, without any variety
of intercourse and occupation, exclusively in the
company of the insane, are themselves apt to become of
unsound mind; and that of those who escape insanity
there are comparatively few who do not ultimately
acquire the peculiar expression of eye which is
observable in lunatics. If, the constant exposure to
the society of lunatics be in any case sufficient to
give rise to madness in a previously healthy mind, it
is as clear as the light of day that the same influence
must retard the recovery of those whose minds are
already deranged; and that, on the same principle, it
must be of importance to subject the lunatic
continually to the restorative influence of the society
of healthy and well-regulated minds.
Every day brings fresh conviction within, that the more
nearly we can approximate our treatment of the insane
to that of reasonable beings, the more successful will
we be in effecting cures, and the more delightful will
the duty become of ministering to the mind diseased.
Principles of Physiolog Andrew Combe, M.D.1842
We live in terror because persuasion is no longer
possible...because man can no longer tap that part of
his nature, as real as the historical part, which he
recaptures in contemplating the beauty of nature and of
human faces... We suffocate among people who think they
are absolutely right, whether in their machines or
their ideas. And for all those who can live only in an
atmosphere of human dialogue... this silence is the end
of the world.
- Albert Camus Neither Victims nor Executioners
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the
mysterious. It is the source of all true art and
science.
-Albert Einstein
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but
not simpler.
-Albert Einstein
When one door closes, another opens; but we often look
so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we
do not see the one which has opened for us.
- Alexander Graham Bell
Discovery consists of looking at the same thing as
everyone else and thinking something different.
- Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
We apprehend our god in the alternate voids and
fullness of a cathedral; in the space that separates
the salient fractures of a picture; in the living
geometry of a flower, a seashell, and animal; in the
pauses and intervals between the notes of music, in
their differences of tones and sonority; and finally,
on the plane of conduct, in the love and gentleness,
the confidence and humility, which give beauty to the
relationships between human beings.
- Aldous Huxley
Our accepted differences and diversities must be pooled
into a common purpose worthy of our efforts as tribes
and as a nation.
Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of
them?
- Abraham Lincoln
I told God that I had done all that I could; now the
result was in his hands; if this country was to be
saved, it was because He so willed it. The burden fell
off my shoulders, my intense anxiety was relieved, and
in its place came a great trustfulness!
- Abraham Lincoln
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to
test a man's character, give him power.
--Abraham Lincoln
When you have got an elephant by the hind legs and he
is trying to run away, it's best to let him run.
-- Abraham LincolnYou cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot build character by taking away man's
initiative. You cannot help men permanently by doing
for them what they could and should do for themselves.
- Abraham Lincoln
I dreamed I had a child, and even in the dream I saw
that it was my life, and it was an idiot, and I ran
away. But it always crept into my lap again, clutched
at my clothes. Until I thought, if I could kiss it,
whatever in it was my own, perhaps I could sleep. And
I bent over its broken face, and it was horrible...but
I kissed it. I think that one must finally take one's
life into one's arms...
Authur Miller After the Fall The Disabled & their ParentsThere is no more noble occupation in the world than to
assist another human being--to help someone succeed.
--Alan Loy McGinnis
THE AMBULANCE DOWN IN THE VALLEY
Twas a dangerous cliff as they freely confessed
though to walk near its edge was quite pleasant
but over the side slipped a Duke and a Prince
and it had fooled many a peasant.
The people all said something had to be done
though their projects did not at all tally.
Some said put a fence round the edge of the cliff.
Other's an ambulance down in the valley.
The lament of the crowd was profound and so loud
as their hearts overflowed with great pity
but the ambulance carried the cry of the day
as it spread to the neighboring cities.
A collection was made to accumulate aid
and dwellers in highway and alley
gave dollars and cents not to furnish a fence
but an ambulance down in the valley.
For the cliff is alright if you're careful they said
and if folks ever trip and are falling
it's not the slipping and sliding that hurts
so much as the shock when they're stopping.
And so on for years as these mishaps occurred
a quick forth on the rescuers sally
to pick up the victims who fell from the cliff
with the ambulance down in the valley.
Said one in his plea, "It's a marvel to me,
that you'd give so much greater attention,
to repairing results then to curing the cause.
Why you'd much better aim at prevention.
The mischief of course should be stopped at its source.
Come neighbors and friends let's rally.
It makes far better sense to rely on a fence
than an ambulance down in the valley."
He's wrong in his head the majority said.
He would end all our earnest endeavors.
He's the kind of a jerk that would halt our good work
but we will support it forever!
Don't we pick up them all just as quick as they fall
and treat them with care quite liberally?
A superfluous fence is of no consequence
if the ambulance works in the valley."
- Author Unknown
Among a hundred mirrors before yourself
false..strangled in your own noose SELF knower! Self
executioner! crammed between two nothings a question
mark...
- Nietzsche
What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us.
What we have done for others and the world remains and
is immortal.
--Albert Pine
As the cold water gushed forth,... I spelled
"w-a-t-e-r" in Helen's free hand... She dropped the mug
and stood as one transfixed. A new light came into her
face....Then she dropped on the ground and asked for
its name and pointed to the pump and the trellis, and
suddenly turning round she asked for my name. I spelled
"Teacher."
- Ann Sullivan
Compassion is the basis of all morality.
- Arthur Schopenhauer
Example is not the main thing in influencing others.
It is the only thing.
- Albert Schweitzer
The most elementary ethical principle, when understood
by the heart, means that out of reverence for the
unfathomable, infinite, and living Reality we call God,
we must never consider ourselves strangers toward any
human being. Rather, we must bind ourselves to the
task of sharing his experiences and try being of help
to him.
- Albert Schweitzer Reverence for LifeBoundless compassion for all living beings is the
surest and most certain guarantee of pure moral
conduct, and needs no casuistry. Whoever is filled
with it will assuredly injure no one, do harm to no
one, encroach on no man's rights; he will rather have
regard for everyone, forgive everyone, help everyone as
far as he can, and all his actions will bear the stamp
of justice and loving-kindness.
- Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)The Basis of Morality
The first step in the evolution of ethics is a sense of
solidarity with other human beings.
- Albert Schweitzer
The only ones among you who will be really happy and
those who will have sought and found how to serve.
- Albert Schweitzer
Civilizations die of suicide, not by murder.
- Arnold Toynbee
Future shock is the dizzying orientation brought on by
the premature arrival of the future.
- Alvin Toffler
Written reports have purpose only if read by the king.
Wise chieftains cause Huns to be tested in their
discipline through a successive scheme of opportunities
in which their physical and emotional stamina is tried.
However, chieftains should never test Huns beyond
reasonable capacity.
When the consequences of your decision are too grim to
bear, look for another option. Compassion is the
byword when making difficult decisions that,
unavoidably, have temporary or long-lasting adverse
consequences for even a few Huns.
To experience the strength of chieftains we must
tolerate some of their weaknesses.
The spirit of unity must be a cardinal principle in the
ways and attitudes of all Huns. Once divided, we are
easily made subject to foreign nations.
The consequence for not adequately training your Huns
is their failure to accomplish that which is expected
of them.
Should you become aware that defeat on the battlefield
or in negotiations is impending, don't deny it. Face
it and take immediate action to minimize the opponent's
gain and get back to your cause.
Our accepted differences and diversities must be pooled
into a common purpose worthy of our efforts as tribes
and as a nation.
Noble resolve to do the right thing is characteristic
of prudent decision making. Responsible decisions are
difficult to improve upon.
Next to the importance of knowing when to make a
decision stands the insight to know when to forgo
making one. Impatient chieftains often precipitate
premature action.
Never expect your Huns to always be compatible. But
expect their differences to be resolvable without the
spread of discontent to other Huns.
Know that your most worthy efforts will be scorned by
your peers, for it is they who suffer most when you
excel. If your actions and ambitions threaten them
not, you're simply striving toward the insignificant.
In the end, vision, drive, energy, singleness of
purpose, wise use of resources and a commitment to a
destiny worthy of his efforts become a character of a
chieftain who excels.
In selecting an alternative, wise chieftains look for
the choice in which the benefits outweigh the risks and
costs of the decision. Noble chieftains make decisions
in favor of the common good.
If an incompetent chieftain is removed, seldom do we
appoint his highest-ranking subordinate to his place.
For when a chieftain has failed, so likewise have his
subordinate leaders.
Huns should engage only in wars they can win.
Great chieftains never take themselves too seriously.
Do not underestimate the power of an enemy, no matter
how great or small, to rise against you on another day.
Do not expect everyone to agree with you -- even if you
are king.
Discipline should be expected only at those levels of
order and conformity that serve the good of the tribe
or nation. Demanding more than is required is an abuse
of power and will give rise to rebellion within the
tribe.
Discipline is not suppression. It is the teaching of
correct ways expected of Huns.
Discipline does not mean a loss of individuality.
Chieftains never condone a lack of either morale or
discipline. They plan for morale and discipline! They
cause it to happen!
Chieftains must avoid decisions that favor themselves
at the expense of the Huns. Every decision is an
opportunity to improve the conditions of the Huns, the
tribe and the nation.
Chieftains are often betrayed by those they trust most.
Being a leader of the Huns is often a lonely job.
Always remember that worthy causes meet with the most
resistance--even internal withholding of support and
loyalty. If victory is easily gained, you must
reconsider the worthiness of your ambitions.
Always pay proper courtesy to your subordinate leaders.
Should you fail to accord them respect, so will their
subordinates.
A wise chieftain never kills the Hun bearing bad news.
Rather, the wise chieftain kills the Hun who fails to
deliver bad news.
A wise chieftain never asks a question for which he
doesn't want to hear the answer.
A nation of one ancestry and race is weak. We must
hold strong our custom of welcoming all foreigners who
seek to join our cause, treating them with dignity and
respect and teaching them our language and customs.
A Hun without a purpose will never know when he has
achieved it.
A chieftain should choose a well-made sword, not one
glittering with jewel and gold but one honed to a sharp
edge and made of the finest material in the land. A
sword is the mark of a chieftain. His sword, like the
chieftain himself, must prevail in battle. A chieftain
should dress in fine skins, and furs -- not those
draped by gold and silver adornments. Pompous
appearance breeds hate and gives rise to contempt and
laughter among the ranks.
A chieftain neither dresses nor arms himself at the
expense of his Huns. His dress and weaponry may be of
subtle distinction as is accepted by custom. Yet it
must never be offensive in its cost or in its style,
nor should its intent be to project noble superiority
over those he leads, lest they scorn him for it.
A chieftain can never be in charge if he rides in the rear.
- Atilla the Hun
He who wishes to fulfill his mission in this world must
be a man of one idea, that is, of one great
overmastering purpose, overshadowing all his aims, and
guiding and controlling his entire life.
- Bate
Faith without works is like a bird without wings;
though she may hop about on earth, she will never fly
to heaven. But when both are joined together, then
doth the soul mount up to her eternal rest.
- Beaumont
Living well is living free.
- Burton Blatt
Somewhere I once wrote that while illnesses are man's
curse, handicaps (stigmas attached to illnesses) are
his invention. I wondered then when will we learn the
difference between what we must endure and what we
bring upon ourselves. I complained that while we still
have lots to learn about illnesses, we seem to have
everything to learn about handicaps; that while not all
illnesses have effective treatments, all handicaps are
preventable and curable. Handicaps are a condition of
the soul.
- Burton Blatt
If anything goes bad, I did it. If anything goes
semi-good, then we did it. If anything goes real good,
then you did it. That's all it takes to get people to
win football games for you.
- Bear Bryant
It should be a sobering reminder to us that, when the
pioneers in our field undertook this task, despite the
greatest good will and thoughtful deliberation they led
to the development of modern institutional settings. In
offering enormous benefits, their work led to the loss
of everything important to their beneficiaries.
- Burton Blatt
When you're through changing, you're through.
- Bruce Barton
We are all born for love. It is the principle of
existence, and its only end.
- Benjamin Disraeli
BEATITUDES FOR FRIENDS OF THE HANDICAPPED
Blessed are you who take the time
To listen to difficult speech,
For you help me to know that
If I persevere,
I can be understood.
Blessed are you who never bid me
To "hurry up"
Or take my tasks from me
And do them for me,
For I often need time rather than help.
Blessed are you who stand beside me
As I enter new and untried ventures,
for my failures will be outweighed
By the times I surprise
Myself and you.
Blessed are you who asked
For my help,
For my greatest need is to be needed.
Blessed are you who understand that
It is difficult for me
To put my thoughts into words.
Blessed are you who with a smile,
Encourage me to try once more.
Blessed are you
Who never remind me
That today I asked the
Same question twice.
Blessed are you who respect me
And love me just as I am.
- Anonymous
We first raise the dust and then claim we cannot see.
- Berkeley
Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.
- Ben Franklin
Love your enemies, for they tell you your faults.
- Ben Franklin
A word of encouragement during a failure is worth more
than a whole book of praise after a success.
- Bits & Pieces
Day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment there are
ordinary people who use their freedom to work for the
freedom of others.
- Bruce Springsteen
Success is a journey, not a destination.
- Ben Sweetland
"You can see things that are, and you say "Why? but I
see things that never were and I say, "Why not?"
- G. B. Shaw
Decay is inherent in all compounded things. Strive on
with diligence.
- Buddha's last words
No matter what the dogma.. There still remains birth,
old age, death, sorrow, lamentation, misery, grief and
despair. And it is against these, here on earth, that
I am prescribing.
- Buddha
Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.
* * *
You can't hold a man down without staying down with
him.
* * *
There are two ways of exerting one's strength: one is
pushing down, the other is pulling up.
- Booker T. Washington
The grand essentials of happiness are something to do,
something to love, and something to hope for.
- Chalmers
If I could never really be like other people then at
least I would be like myself and make the best of it.
- Christy Brown
My Left Foot
If the misery of the poor be not caused by the laws of
nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.
- Charles Darwin
Voyage of the Beagle
There are not office hours for leaders.
- Cardinal Gibbons
Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a
man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.
- Chinese Proverb
A young branch takes on all the bends that one gives it.
- Chinese Proverb
"Every psychological extreme secretly contains its own
opposite or stands in some sort of intimate and
essential relation to it... There is no hollowed custom
that cannot on occasion turn in to its opposite and the
more extreme a position, the more easily may we
expect... a conversion of something into its opposite."
- C.G. Jung
I plan to spend the rest of my life in the future, so I
want to be reasonably sure what kind of future it is
going to be. That is my reason for planning.
- Charles Kettering, Industrialist 1950
"Come to the edge", he said
They said: "We're afraid."
"Come to the edge", he said.
They came.
He pushed them...and they flew.
Faith is an outward and visible sign of an inward and
spirtual grace.
- Book of Common Prayer
Tzu Kung asked: "Is there any one word that can serve
as a principle for the conduct of life?" Confucius
said: "Perhaps the word 'reciprocity': Do not do to
others what you would not want others to do to you."
- Confucius
"The way out is through the door. Why is it that no
one will use this exit?"
- Confucius
The Apostle Paul had mixed feelings about his own
disability:
And to keep me from being too elated by the abundance
of revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a
messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from being
too elated. Three times I besought the Lord about this
that it should leave me; but he said to me, "My grace
is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in
weakness." I will all the more gladly boast of my
weakness, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with
weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and
calamities, for when I am weak, then I am strong.
- 2 Corinthians 12:7-10
Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching
them with your hands. But like the seafaring man on
the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides,
and following them you will reach your destiny.
- Carl Schurz
There is just cause to celebrate the frail but stubborn
budding of a new vision -- based on the oldest wisdom
we contain. If we nurture that vision with the
likelihood of our ideas and our efforts, we -- and our
children .. may be rewarded with a future worth
living."
- Charlene Spretnak
The mission of the Department of Mental Retardation is
to join with others to create the conditions under
which all persons with mental retardation experience:
- Presence and participation in Connecticut town life
- Opportunities to develop and exercise competence
- Opportunities to make choices in the pursuit of a
personal future
- Good relationships with family members and friends
- Respect and dignity
- Mission Statement, Connecticut Dept. of
Mental Retardation
"Government has the divine task of preserving the
world."
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Ethics p. 344
Leadership: the art of getting someone else to do
something you want done because he wants to do it.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Though force can protect in emergency, only justice,
fairness, consideration and cooperation can finally
lead men to the dawn of eternal peace.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
If there is among you a poor man, one of your brethren,
in any of your towns within your land which the LORD
your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart or
shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall
open your hand to him, and lend him sufficient for his
need, whatever it may be.
You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not
be grudging when you give to him; because for this the
LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in
all that you undertake.
For the poor will never cease out of the land;
therefore I command you, You shall open wide your hand
to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in the land.- The Torah/Deuteronomy 15.4,12
A LANGUAGE OF ACCEPTANCE
We are coming to understand that our mission is to help
persons experiencing disabling conditions to find:
home, friends, family and work. These are the central
activities of life, they are important to each of us
and are present in the every day aspects of each of our
own lives.
In our roles as professionals helping persons find
home, friends, family and work we are often the bridge
between an individuals past and future. In this role
it is important to not introduce artificial barriers to
acceptance. Our language is a powerful influence on how
we perceive each other, directly leading to degrees of acceptance and rejection. Gordon Alport, In "The Natureof Prejudice" observes that language is always the
first step in the process of separating an individual
or group from the larger society. The use of words
that identify a person or group as being different
creates a focus on that difference. It defines the
difference and communicates that difference to
increasing numbers of other people. This is an
insidious process, for verbal disenfranchisement
deepens attitudes, creates consensus on the fundamental
nature of the differentness and leads to active forms
of discrimination, separation and ultimately
victimization. The process of separation feeds and
builds on each element. Attitudes create words, words
create and deepen attitudes, attitudes lead to action,
and actions then require more sharply defined words.
Can words and language be used to encourage acceptance?
The reality is that special language will always
communicate differentness and separation. The language
of acceptance can only be the language found in the
daily experience of friends, family, home and work. The
test for a language of acceptance is the presence of
words in our own relationships with our own friends and
family. Non of us would ever call a family member a
client, a resident, a consumer or folk. Instead we
would call people that are important to us by there
name. At the end of a long day, each of us goes home.
Few of us return to our group home, our program, our
ICF, our CLA or our facility. People with valued roles
have friends, relatives, co-workers and neighbors as
the major persons in their lives. Those of us with
valued roles will rarely identify people in key
relationships as our staff, our RSW, our advocate, our
team leader or our volunteer. You and I go to work in
the morning. Why must some people go to their workshop,
their day program, their supported work placement or their partial program. In addition there are many otherwords that do not seem to have counter parts in regular
lives. These include: MH/MR, slot, beds, team, PD,
QMRP, intake, mentally retarded, mentally ill,
placement, utilization, discharge, incontinent,
ambulatory, self preservation, deinstitutionalize,
agency, system, BSU, IPP and meds. What is so stunning
is that these words rarely add useful information to
our communication as is evidenced by the language of
John O'Brian and Robert Perske.
Recently, Patrick Worth delivered the Keynote address
to over 2000 persons at the national TASH conference in
Washington. Mr. Worth is president of People First in
Ontario and identifies himself as a person who was
labeled as being Mentally Retarded. Mr. Worth, in
speaking of the power of words, charged that
application of the word Mental Retardation is a life
sentence and for some is a death sentence.
As a society we have become very sensitive about the
power of racist and sexist language. Why is it that
more of the persons that are the targets of a language
of rejection do not counter charge "disableist"? Is it
possible that our language has already forged a
debilitating social role of eternal "clienthood"?
As friends, family, neighbors and professionals we have
a choice. Would any of us ever say: "Hello my name is
John, I'm a client in a Community Living Arrangement
for MRs. I was discharged from the State Center and I
now go to a sheltered workshop during the day." Or
would we simply say: "My name is John Wilson. My home
is on Second Street in Camp Hill and I work at General
Electric."
I have discovered that confronting my language forces a
struggle with basic values and attitudes. It is not
easy and it is not simple. This is not an issue of a
list of approved and non approved words. It is about
the roles, perceptions and expectations that exist
among and between persons that are currently
experiencing disabling conditions and those that are
not. Our language is a public window on our deepest
feeling about those attitudes. I invite each of you to
join in this very challenging and worthwhile struggle.
- Northstar Gallery
BY THE ELEVATOR
She sat by the elevator,
Slumped in her wheel chair.
There was twelve of us waiting.
She did not acknowledge us.
We did not see her, she was becoming invisible.
Her presence was so fragile, like that of a ghost
The elevator came.
I hesitated, was she really there?
I returned
Eye contact
Her face exploded into a smile
- dwf
BUS STOPS
Today, Janelle and I were in my office which overlooks
front street and the M. Harvy Taylor Bridge. I was
looking out the window and my attention was caught by
a young women. She had climbed over the rail onto the
superstructure of the bridge. She was about 100 feet
above the Susquehanna. She then grabbed the top rail
with her hands and dangled over the water. I dialed 911
gave my name address, phone number and the nature of
the problem. While I was dialing 911, a bus turned
onto the bridge and as it approached the woman it
stopped immediately in front of her almost like it was
a regular bus stop. The bus door opened and the bus
driver literally shot out and grabbed the young women
around the shoulders and pinned her against the rail
of the bridge. Cars in front and behind the bus stopped
and their drivers rallied around the bus driver leaned
over the rail, captured the young woman's legs and
hoisted her to the sidewalk where they gently and
securely held her. A police car arrived and the care
of the women was assumed by the police officer. The
whole episode from beginning to end was over within
three minutes. No evidence of the drama remained.
This episode was a window on a major dilemma of our
society. When do we as individuals, as friends, as
neighbors, as passers by reach out to another person
and when do we defer to the formal intervention of the
system. Increasingly our response as a society is to
defer, to dial 911 and then hesitate to reach out, to
help in a private, personal and individualized manner.
At issue is that caring, which is freely given from one
person to another, communicates a concern that is
profoundly different from concern that is essential
but professionally rendered. The essence of this
episode would have been fundamentally different if the
bus driver had not risked and stopped. It is possible
that a crowd would have gathered and a young woman's
personal despair would have become a public event.
For those of us that are professional care givers,
care that is voluntary and freely given and not part
of our formal responsibilities can affirm our own
personal service mission. Bogden writes about a
sociology of acceptance where a person enters into a
private and personal relationship with a person who is
poor, disabled or in need. In such a relationship a
person reaches out, offers help and gets to truly
know the person experiencing the need and begins to
understand that person's life experience. Such
relationships can offer a deep understanding of the
individual's joys, fears, hopes and pain. Ultimately
the relationship transcends that of helper and
helped, and becomes a relationship of equality and
acceptance. In such relationships of acceptance mutual
joys, fears, aspirations and pain are shared and the
person that was in the helper role now identifies with
the realities of their friend's life.
At times all of us will need professional services.
When this is the case we want them to be effective and
timely. We also want help and support from our
friends. In seeking balance between formal and informal
services, professional care givers must be very wise
so that we do not render services in a manner where
the bus drivers no longer stop.
- dwf
HARVARD
I hear with ears well formed
I see with eyes that see much
I think with a mind that is better than most
My thoughts, hopes and fears are lost in a voice box of
confused cords
My arms and legs flap as pant legs and shirt sleeves
wedded to a buffeted clothesline
You talk to me like I'm a child
You don't see my eyes
I'm lecturing at Harvard next month
You should come
A PROMISE KEPT
A cell too creative
A disappointment from birth
A promise lost
A body whose only use is as a container for me
A mirror for you
An offer of salvation
- dwf
THE MONSTER
I'm a monster.
I frighten children.
I have never been loved.
People say I would be better off put away.
I live in terror of being hunted.
I reflect your horror of being and of not being.
You need me.
You will not survive without me.
- dwf
"WE MUST NOT LIMIT OUR COMPASSION TO THOSE WE JUDGE
DESERVING, FOR WE OURSELVES DO NOT DESERVE THE COMPASSION OF GOD."- DECLARATION OF FAITH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE U.S.
WHO IS HE?
Entering a side door I frequently use, my eye caught
the image of a man sitting among the trash cans. Our
eyes met, for only an instant, I thought about stopping
but didn't and in a moment I was in the building and
the instant passed. I remember thinking that I only had
a dollar or two and that would not be enough if I
offered him some money to get something to eat.
That lost moment haunted me for weeks. I kept looking
for him, hoping to have a second chance, but he was
never there. I wondered if the experience really
happened. Was it really conceivable that someone could
be homeless adjacent to a large social service agency?
This morning he was there and our eyes again met, I
said good morning and once more walked through the
door. Had the moment again passed? I continued through
the building, out the front, around the side and
returned to the area of his residency. We talked and I
found we were both from the same area and were about
the same age. We both spoke about our daughters and he
explained how he lost his home and told me about being
interviewed on the radio and television about his
opinion on homelessness in Harrisburg.
I asked if he needed any money to get something to eat.
He asked if I was inviting him to lunch. I stumbled
and said "no", I was offering him something to buy some
food. He said "no thanks, I'm in pretty good shape".
- dwf
"Asking "what if?" helps remind us that we probably
created the reality in question to begin with."
- Dudley Lynch
LEADERSHIP
In an environment requiring moral leadership during
periods of
rapid change, turbulence and conflict, a successful
leader:
Has a Vision, a view of how things should be an din
ability to transfer Vision to reality
Experiences passion for what is being done and for what
might be.
Exercises uncompromising integrity, and a willingness
to speak the truth, doing so with power.
Is able to extend immediate forgiveness to self and to
others.
Pushes the envelope
Understands how to use the power of trend and flow in
order to achieve.
Learns early
Learns quickly
Learns lastingly
Is willing to fail
Creates choice
Avoids drama
Is able to change the meaning of events
Thrives on doing more with less
Is willing to stand the heat if it matters
Is willing to retreat if it does not matter
Is able and willing to exercise appropriate retaliation
Avoids stupidity
Successes and failures are Mission driven not ego
driven
Is intellectually curious
Asks questions and seeks answers
Understands the value and danger of data
Reads
Is able to apply an experimental methodology
Is disciplined
Has energy
Uses mistakes to test and define the environment
Continuously collects and integrates ideas and external
information.
Uses the power of order
Uses the power of surprise and novelty
Values elegant solutions
Sees opportunity and creativity within chaos
Prospects for an array of alternatives
Leads
Self corrects
Self directs
Self perturbates
Is comfortable with complexity
Is comfortable with ambiguity
Is comfortable letting go
Understands followership
Experiences responsibility for actions of the group and
the organization
Is able to subordinate self to a greater cause
Sees the greater picture
Takes responsibility
Perceives moral leadership as a political endeavor
Creates conceptual products
Lives both in the future and the present
Knows when to let go
Is open to information arriving from the future
In a leadership group:
Members independently develop and contribute conceptual
products. Each member helps expand and explore the
concepts which ultimately become group concepts.
Members independently identify questions, engage in
analysis and share observations and insights.
Members collect external ideas and intelligence that
form an information base of the leadership group.
Members respond and interact conceptually and
intellectually with each other.
Members find deeper conviction and courage for doing
the hard things.
- D. Lynch
In war there is no substitute for victory.
By profession I am a soldier and take pride in that
fact. But I am prouder--infinitely prouder--to be a
father. A soldier destroys in order to build; the
father only builds, never destroys. The one has the
potentiality of death; the other embodies creation and
life. And while the hordes of death are mighty, the
battalions of life are mightier still. It is my hope
that my son, when I am gone, will remember me not from
the battle but in the home repeating with him our
simple daily prayer, "Our Father Who Art in Heaven."
- Douglas Macarthur
"The healthy society, like the healthy body, is not the
one that has taken the most medicine."
Believing that constantly increasing levels of
regulation will keep the social environment of
vulnerable people safe and healthy is like believing
that constantly increasing doses of antibiotics will
keep a malnourished child healthy. It deals with only
the symptoms. In its potential for misdirecting our
attention from deeper causes, it can unwittingly do
long-term harm to the fabric of human relationships
through which the life of mankind really works.
- Dave Schwartz
Client relationships are typified by distorted patterns
of relationships and by approximations of friendships
with staff.
-Relationships are almost exclusively with staff and
care providers.
-Virtually all time and Relationships are staff
mediated or controlled.
-Few or no Relationships exist with handicapped
(including house mates) or non-handicapped peers.
-Clients have no "best friend"; few or no close friends
and few enduring relationships.
-Some continuing family relationships exist, but they
are not necessarily close.
-Staff readily perceived many relationship obstacles
but had more difficulty identifying facilitators.
-Staff/care provider "approximations" to friendship are
ambiguous, and not consciously considered.
-Staff often have conflicting roles - Realtor,
facilitator, mentor, employee, guard.
-Social Supports Research Project
David I. Specht, Ph.D.
Michael Nagy, Ph.D.
December 1986
The fundamental law of human beings is interdependence.
A person is a person through other persons.
- Bishop Desmond Tutu
Call, visit or write someone in need every day of your
life. Demonstrate your faith by passing it on to
someone else.
- Dennis Waitley
Happiness can not be traveled to, owned, earned, worn
or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of
living every minute with love, grace and gratitude.
- Dennis Waitley
"Nothing is more dangerous than an idea when it is the
only one you have."
- Emile Chartier
The new idea either finds a champion or dies...No
ordinary involvement with a new idea provides the
energy required to come with the indifference and
resistance that major technological change provokes....
Champions of new inventions display persistence and
courage of heroic quality.
- Edward Schon, M.I.T.
There is no meaning to life except the meaning man
gives his life by the unfolding of his powers.
- Erich Fromm
"It is a paradox that in our time of drastic rapid
change, when the future is in our midst devouring the
present before our eyes, we have never been less
certain about what is ahead of us."
- E. Hoffer
"The World breaks all of us
then some become strong at the broken places."
- Earnest Hemingway
A Farewell to Arms
He who angers you, conquers you.
- Elizabeth Kenny
Your brother needs your help, but you meanwhile mumble
your little prayers to God, pretending not to see your
brother's need.
- Enchiridion
"God has scattered among us....rare as the possessors
of genius...[people with mental retardation, with
blindness, with deafness,] in order to bind the rich to
the needy, the talented to the incapable, all men to
each other, in one tie of indissoluble solidarity."
- Edouard O. Sequin
1885
A Man's house should be open wide to the north, to the
south, to the east, to the west--so that the poor would
not be put to trouble in finding entrance.
- Ethics of the Fathers
Once upon a time it happened to my people, and now it
happens to all people. And suddenly I said to myself,
maybe the whole world, strangly, has turned Jewish.
Everybody lives now facing the unknown. We are all, in
a way, helpless.
- Elie Wiesel
Viewpoint ABC
Nov 20, 1983
The question is not that one man could be so evil but
that so many had not the courage to be good.
- Elie Wiesel
You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you
were strangers in the land of Egypt.
You shall not ill-treat any widow or orphan. If you do
mistreat them, I will heed their outcry as as they cry
out to Me, and My anger shall blaze forth and I will
put you to the sword, and your own wives shall become
widows and your children orphans.
The Torah/Exodus 23.20
But Moses said to the Lord, "Please, O Lord, I have
never been a man of words, either in times past or now
that you have spoken to Your servant; I am slow of
speech and slow of tongue." And the Lord said to him,
"Who gives man speech? Who makes him dumb or deaf,
seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go, and I
will be with you as you speak and will instruct you
what to say." But he said, "Please, O Lord, make
someone else Your agent."
The Lord become angry with
Moses, and He said "Their is you brother Aaron the
Levite, He, I knows, speaks readily. You shall speak to
him and put the words in his mouth - I will be with you
and with him as you speak, and tell both of you what to
do - and he shall speak for you to the people."
The Torah Exodus 4.10
Our curiosity will drive us...It is our nature to
strive to explore everything, alive and dead, present
and past and future. When once the technology exists
to read and write memories from one mind into another,
the age of mental exploration will begin in earnest.
Instead of admiring the beauties of nature from the
outside, we will look at nature directly through the
eyes of the elephant, the eagle and the whale. We will
be able, through the magic of science, to feel in our
own minds the pride of the peacock and the wrath of the
lion.
- Freeman J. Dyson
Infinite in all Directions
The test of our progress is not whether we add more to
the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we
provide enough for those who have too little.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
Two men look out through the same bars: one sees the
mud, and one the stars.
- Frederich Langbridge, Pessimist and Optimist
The ultimate leader is one who is willing to develop
people to the point that they eventually surpass him or
her in knowledge and ability.
- Fred A. Manske, Jr.
Nothing on earth consumes a man more completely than
the passions of resentment.
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Let the lips of the poor be the trumpet of thy gift,
lest in seeking applause thou lose thy reward. Nothing
is more pleasing to God than an open hand and a closed
mouth.
- Francis Quarles (1592-1644)
Emblems
One act of charity will teach us more of the love of
God than a thousand sermons--one act of unselfishness,
of real self-denial, the putting forth of one loving
feeling to the outcast and "those who are of the way,"
will tell us more than whole volumes of the wisest
writers on theology.
- Frederick William Robertson
(1816-1853)
Sermons
Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and
you help them to become what they are capable of being.
- Goethe
Free and fair discussion will ever be found the firmest
friend to truth.
- G. Campbell
To be attached to existence is to want human and
natural existence on earth to go on forever.
- George Kateb
Thinking About Human
Extinction p. 1
"To mean something in the world is the deepest hunger
of the soul, deeper than any bodily hunger or thirst."
- Gisela Knopka
Don't be humble; you're not that great
- Golda Meir
....We cannot plead that we must wait "until all the
facts are in, " because we know full well that all the
facts never will be in. Nor can we argue that "the
facts speak for themselves" and leave it "to the
politicians and the citizen to draw the practical
conclusions." The facts are much too complicated to
speak an intelligible language by themselves. They must
be organized for practical purposes, that is under
relevant valid premises.
And no one can do this more
adequately than we ourselves.
- Gunnar Myrdal
Good enough is the enemy of excellence.
- Anon
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the
unreasonable one persiests in trying to adapt the world
to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the
unreasonable man."
- George Bernard Shaw
Lord you have created me,
Your unique child
With special talents and gifts
In my hands, mind, heart, and voice.
I need to find things to do
That give me peace
And my life meaning.
- Galen Smith
The story is not ended, it has not yet become history,
and the secret life it holds can break out tomorrow in
you or in me.
- Gershom Scholem
The Nazi Doctors
Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide
Robert J. Lifton
1986
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to
repeat it.
- George Santayana
I swear by Apollo Physician, by Asclepius, by Healtah,
by Panacea, and by all the gods and goddesses, making
them my witnesses, that I will carry out, according to
my ability and judgment, this oath and this indenture.
...I will use treatment to help the sick according to
my ability and judgment, but never with a view to
injury and wrongdoing. I will keep pure and holy both
my life and my art. In whatsoever houses I enter, I
will center to help the sick, and I will abstain from
all intentional wrongdoing and harm.
Now if I carry
out this oath, and break it not, may I gain foreverreputation among all men for my life and for my art;
but if I transgress it and forswear myself, may the
opposite befall me.
- Oath of Hippocrates
DANCING ON WATER
Mothers who clutch the hands of your children,
what fable can I claim to assure
these are not drunken sealegs I walk on?
If there is an unseen line I follow
woozily down a winter street, this is
the only act of faith I know. You walk
distances around me, winging like hens
protectively over your broods. I take
these intricate steps only in the dance
I do. I balk gravity by timing
the one disjointed knee that will collapse
predictably as a jackknife. Something
is special in the way I walk, sealegs
to be sure but drunken only in what
blue waters will not boy me up. These rags
of kneebones for my fable, can we not
call it beautiful that I move over
such fathoms in this my clumsy fashion?
We will say I am dancing on water
in my faith. Ladies, I must dance or drown.
- Harold Bond
The tools of the mind become burdens when the
environment which made them necessary no longer exists.
- Henri Bergson
He who wins honor through his neighbor's shame will
never reach Paradise.
- Hebrew Proverb
When a needy person stands at your door God himself
stands at his side.
- Hebrew Proverb
Don't forget to be kind to strangers, for some who have
done this have entertained angels without realizing it!
- Hebrews 13:2,3
It is only as we develop others that we permanently
succeed.
- Harvey S. Firestone
Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more
intelligently.
- Henry Ford
Failure is the opportunity to begin again more
intelligently.
- Henry Ford
Knowledge--know each other. Goodness--love thy
brother.
- Hundu Proverb
In a half-measure to let incurable sick people steadily
contaminate the remaining healthy ones... The demand
that defective people be prevented from propagating
equally defective offspring is a demand of the clearest
reason and, if systematically executed, represents the
most humane act of mankind. It will spare millions of
unfortunates undeserved sufferings and, consequently,
will lead to a rising improvement of health as a whole.
The stronger must dominate and not blend with the
weaker, thus sacrificing his own greatness. Only the
born weakling can view this as cruel, but he, after
all, is only a weak and limited man.
It was and it is Jews who bring the Negroes into the
Rhineland, always with the same secret thought and
clear aim of ruining the hated white race by the
necessarily resulting bastardization, throwing it down
from its cultural and political height.
The fokish state must make up for what everyone else
today has neglected in this field. It must set race in
the center of all life. It must take care to keep it
pure... It must see to it that only the healthy beget
children. That there is only one disgrace: despite
one's own sickness and deficiencies, to bring children
into the world... It must put the most modern medical
means in the service of this knowledge. It must declare
unfit for propagation all who are in any way visibly
sick or who have inherited a disease and put this into
actual practice.
Those who are physically and mentally unhealthy and
unworthy must not perpetuate their suffering in the
body of their children.
- Adolf Hitler
Mein Kampf
The state organism...is a whole with its own laws and
rights, much like one self-contained human
organism...which, in the interest of the welfare of the
whole, also--as we doctors know--abandons and rejects
parts or particles that have become worthless or
dangerous.
- Adolf Hitler
The Nazi Doctors
The volkisch state must see to it that only the healthy
beget children...Here the state must act as the
guardian of a millennial future...It must put the most
modern medical means in the service of this knowledge.
It must declare unfit for propagation all who are in
any way visibly sick or who have inherited a disease
and can therefore pass it on.
- Adolf Hitler
The Nazi Doctors
Many persons have the wrong idea of what constitutes
true happiness. It is not attained through
self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy
purpose.
- Helen Keller
"A home is not a mere transient shelter; its essence
lies in its permanence...in its quality for
representing in all its details, the personalities of
the people who live in it."
- H. L. Mencken
Live your life each day as you would climb a mountain.
An occasional glance toward the summit keeps the goal
in mind, but many beautiful scenes are to be observed
from each new vantage point. Climb slowly, steadily,
enjoying each passing moment, and the view from the
summit will serve as a fitting climax for the journey.
--Harold V. Melchert
All growth is a leap in the dark, a spontaneous
unpremeditated act without benefit of experience.
--Henry Miller
There's always an easy solution to every human problem
- neat, plausible, and wrong.
-H. L. Menkin
AN OLD STORY
There is an old story of a poor and broken fugitive
who was taken in by the people of a small village and
given a place to hide. Eventually, however, enemy
soldiers came and demanded to be told where the man
was hiding. When the people hesitated to tell, the
soldiers threatened to destroy the village and kill
every man, woman, and child by dawn if the man they
sought was not turned over to them. Frightened, the
people turned to their leader for guidance.
Torn between deserting his people and betraying the
young man, the leader of the village went to his room
and began reading his Bible in hope of finding an
answer before dawn. He read all night, and finally,
just before sunrise, he came to the words, "It is
better for one man to die for the people, than for the
whole nation to be destroyed".
Trembling, the leader walked outside and told the
soldiers where to find the man. As the soldiers took
the fugitive away to be executed, the people in the
village celebrated because their lives had been spared.
The leader, however, did not celebrate with them.
Instead he went to his room, smitten with a deep
heaviness. In the evening an angel appeared to him and
asked "What have you done?" The leader replied slowly,
"I betrayed the fugitive." "But didn't you know," said
the angel, "that the fugitive you betrayed is the
Messiah?" "No! No! No!!" groaned the leader, "I didn't
know, how could I have known?" The angel spoke: "If
you had set down your Bible and gone to the fugitive
and looked into his eyes you would have Known!"
I had to realize that I had nothing to be ashamed
of...I began to see that it's not what you've lost that
counts, but what you have left.
Harold Russel
Victory In My Hands
The Disabled & their Parents
Leo Buscaglia Ph.D.
1983
When God created us, He made us in His own image, in
the likeness of the divine. Both male and female He
created; He blessed them, and at the time of their
creation He called them Human.
* * *
Therefore was a single human being created: to teach
you that to destroy a single human soul is equivalent
to destroying an entire world; and to sustain a single
human soul is equivalent to sustaining an entire world.
* * *
And a single human being was created for the sake of
peace, that none might say: My lineage is greater than
yours!
THE WHOLENESS OF THE FAMILY OF GOD
In John 15, Christ tells us "love one another as I
have loved you". In this commandment Christ did not
intend for us to just love those people we find it easy
to love. He was not telling us to love only those who
look, walk, talk, and think like us, or those who
share a common perspective or heritage. Christ meant
for us to love all people, doing so unconditionally. In
Matthew 25 Christ tells us "When you did it to the
least of these my brothers you were doing it to
me...and When you refused to help the least of these my
brothers, you were refusing help to me."
Within the life of our church community, there is a
compelling obligation to extend Christ's love to all,
particularly those who as a result of mental or
physical disability are typically cast into lives of
marginalization, oppression, isolation, poverty and
exclusion. A church community can not live Christ's
love with out being open to all, actively reaching out,
welcoming and embracing all members of the human
community.
Within the life of our church community, it is
important that persons with disabilities not be treated
as poor unfortunates to only be served. Instead it is
imperative that they be encouraged to become fully
committed, participating, contributing, integral
members of the Body of Christ and the church community.
The gifts of these brother and sisters must not be
ignored. Their participation is essential for the
church to fulfill its Christian mission and to
experience unity in a celebration of the diversity and
wholeness of God's creation.
Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always
excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know
that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
- I Corinthians 15:58
He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy
from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes and
inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth
are the LORD'S, and on them he has set the world.
- 1 Samuel 2:8
If not now - when?
If not you - who?
If you are going to shoot at an elephant
be sure you kill it!
THE SERVANT
He had no form or comeliness that we should look at
him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was
despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows...
and as one from whom men hide their faces he was
despised, and we esteemed him not.
- Isa 53:2,3
"if you pour yourself out for the hungry
and satisfy the desire of the afflicted
then shall your light rise in the darkness
and your gloom be as the noonday
and the Lord will guide you continually
and you shall be like a watered garden
like a spring of water
whose waters fail not."
- Isaiah 58
In happiness and suffering, in joy and grief, we should
regard all creatures as we regard our own self, and
should therefore refrain from inflicting upon others
such injury as would appear undesirable to us if
inflicted upon ourselves.
- Jain Golden Rule
Yogashastra 2:20
The only limits are, as always, those of vision.
- James Broughton
The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all
possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true.
- James Branch Cabell
Silver Stallion
IT'S ABOUT TIME
There's a full noon over India and Ghandi lives again.
Who's to say you have to lose for someone else to win.
In the eyes of all the people, the look is much the same.
For the first is just the last one when you play a deadly game.
It's about time we realize it.. we're all in this together.
It;s about time we find out it's... all of us or none.
It's about time we recognize it... these changes in the weather.
It's about time, it's about changes and it's about time.
There's a light in the Vatican window for all the world to see.
And a voice cries in the wilderness and sometimes he speaks for me.
I suppose I love him most of all when he kneels to kiss the land.
With his lips upon our mothers breasts, he makes his strongest stand.
It's about time we start to see it...the earth is our only home.
It's about time we start to face it...we can't make it here all alone.
It's about time we start to listen to the voices in the wind.
It's about time, and it's about changes and it's about time.
There's a man who is my brother, I just don't know his name.
But I know his home and family because I know we feel the same.
And it hurts me when he's hungry and when his children cry.
I too am a (parent) and that little one is mine.
It's about time we begin it.. to turn the world around.
It's about time we start to make it...the dream we've always known.
It's about time we start to live it...(the global family).
It's about time, it's about changes and it's about time.
It's about peace, and it's about plenty and it's about time.
It's about you and me together and it's about time.
- John Denver
Before God, there is neither Greek nor barbarian,
neither rich nor poor, and the slave is as good as the
master, for by birth all men are free; they are
citizens of the universal commonwealth which embraces
all the world, brethren of one family, and children of
God.
- John Emerich Edward Dalbert Action
The History of Freedom in Antiquity
Who has not served cannot command.
- John Florio
Of those to whom much is given, much is required.
- John F. Kennedy
Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.
- John F. Kennedy
The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to
this endeavor will light our country and all who serve
it, and the glow from that fire can truly light the
world.
- John F. Kennedy
Those who believe in our ability do more than stimulate
us. They create for us an atmosphere in which it
becomes easier to succeed.
- John H. Spalding
To love our neighbor as ourself is such a fundamental
truth for regulating human society, that by that alone
one might determine all the cases in social morality.
- John Locke
The Reasonableness of
Christianity
When we have done our best, we should wait the result
in peace.
- John Lubbock
To do something, however small, to make others happier
and better is the highest ambition, the most elevating
hope, which can inspire a human being.
- John Lubbock
"Remember what Jesus said in John Chapter 15? "This is
my commandment, that you love one another, as I have
loved you. A man can have no greater love than this,
that he lay down his life for his friend." That's the
part we always hear. But we don't hear the next three
lines. "You are my friends if you do what I command
you. I shall not call you servants anymore, because a
servant does not know this master's business. I call
you friends because I have made known to you everything
I have learned from my Father." This says to me, that
to be a servant is to be a person who has not reached
the Christian ideal, which is to be a friend-a member
of a community of friends. That's what Jesus was
saying. The Gospel says that our mission is not to be
servants. When we have a Christian understanding of
that-then I doubt that you can "serve" people. A
Christian has to try to be a friend-and being a friend
is about fairness.
- From: Things go better With Neighbors
Mary O'Connell's interview of John McKnight.
"The surest indication of the experience of community
is the explicit common knowledge of tragedy, death, and
suffering. The managed, ordered, technical vision
embodied in professional and institutional systems
leaves no space for tragedy; they are basically methods
of production. Indeed, they are designed to deny the
central dilemmas of life."
- John McKnight
COMMUNITY
1. WITHIN OUR COMMUNITY THE INDIVIDUAL PERSON, IN RELATIONSHIP WITH ANOTHER PERSON, IS AT THE CENTER OF ITS ESSENCE.
2. WITHIN OUR COMMUNITY THERE IS QUICK RESPONSE TO HUMAN NEEDS, LITERALLY WITHIN MINUTES, WITH ONE PERSON RESPONDING TO ANOTHER IN TIMES OF NEED.
3. WITHIN OUR COMMUNITY PEOPLE THRIVE ON STORIES ABOUT GROWTH, CHALLENGE AND CHANGES IN PEOPLE'S LIVES.
4. WITHIN OUR COMMUNITY PEOPLE DEPEND ON CELEBRATION AND PERSONAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS, ACHIEVED IN RELATIONSHIPS WITH EACH OTHER.
5. WITHIN OUR COMMUNITY THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS ARE INFORMAL AND PERSONAL.
6. WITHIN OUR COMMUNITY, WHO WE ARE IS DEFINED BY WHO WE ARE AS PEOPLE, INSTEAD OF BY TITLES AND ORGANIZATIONAL CHARTS.
7. WITHIN OUR COMMUNITY EFFORTS ARE BASED ON CAPACITIES OF WHAT PEOPLE CAN DO, CAN GIVE, CAN LEARN, INSTEAD OF THEIR DEFICIENCIES WHICH FOCUS ON WHAT PEOPLE CAN'T DO, CAN'T GIVE, CAN'T LEARN.
8. WITHIN OUR COMMUNITY, REGARDLESS OF ABILITY OR DISABILITY, ALL MEMBERS ARE CONTRIBUTING CITIZENS AND NONE ARE CLIENTS OR CONSUMERS
9. WITHIN OUR COMMUNITY DECISIONS ARE MADE BY CONSENT, NOT CONTROL. EMPHASIS IS ON CONSENSUS INSTEAD OF SIMPLY "GETTING THINGS DONE" THROUGH THE EXERCISE OF AUTHORITY.
10. WITHIN OUR COMMUNITY THERE IS REAL CARING, THE WILLINGNESS TO WALK IN THE LIFE OF ANOTHER, SHARING AND EMBRACING EACH OTHERS TRAGEDY, SUFFERING AND JOYS.
12. WITHIN OUR COMMUNITY WE SEE THE GIFTS OF ALL PEOPLE, NOT THEIR NEEDS AS A COLLECTION OF CHORES TO BE WORKED ON.
13. WITHIN OUR COMMUNITY WE WORK WITH PEOPLE NOT ON PEOPLE.
14. WITHIN OUR COMMUNITY ALL MEMBERS, REGARDLESS OF ABILITY OR DISABILITY, ARE WELCOMED AS FULL VALUED CONTRIBUTING MEMBERS.
"I feel a queer stirring in me, and it is as though my
heart first bursts the bars of this cell, and then
travels with great lightness and freedom down the
corridor and into each stinking cell, acknowledging:
Yes, we are all of us one flesh."
- Jane Meyerding
This is my commandment, that you love one another as I
have loved you. Greater love has no man than this,
that a man lay down his life for his friends.
- John 15:12,13
Becoming a person...involves the sacrifice of some
experience in order to experience more deeply the
values which are connected with and which promote one's
own destiny.
- John Powell, s.j.
Our Mission
"To provide a home down the street for every person
with a developmental disability from our corner of the
world who is living in an institution or who is at risk
of living in one."
- Jerry Provencal
When love and skill work together, expect a
masterpiece.
- John Ruskin
You will say, "Charity is greater than justice." Yes,
it is greater: it is the summit of justice--it is the
temple of which justice is the foundation. But you
can't have the top without the bottom; you cannot build
upon charity. You must build upon justice, for this
main reason, that you have not at first charity to
build with. It is the last reward of good work.
- John Ruskin (1819-1900)
Fors Clavigera
i fear my helplessness
my hollows
my poverty
you remind me that i too must die
and so i turn my back
returning to my home
escaping the fundamental reality
of my own existence,
of my own poverty
and yours, my brother......
i refuse to love............
- Jean Vanier
Tears of Silence
I who am dejected
let go that inner hold...........
sink down.....down..............
friends drift downstream
laughing.........
i remain.....lying on my bed
smoking
drinking
or sitting.........sitting
the radio playing on and on and on
waiting
waiting
but waiting for
what......
- Jean Vanier
Tears of Silence
"I'm happy that L'Arch in Trosly has grown. Each day
rings the challenge of trying to live community with a
large number of people, of creating structures which
allow for the greatest possible participation and give
each person the chance to take responsibility and
initiatives while maintaining a unity of spirit"
- Jean Vanier
Community & Growth
In some mysterious way
the quality of my presence, my look
brings to you life
or death
- Jean Vanier
Tears of Silence
"That is the meaning of life. Life reproduces itself.
Growth means the appearance of flowers and fruit, which
carry the seeds of new life."
- Jean Vanier
Community & Growth
.....the miserable man is still there
waiting...waiting....waiting for what
lying in his prison...........
lying in his dung..............
waiting
yet
not waiting
for he has lost hope
we only wait when there is hope
where there is not hope.......we lie.....dying
not living
sad unto death
yet he waits
waiting.............yet not waiting
- Jean Vanier
Tears of Silence
"There is mystery in the heart of the poor. Jesus says
that everything we do for the hungry, the thirsty, the
naked, the sick, the prisoner or the stranger, we do
for him: "All that you do for the least of my
brothers, you do for me." The poor in their total
insecurity, their anguish and their destitution,
identify with Jesus. Hidden in their radical poverty,
in their obvious wounds, is the mystery of the presence
of God."
- Jean Vanier
Community & Growth
but
we can be together
and not meet
we can live in the same house day after day
sit at the same table
kneel at the same pew
read the same books
but never meet
we can kiss
gestures of love
apparent tenderness
but never meet
a meeting is a strange and wonderful thing
presence one person to another
present one to another
life flowing one to another
- Jean Vanier
Tears of Silence
The result of prosperity based on injustice is anxiety.
The poor need justice, and the rich need restored
sight.... That which commands out time, energy and
thoughts is what we really worship... "Being concerned
is seeing something awful happening to somebody and
feeling, "Hey, that's really too bad". Having
compassion is seeing the same thing and saying "I just
can't let that happen to my brother."... concern comes
from a recognition of a problem. Compassion comes out
of a feeling of relationship ... proximity to poor
people is crucial to our capacity for compassion...
When affluent people find genuine friendships among the
poor, some revolutionary changes in consciousness can
begin to take place... If we put ourselves in daily
relationship to poor people we will understand more
than oppression; we will begin to understand the very
sufferings of Christ ... God identifies with the poor,
not because they are more noble but because they are
more vulnerable.
- Jim Wallis
"The problem is not that mental retardation CANNOT be
cured; the problem is that life CANNOT be cured...We
need to remember that community, like the other things
we have been tempted to romanticize, CANNOT be judged
by whether it 'fixes' people or situations; like
[de-institutionalization] and like associations and
like friends, and maybe like life, community is
worthwhile for other reasons.
So if community isn't utopia and won't fix people and
won't resolve people's situation in life, then what is
it good for? To paraphrase McKnight, it's the only
uncontrolled space, the only place you can sing
together and the only place you can die together, the
only place you can never abolish suffering, and the
only place you can never abolish joy."
- Jack Yates
"I strive to discover how to signal my companions to
say in time a single word, a password, like
conspirators: Let us unite, let us hold each other
tightly, let us merge our souls, let us create for
Earth a brain...and a heart,..."
- Kazantizakis
As thou deemest thyself so deem others. Then shalt
thou become a partner in heaven.
- KABIR (1450-1518)
The Adi Granth
Dear Master who rules with such a calm hand,
I pray that you would give me eyes to see that the true
battle is spiritual not physical.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but
against the rulers, against the authorities, against
the power of this dark world and against the spiritual
forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Help me to realize that no matter how violent their
opposition, people are not the enemy. They are
prisoners of the enemy. Help me to realize that you
died to free those prisoners. And in that knowledge
give me the courage, I pray, to penetrate their shores
so they might be brought out of thier tombs, delivered
of their demons, dressed in their right mind, and given
the privilege to sit at you feet.
Help me to boldly take a beachhead of Satan for the
kingdom of God. To banish his forces. And to be brave
in the knowledge that though they are legion, you are
Lord.
Help me to realize that the true battleground is the
human heart. It is over this territory that the forces
of good and evil draw their swords.
Knowing that, Lord on this day, this hour, I surrender
my heart to you-my hopes, my fears, my dreams, my
desires, my ambitions, my anxieties, my love and my
loyalty.
May it be one more victory for the kingdom of God. And
one less battle you have to fight...
- Ken Gire
Learning to Love
It must be the duty of racial hygiene to be attentive
to a more severe elimination of morally inferior human
beings than is the case today....We should literally
replace all factors responsible for selection in a
natural and free life....In prehistoric times of
humanity, selection for endurance, heroism, social
usefulness, etc., was made solely by hostile outside
factors, This role must be assumed by a human
organization; otherwise, humanity will, for lack of
selective factors, be annihilated by the degenerative
phenomenon that accompany domestication.
- Konrad Lorenz (1940)
Deal not unjustly with others, and ye shall not be
dealt with unjustly.
- The Koran
No one of you is a believer until he desires for his
brother that which he desires for himself.
- The Koran
Take tight hold of Allah's ropes all together. And do
no part in sects.
- The Koran
Whatever good you do for others, you send it before
your own souls and shall find it with Allah who sees
all you do.
- The Koran
Even when a bird walks
We see that it has wings.
-Lemoine
The finest expression of respect is not praise or
status, but a willingness to talk openly to a person.
- Less Bittle
To lose you because of self-defeating ideas is to die....
Your greatest responsibility is to become everything
you are, not only for your benefit, but for mine.
- Leo Busgaglia
You said that I was transparent and easily forgotten
but why then did you try to use my lifetime to prove to
yourself what you are?
Michelle
But I am Present
The Disabled & their Parents
Leo Buscaglia Ph.D.
1983
"Would you tell me please, which way I ought to go from
here?" "That depends a good deal on where you want to
go" said Alice
"Then it doesn't matter which way you go." said the Cat.
"So long as I get somewhere, "Alice added in
explanation "Oh you're sure to do that, said the Cat:
if only you walk long enough."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither
shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard;
you shall leave them for the poor and for the
sojourner: I am the LORD your God.
- The Torah/Leviticus 19.10
Like small creeks that grow into mighty rivers, the
dreams of leaders eventually shape the course of
history.
Lewis Kamass, a rabbinical student, wrote this prayer
for the dedication of a Torah that survived the
Holocaust. May it be our prayer, too.
For the times when we saw another's anguish,
But we could not bear the burden;
For the times when we gazed upon loneliness and fear,
And we withdrew our hands;
For the times when all we offered was the callousness
of indifference,
We ask your forgiveness.
And with this hope for forgiveness, we dare to hope for
strength in days ahead -- that indifference may turn to
caring, and caring bring forth deed.
- Lewis Kamass
Comments after Los Alomos:
Seldom if ever has a war ended leaving the victors with
such a sense of uncertainty and fear, with such a
realization that the future is obscure and that
survival is not assured.
- Edward R. Murrow p. 59
Some fool in a laboratory might blow up the universe
unawares. - Ernest Rutherford p. 59
You could tell at once they had a strange experience.
You could see it on their faces. I saw that something
very grave and strong had happened in their whole
outlook on the future. - Stanislow Ulam p. 61
What is the only provocation that could bring about the
use of nuclear weapons? Nuclear weapons. What is the
priority target for nuclear weapons? Nuclear weapons.
What is the only established defense against nuclear
weapons? Nuclear weapons. How do we prevent the use of
nuclear weapons? By threatening to use nuclear weapons.
And we can't get rid of nuclear weapons, because of
nuclear weapons. - Martin Amis p. 70
There is no such thing as security, and the work should
be stricken from our dictionary.- James Forrestal p. 74
No Emperor or fiend from the past - not Caesar, not
Alexander the Great, not Attila the Hun - ever claimed
the sovereign right to determine the life and future of
the entire universe. Yet that power is now claimed by
every graduate engineer who steps into a nuclear
weapons laboratory. - E. L. Doctorow p. 77
It is also possible that if the first man could have
been present at the moment of Creation when God said,
"Let there be light," he might have seen something very
similar to what we have seen. - William Laurence p. 82
The great Golem we have made against our enemies is our
culture, our bomb culture - its logic, its faith, its
vision. - E. L. Doctorow p. 87
You see what happened to me - what happened to the reat
of us, is we started for a good reason, then you're
working very hard to accomplish something, and it's
pleasure, it's excitement. And you just stop thinking,
you know, you stop. - Richard Feyman p. 99
It's a terrible thing but we have to do it.
- Hans Bethe p. 107
The Bomb for Bohr and Oppenheimer was a weapon of death
the might also end war and redeem mankind.
- Richard Rhodes p. 111
These guys take a lot of satisfaction in knowing
they're going to be consulted over whether civilization
will be destroyed or not.... It's hubris, or arrogance,
which says, "We are really bright guys and we can keep
the country from doing ridiculous things." ... And
they're totally unaware that they're just being used by
some little, puddin' - headed guy in the Pentagon.
- A critic of Jason p. 133
The easiest message to get through ... is "go."
- Thomas Powers p. 156
The nuclear threshold is a place where war by the rules
ends... For beyond that threshold there are no rules.
- Thomas B. Allen p. 173
The button is set so finely it could push itself.
- Samuel H. Day p. 183
The dynamic of the nuclear arms race is deeply rooted
in the structure of the modern world.
- Lester R. Kurtz p. 186
What in the name of God is strategic superiority?
- Henery Kissinger
The effects could well be called unprecedented,
magnificent, beautiful, stupendous and terrifying. No
man - made phenomenon of such tremendous power had ever
occurred before... Thirty seconds after the explosion
come, first, the air blast pressing hard against the
people and things, to be followed almost immediately by
the strong, sustained, awesome roar which warned of
doomsday and made us feel that we puny things were
blasphemous to dare tamper with the forces heretofore
reserved to The Almighty. Words are inadequate tools
for the job of acquainting those not present with the
physical, mental, land psychological effects. It had to
be witnessed to be realized.
- Brigadier General Thomas Farrell
Reporting to President Truman
On witnessing the detonation: "The long hairs have let
it get away from them!"
- Brigadier General Thomas Farrell
And the Lord said
Love your neighbor
And I said "Who me?"
And the Lord said yes you.
And I said
"I'm really very busy
And besides I have my hands full
just taking care of my own."
And the Lord said
"Love your neighbor, not only the good
one but the bad one too."
And I said "Are you kidding? I don't want to!"
And the Lord said "I didn't ask if you wanted to".
And I said "Lord, but I don't like him, He's mean, and,
I can't trust him."
"He'll make a fool of me. And other people don't like him either."
And the Lord said "My commandment is to Love your neighbor".
And I said "Do I have to?"
And the Lord said "Yes, if you love me."
And I said "Lord, It will be risky I might get
hurt, I can't do it by myself."
The Lord said "Where do you think I will be?"
And I said "Lord you never give up do you?"
And the Lord said "No, I never give up."
And I said "Don't you ever get tired?"
And the Lord said "Yes, I get very tired."
And I said "Then why?"
And the Lord said "Because I love you."
And I said "Lord I love you too."
And the Lord said "You can only really love me if you
love one another as I love each one of you."
adapted from an original
work by Lois Rensberger
"I've got to follow them, for I am their leader."
- Ledru Rollin
But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed,
the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because
they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the
resurrection of the just."
- Luke 14:13
In joy and sorrow, in pleasure and pain, one should act
towards others as one would have them act toward
oneself.
- The Mahabharata
This is the sum of true righteousness--treat others as
thou would'st thyself be treated. Do nothing to thy
neighbor which hereafter thou would'st not have thy
neighbor do to thee, in causing pleasure or in giving
pain, in doing good, or injury to others.
- The Mahabharata
But when I, the Messiah, shall come in my glory, and
all the angels with me, then I shall sit upon my throne
of glory, And all the nations shall be gathered before
me. And I will separate the people as a shepherd
separates the sheep from the goats, and place the sheep
at my right hand, and the goats at my left.
Then I, the King, shall say to those at my right,
"Come, blessed of my Father, into the Kingdom prepared
for you from the founding of the world For I was hungry
and you fed me; I was thirst and you gave me water; I
was a stranger and you invited me into your homes;
naked and you clothed me; sick and in prison, and you
visited me.
Then these righteous ones will reply, "Sir when did we
ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirst and give
you anything to drink? Or a stranger, and help you? Or
naked, and clothe you? When did we ever see you sick or
in prison, and visit you?
And I, the King, will tell them, "When you did it to
these my brothers you were doing it to me!" Then I will
turn to those on my left and say "Away with you, you
cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the
devil and his demons. For I was hungry and you wouldn't
feed me: thirsty, and you wouldn't give me anything to
drink; a stranger, and you refused me hospitality;
naked, and you wouldn't clothe me; sick, and in prison,
and you didn't visit me."
Then they will reply, "Lord, when did we ever see you
hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in
prison, and not help you?"
And I will answer, "When you refused to help the least
of these my brothers, you were refusing help to me."
And they shall go away into eternal punishment; but the
righteous into everlasting life."
- Matthew 25:31-46
KEYSTONE RESIDENCE MISSION STATEMENT
Keystone Residence is a change agent, creating
opportunities that encourage growth and meaningful life
choices while helping persons with disabilities find:
home, friends, family, work and presence in their
communities.
"i do not want to be reborn
but if that should happen
i would like to find myself amongst the untouchables
in order to share their affliction,
their suffering
and the insults they are subject to.
in this way,
perhaps i would have the chance
to liberate them and myself
from this miserable condition."
- Gandhi
Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment.
Full effort is full victory.
- Mohandas Gandhi
The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within.
- Mahatma Gandhi
The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the
attribute of the strong.
- Mahatma Gandhi
There is no god higher than truth.
- Mahatma Gandhi
No culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive.
Unity to be real must stand the severest strain without breaking.
- Mahatma Gandhi
The golden rule of conduct is mutual toleration, seeing
that we will never all think alike and that we shall
always see Truth in fragments and from different angles
of vision.
- Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) Harijan
Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err.
- Mahatma Gandhi
The nations of the world today resemble a pack of
mountaineers tied together by climbing rope. They can
either climb on together to the mountain peak or fall
together into an abyss. This new political outlook
calls for the recognition of one simple axiom: security
is indivisible. It is either equal security for all, or
none at all.
- Mikail Gorbachev
"Love your neighbor as yourself: is the great principle
of the Torah.
- The Midrash
"As we position ourselves to conceivably entrust the
lives of millions of people to a life in 'community,'
it is useful to ask if we have truly squared ourselves
to a view of 'community' that contains human beings
that are less than ideal."
- Michael Kendrick
I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love
will have the final word in reality.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up
and live out the true meaning of this creed; We hold
these truths to be self evident: that all men are
created equal...
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige,
and even his life for the welfare of others. In
dangerous valleys and hazardous pathways, he will lift
some bruised and beaten brother to a higher and more
noble life.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands
in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he
stands at times of challenge and controversy.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
We must use time creatively--and forever realize that
this time is always hope to do great things.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from
every village and every hamlet, from every state and
every city, we will be able to speed up that day when
all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews
and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able
to join hands and sing in the words of that old Negro
spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God
Almighty, we are free at last!"
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
All God's critters got a place in the choir,
Some sing low, some sing higher,
Some sing out loud on the telephone wires,
And some just clap their hands.
- Margaret Mantle
Some Just Clap Their Hands
BEYOND PROGRAMS: A PARABLE
Revised and edited from an original work
by Michael McCarthy
In the beginning, there were placements, and lo we were
happy for placements were not mandated for adults who
happened to experience severe disabilities,
And so, we said, this is good.
And placements multiplied and filled the our
communities.
And then, we said, let us call these persons "clients"
and make programs, which focus on serving their needs.
And "clients" were defined and labeled, and grouped
according to their labels and assigned to programs
based on their labels.
And the professionals created services for each label,
and state agencies developed unit costs for each
service.
And programs prospered and multiplied, and we said,
this is very good.
And many of the professionals began to earn a fine
living in the rendering of service to their "clients."
And programs multiplied, and we said, this is very,
very good.
And as programs continued to multiply, a cry arose:
"Let us evaluate our programs to see how good they
really are."
And program evaluation systems, state regulations,
quality assurance committees, compliance plans, and
other program measures were created.
And they multiplied and filled volumes.
And in those times, a prophet arose who was also a
"client", and said to us:
"I don't want to be a "client",
I want to be a person.
I don't want a label,
I want a name.
I don't want services,
I want support and help.
I don't want a residential placement.
I want a home.
I don't want a day program.
I want work that is meaningful and productive.
I don't want to be "programmed" my whole life;
I don't want to be controlled.
I want freedom.
I want to learn to do the things that I like, and to
go places I want, when I want.
I want to have fun and to enjoy life
I want to have friends.
I want to love and be loved.
I want a family.
I want to contribute.
I want to live where I want and with whom I want.
I want the same opportunities as all of you.
I want to be happy
I want freedom."
And there was a long silence.
And lo, we realized that we must look beyond our
programs, our regulations and our labels.
But we were deeply troubled, and asked:
"What have we done? How can we do what the Prophet
asks? Would not each person need their own unique
program and system of support based on his own
individual measure of its quality."
And the prophet replied:
"Even as you say, so should it be done-
just as you have done for yourselves."
"Our age of anxiety is, in great part, the result of
trying to do today's job with yesterday's tools - with
yesterday's concepts."
- M. McLuhan
Every good deed is charity, and it is a good deed that
thou meet thy brother with a cheerful countenance and
that thou pour water from thy bucket into the vessel of
thy brother.
- Mohammed(570-632)
The Hadith
More than anything else followers want to believe that
their leaders are ethical and honest. They want to
say, "Someday I want to be like him or her."
- Anon
MISSION STATEMENT
The Mission of the Otis Elevator Company is to move
people and material vertically and horizontally over
relatively short distances.
Who are these people?
They are the hostages we surrendered long
ago to ransom a future;
They are a clear reflection and a continuous
confirmation of the very best part of ourselves;
They are that divine dividend, the long promised
blessing reserved for those among us who have
never seen but have always believed;
They are a promise kept, a hope fulfilled,
a dream realized;
They are a manifestation of the profound love that
governs the universe, a love perpetually nourished
by the realization of itself, and a love
surrendered over and over again in joy and
gratitude at the command of the omnipotent spirit.
They are you and me!
- Martin Sheen
If you are preoccupied with people who are talking
about the poor, you scarcely have time to talk to the
poor. Some people talk about hunger, but they didn't
come and say, "Mother, here is five rupees. Buy food
for these people." But they can give a most beautiful
lecture on hunger. I had the most extraordinary
experience once in Bombay. There was a big conference
about hunger. I was supposed to go to that meeting and
I lost the way. Suddenly I come to that place, and
right in front of the door to where hundreds of people
were talking about food and hunger, I found a dying
man.
I took him out and I took him home.
He died there.
He died of hunger.
And the people inside were talking about how in fifteen
years we will have so much food, so much this, so much
that, and that man died.
See the difference?
- Mother Teresa
Words to Love By
I never look at the masses as my responsibility.
I look at the individual. I can love only one person at
a time. I can feed only one person at a time.
Just one, one, one.
You get closer to Christ by coming closer to each
other. As Jesus said, "Whatever you do to the least of
my brethren, you do to me."
So you begin.......I begin.
maybe if I didn't pick up that one person I wouldn't
have picked up 42,000.
The whole work is only a drop in the ocean. But if I
didn't put the drop in, the ocean would be one drop
less.
Same thing for you
same thing in your family
same thing in the church where you go
just begin...one, one, one.
- Mother Teresa
Words to Love By
"We make our friends; we make our enemies; but Godmakes our next door neighbor.... We have to love our
neighbor because he is 'there'...He is the sample of
humanity which is actually given us. Precisely because
he may be anybody he is everybody. He is a symbol
because he is an accident."
- Mother Teresa
We pray through our work by doing it with Jesus, for
Jesus, to Jesus. That helps us put our whole heart and
soul into doing it. The dying, the crippled, the
mentally ill, the unwanted, the unloved - they are
Jesus in disguise.
- Mother Teresa
We are supposed to preach without preaching not by
words, but by our example, by our actions. All works of
love are works of peace.
- Mother Teresa
Words to Love By
"The person who has had the bull by the tail once has
learned 60 or 70 times as much as a person who hasn't."
- Mark Twain
"It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid
than to open it and prove it."
- Mark Twain
If the choice is murder or suicide- commit murder and
keep your options open.
"We have art in order not
to die of the truth."
- Nietzche
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that
in the process he does not become a monster.
And when you look into the abyss,
the abyss also looks into you.
- Nietzsche
The syringe belongs in the hands of a physician.
- Nazi "Euthanasia" Motto
The Nazi Doctors
Here is a simple but powerful rule: Always give people
more than they expect to get.
- Nelson Boswell
Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the
children of your soul; the blue prints of your ultimate
achievements.
- Napoleon Hill
Nothing binds us one to another like a promise kept.
Nothing divides us like a promise broken.
The key to success is holding in your conscious mind
what you want to acheive and then striving in
everything you do to make the image reality.
- Dr. Norman Vincent Peale
"Why is it that when a person speaks to God it's
prayer, but when God speaks to a person it's
schizophrenia?
- Old Joke
The noblest service comes from nameless hands. And the
best servant does his work unseen.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes
The first cry form my heart when I knew she would never
be anything but a child, was the age old cry that we
all make before inevitable sorrow: "Why must this
happen to me?" To this there could be no answer and
there was none.
Pearl Buck
The Child Who Never Grew
The Disabled & their Parents,
Leo Buscaglia Ph.D.1983
Whoever speaks, as one who utters oracles of God;
whoever renders service, as one who renders it by the
strength which God supplies; in order that in
everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.
To him belong glory and dominion for ever and ever.
Amen.
- 1 Peter 4:11
Tend the flock of God that is your charge, not by
constraint but willingly, not for shameful gain but
eagerly, not as domineering over those in your charge
but being examples to the flock.
And when the chief Shepherd is manifested you will
obtain the unfading crown of glory.
Likewise you that are younger be subject to the elders.
Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one
another, for "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to
the humble."
- 1 Peter 5:2-5
"Life being what it is,
one dreams of revenge."
- Paul Gauguin
In the final analysis the destruction of the Jews was
not so much a product of laws and commands as it was
a matter of spirit, of shared comprehension, of
consonance and synchronization.
At every stage they displayed a striking pathfinding
ability in the absence of directives, a congruity of
activities without jurisdictional guidelines, a
fundamental comprehension of the task even when there
were no explicit communications.
- Raul Hilberg
The Genocidal Mentality p. 159
"When are you guys going to wise up? You got to know
what you're doing. You wouldn't treat yourselves that
way."
-Phillip
Jim Dudley
Finally, trust and embrace the dance going on before
and within you. It is life.... It is grace.... Its
community.
- Phil Jay
SEE EVERYTHING.
OVERLOOK A GREAT DEAL.
CORRECT A LITTLE.
- Pope John XXIII
We too are so dazzled by power and prestige as to
forget our essential fragility. Willingly or not we
come to terms with power, forgetting that we are all in
the ghetto, that the ghetto is walled in, that outside
the ghetto reign the lords of death, and that close by
the train is waiting.
- Primo Levi
The Drowned p. 69
How securely do we live, we men of the century's and
the millennium's end?
- Primo Levi
POLITENESS
IS THE CHIEF INGREDIENT
OF CULTURE
- Anon
PRAYER TO JESUS CRUCIFIED
Look down upon me, O good and gentle Jesus, while
before Thy face I humbly kneel, and with burning soul,
pray and beseech Thee to fix deep within my heart
lively sentiments of faith, hope and charity, true
contrition for my sins, and a firm purpose of
amendment; while I contemplate with great love and
tender pity Thy five precious wounds pondering over
them within me while I call to mind the words which
David Thy prophet said of Thee my Jesus: "They pierced
my hands and my feet: they numbered all my bones."
O Sacred Heart of Jesus, shower Thy blessings in
abundant measure upon all our benefactors; reward, O
Lord, with eternal life all those who do us good and
for Thy name's sake. Grant them health of mind and body
that they may ever love Thee with all their strength
and, by perfect love, May they do whatever is pleasing
to Thee. Extend over their hearts the sweet empire of
Thy love. Amen.
Proverbs 10:15 A rich man's wealth is his strong
city; the poverty of the poor is their ruin.
Proverbs 13:23 The fallow ground of the poor yields
much food, but it is swept away through injustice.
Proverbs 14:20 The poor is disliked even by his
neighbor, but the rich has many friends.
Proverbs 14:21 He who despises his neighbor is a
sinner, but happy is he who is kind to the poor.
Proverbs 14:31 He who oppresses a poor man insults
his Maker, but he who is kind to the needy honors him.
Proverbs 16:19 It is better to be of a lowly spirit
with the poor than to divide the spoil with the proud.
Proverbs 17:5 He who mocks the poor insults his
Maker; he who is glad at calamity will not go
unpunished.
Proverbs 19:4 Wealth brings many new friends, but a
poor man is deserted by his friend.
Proverbs 19:7 All a poor man's brothers hate him; how
much more do his friends go far from him! He pursues
them with words, but does not have them.
Proverbs 21:13 He who closes his ear to the cry of
the poor will himself cry out and not be heard.
Proverbs 22:9 He who has a bountiful eye will be
blessed, for he shares his bread with the poor.
Proverbs 22:16 He who oppresses the poor to increase
his own wealth, or gives to the rich, will only come to
want.
Proverbs 22:22 Do not rob the poor, because he is
poor, or crush the afflicted at the gate.
Proverbs 28:3 A poor man who oppresses the poor is a
beating rain that leaves no food.
Proverbs 28:15 Like a roaring lion or a charging bear
is a wicked ruler over a poor people.
Proverbs 28:27 He who gives to the poor will not
want, but he who hides his eyes will get many a curse.
Proverbs 29:7 A righteous man knows the rights of the
poor; a wicked man does not understand such knowledge.
Proverbs 29:13 The poor man and the oppressor meet
together; the LORD gives light to the eyes of both.
Proverbs 29:14 If a king judges the poor with equity
his throne will be established for ever.
Proverbs 31:9 Open your mouth, judge righteously,
maintain the rights of the poor and needy.
There are some remedies worse that the disease.
- Publilius Syrus
John Bartlett
Familiar Quotations
14 th ed.p125
In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor; let them
be caught in the schemes which they have devised.
Psalms 10:2
He lurks in secret like a lion in his covert; he lurks
that he may seize the poor, he seizes the poor when he
draws him into his net.
Psalms 10:9
My neighbors,
treat me with contempt;
Those who know me are afraid of me;
when they see me in the street, they run away.
- Ps. 31:11 TEV
"Be healed, be healthy, be whole.
When you are feeling loss, the part that you lost is
with you.
and you are whole."
- Paul Williams
Remember Your Essence
"Be ready to accept what you get,
and the world is yours."
- Paul Williams
Remember Your Essence
"Confidence is a power
that comes from the inner knowledge
that you are at one with your purpose
Self-doubt and self-emanating
are the means by which a powerful person like you
re-creates this inner knowledge
at each new moment."
- Paul Williams
Remember Your Essence
"Every day the existence of the universe
depends on whether you care enough
to create it."
- Paul Williams
Remember Your Essence
"In this life
we find our way
by following each step with another.
Take a step
and follow it.
If you start to see a path emerging.
ignore it.
Do not follow a path
Follow your own footprints.
Your path will create itself."
- Paul Williams
Remember Your Essence
"It's true the pain of awareness
is often the pain
of your sense of separation
from where you'd like to be.
But do not struggle to end this separation!"
- Paul Williams
Remember Your Essence page. 57
"Know that you are on your path
and do not ask for a description of it.
Each moment follows the previous moment
and all your triumphs and failures,
your good luck and bad luck,
have brought you to right here, right now,
Do not question or evaluate this moment.
Enjoy it. Accept it.
It has taken you all your life to get here.
Relax, and trust the self that has brought you this far
You will receive your next assignment soon;
and you will know it when you receive it."
- Paul Williams
Remember Your Essence
"let go of your plans and schemes
and suddenly in the silence
you will hear the voices of your guides.
You may not know the names of these guides
but their voices will sound familiar.
Remember to ask for guidance.
Remember to listen.
Do not worry about what it is you're listening for.
Be still, and let it come.
- Paul Williams
Remember Your Essence page. 65
"Now open your eyes.
Look around.
Welcome to this world you've created."
- Paul Williams
Remember Your Essence
"Something is calling you.
It has no name, and it is not something
you have seen or experienced before.
And yet it calls from your past
as well as from your future.
It has power.
You can smell it and taste it.
And even as you feel yourself resisting it.
you are responding to the call.
Your resistance is part of your response."
- Paul Williams
Remember Your Essence
"Take the first step,
The first step is always perfect
as long as you are ready
to take the step that follows it.
Only by taking the first step
can you find the step that follows it."
- Paul Williams
Remember Your Essence
"That person-your friend-the essence you're in the
presence of-is a teacher for you, if you allow it, who
can serve you in any and every area of your life that's
important to you right now. Everything you need or want
to know at this moment in your life, in every area
where you have a need or desire to grow, is here. What
you require and wish for is available to you and right
in front of you, and all you have to do to get it is be
with this person and notice everything that happens
while you're in his or her presence. An hour can be
enough, if you are awake enough. Five minutes could be
enough. The limitation is your willingness and ability
to let it in. This has nothing to do with what the
other person does. Your teacher is his or her essence.
Your opportunity is to let it act on you."
- Paul Williams
Remember Your Essence
"The God you lost
and the paradise you lost
are also still with you."
- Paul Williams
Remember Your Essence
The question "What is right?"
humbly asked,
is a daily, hourly meditation
to re connect you
with your purpose.
You are on your path
look around.
Notice what you're feeling.
Ask. "What is right?"
Now you are ready to take the next step.
- Paul Williams
Remember Your Essence
"There is nothing you need to know.
As of this moment, you are free of any obligation.
You may go in any direction you like.
You are reborn."
- Paul Williams
Remember Your Essence
This is your world
You have created every aspect, every detail of it
for your own entertainment and satisfaction.
The parts you don't like you created so there would be
parts you don't like.
The parts you don't know about you created because
it wouldn't be any fun if there weren't parts you
didn't know about.
The things you want and don't have you created so
you'd have something to strive for.
the things you'd do anything to have be different
you created in order to provide yourself with
motivation.
You created all of it - not by making it but by
noticing it, distinguishing it, separating it out.
Until you came along, it was undifferentiated light.
You turned it into a world of detail, a planet filled
with distinction and life.
You have it exactly the way you want it.
Awesome, isn't it?"
- Paul Williams
Remember Your Essence
Welcome your wounds.
they are manifestations of hidden fears.
Without them, your fears would stay hidden.
- Paul Williams
Remember Your Essence
You are afraid
of the touch of fire.
And yet you live for it.
- Paul Williams
Remember Your Essence
You are here to remember.
Remember means re-experience.
Every breath you take re-creates this miracle called
your body, your life.
Be aware of each breath,
and you will find yourself in the presence
of the living God.
- Paul Williams
Remember Your Essence
You are not alone.
You are part of a greater purpose.
It is not necessary to understand this purpose.
It is not possible to understand this purpose.
It is not been possible to understand your part
in this purpose.
What you can do is catch a glimpse of it
from the corner of your eye.
- Paul Williams
Remember Your Essence
You are responsible
for what you say
and what you do
and who you are.
When you feel overcome
by the pain of this awareness,
remember that you are loved.
- Paul Williams
Remember Your Essence
You have a presence that cannot be kept secret.
Your essence is visible, naked,
to anyone who cares enough to experience it.
You are a source of warmth and light.
And your purpose here is to be who you already are.
There is nothing else you need to be doing.
This is it.
- Paul Williams
Remember Your Essence
You have power.
The impact you have
on other people
and on the world around you
is the visible effect of your power.
Consciously or unconsciously,
you are using your power
at every moment.
- Paul Williams
Remember Your Essence
Your death is always with you
It is the most attractive part of you
When people tell you they love your eyes,
or the way you walk,
it is your mortality they're seeing.
- Paul Williams
Remember Your Essence
Your teachers
are everywhere.
Some you will recognize,
and some you will not recognize.
this is how it must be.
Do not try to know everything.
- Paul Williams
Remember Your Essence
Work of the eye is done, now go and do heart work
- Rilke
Accepting relationships are not based on a denial of
difference, but rather on the absence of impugning the
different person's moral character because of the
variation.
Rather than the differentness being the master status,
it is only part of the configuration.
Toward a Sociology of Acceptance: The Other Side of the
Study of Deviance Robert Bogdan & Steven Taylor
- Social Policy Fall 1987
No attribute of a person, no matter how atypical,
precludes accepting relations.
Toward a Sociology of Acceptance: The Other Side of the
Study of Deviance Robert Bogden & Steven Taylor
- Social Policy Fall 1987
O God, who lives in tenements, who goes to segregated
schools, who is beaten in precincts, who is
unemployed...
Help us to know you
O God who is cold in the slums of winter,
Whose playmates are rats-four legged ones
Who live with you and two-legged ones
Who imprison you...
Help us to touch you.
- Robert Castle
Few men during their lifetime come anywhere near
exhausting the resources within them. There are deep
wells of strength that are seldom used.
- Richard E. Boyd
FULGHUM'S LIST
1. Buy lemonade from any kid who is selling.
2. Any time you can vote on anything, vote.
3. Attend the 25th reunion of your high school class.
4. Choose having time over having money.
5. Always take the scenic route.
6. Give at least something to every beggar who asks.
7. Give money to all street musicians.
8. Always be someone's valentine.
9. When the circus comes to town, be there.
- Robert Fulghum
How do we serve others in the world? We serve them by
preparing ourselves to lead and by accepting the
opportunity to lead when it is offered. Our world is
hungry for compassionate, servant leaders. Talk about a
mission field! Changes in the world will be initiated
by those who are on the inside of the great
institutions and who seek to lead them into better
performance for the public good.
-Richard J. Foster
Money Sex & Power p. 243
ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN
Most of what I really need to know about how to live
and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten.
Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school
mountain, but there in the sandpile at Sunday school.
These are the things I learned:
Share everything
Play fair
Don't hit people
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don't take things that aren't yours.
Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
Live a balanced life-learn some and think some and
draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work
every day some.
Take a nap every afternoon.
When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic,
hold hands and stick together.
Be aware of wonder.
- Robert Fulghum
If more serving institutions are to be built,
individuals who want to serve must, on their own, build
them where they are.
Not much will change until the builders within
institutions, those with competence and strength, begin
to move.
- Robert Greenleaf
Servant Leadership
GOD GRANT ME THE SERENITY
TO ACCEPT THE THINGS I CANNOT CHANGE,
THE COURAGE TO CHANGE THE THINGS I CAN,
AND THE WISDOM TO KNOW THE DIFFERENCE.
- Reinhold Niebuhr
Your lacerations tell the losing game
You play against sickness past your cure.
How will the hands be strong?
How will the heart endure?
- Robert Lowell
I pay tribute to my profession, firm in the conviction
that it offers great opportunities for both moral
adventure and social usefulness than any other calling
if it is entered with open eyes and a consciousness of
the hazards to virtue which lurk in it. I make no
apology for being critical of what I love. No one
wants a love which is based upon illusions, and there
is no reason why we should not love a profession and
yet be critical of it.
- Reinhold Niebuhr
Leaves from the
Notebook of a Tamed Cynic, 1950
We have only begun to sense the fragile wound some
handicapped persons may feel when it dawns on them that
the only people relating with them - outside of
relatives - are paid to do so.
- Robert Perske
The destruction process required the cooperation of
every sector of German society. The bureaucrats drew up
the definitions and decrees; the churches gave
evidence of Aryan descent; the postal authorities
carried the messages of definition, expropriation,
denaturalization, and deportation; business
corporations dismissed their Jewish employees and took
over "Aryanized" properties; the railroads carried the
victims to their place of execution, a place make
available to the Gestapo and the SS by the Wehrmacht.
To repeat, the operation required and received the
participation of every major social, political and
religious institution of the German Reich.
- Richard Rubenstein
The Genocidal Mentality p. 168
Through my own experience, I learned that striving for
a positive mental attitude will get you nowhere unless
you have the ammunition to back it up. You develop a
positive mental attitude by being prepared, by
understanding the realities of what it takes to
succeed, and by being good at the necessary techniques.
It's a cycle: the more prepared a person is, the more
positive his attitude, and, therefore, the better his
chances of succeeding.
- Robert J. Ringer
Man is not a being who stands still, he is a being in
the process of becoming. The more he enables himself to
become, the more he fulfills his true mission.
- Rudolph Steiner
SOMETHING GREAT AND WONDERFUL
IS HAPPENING TODAY
AND I AM A PART OF IT.
- Dr. Robert Scott
Ideas have consequences.
- Richard Weaver
What we do best, lets do better
- R. Wolf
DICK & JANE
They've shared the same mat since they were
children,
lately though the staff has been setting them down
so that they're facing in opposite directions of one
another,
probably to avoid any funny stuff.
It doesn't matter that much though;
they'll nestle together no matter what,
knowing that they're all they have,
they learn to make do.
Her body is that of a child
though her face is taking on the features of a
beautiful
young woman;
looking into her hazel eyes, I'm almost mesmerized by
their sparkle,
It took me a while to figure out the score.
Finding pleasure in giving her lover a back rub
with spasmodic strokes of her arm, she massages the
small of his back;
smiling, he responds in kind by running his whiskers
through her toes,
she gives out a slight laugh;
they move an inch or two closer to each other
hoping that the staff doesn't pick up on the subtleties
of the moment;
they don't of course.
- Robert Williams
FOR DEBBIE, AT 26:
you simply can't understand
how difficult a time
adolescence was
unless you've just turned 26,
with no one to turn
to instruct you in the fine art
of the french kiss:
I feel son compelled to you,
like the tall and gangling kid
I never was.
little wonder,
that the awkwardness we feel
while in each other's arms
should still linger
and time alone
seemingly just serves
to complicate matters
all the more.
- Robert Williams
GALLANT AND GAUNT THEIR BEAUTY
Look deep.
deep into the eyes of my people:
Caged eyes,
Peering out
through the bars of their
sanitized, steel-white cribs.
Do not try to evade
their entrancing gaze
for it will not release you.
Look deep,
deep into the eyes of my people.
* * *
Look deep,
deep into the faces of my people:
Ageless but worn faces,
scarred beyond the years,
Tenuously connected to bodies,
twisted and bent
by gravity's pull
and years of lying supine.
Do not abandon those
others coldly ignore:
Look deep,
deep into the eyes of my people.
* * *
Look deep,
deep into the hearts of
my people:
Witness their horror,
Witness their pain.
Horror and pain
your spoken words alone
will never soothe.
Do not try to explain It away,
they will never believe you.
Look deep,
deep into the eyes of my people.
* * *
Look deep,
deep into the souls of
my people:
Feel their soft, entrancing spirit.
A spirit,
which time alone will never dim.
Look deep.
Deep into the eyes of my people
* * *
Gallant and gaunt, their beauty.
Beauty,
your spoken words can never
capture.
- Robert Williams
THE MARATHON MAN
Johnny ran.
that was his problem,
he was what the staff called a runner
logical since he ran whenever he could--
one minute
they thought they had him
three ways to sunday
tied to the bedpost
with someone else's soiled sheets,
then they'd no sooner turn around
and he'd be up to his harry houdini
routine all over again.
even the aides admitted he was pretty smart for being a
retard;
all the rest of them would sit and rock.
but not Johnny
he'd jump up
dart this way and that.
then the next thing you know
he'd find an open door
or leap through a window
and he'd be clocking the mile
on the institution's main drag
at three-point-ninety-two
like the long distant runner
he longed to be.
they tried vinegar spray,
four-point restraints,
even leaden shoes.
nothing slowed his free stride
until they placed electrodes on his hide
and shocked him.
shocked him silly.
now he's on the back ward
rocking to and fro
to and fro
to and fro...
- Robert Williams
To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people
and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of old and new friends;
To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others,
To leave the world a better place, whether by a healthy
child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition,
To know one life has breathed easier because you have
lived,
This is to have succeeded.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Have patience, all things are difficult before they
become easy.
- Saadi
No man can live happily who regards himself alone, who
turns everything to his own advantage. You must live
for others if you wish to live for yourself.
- Seneca
To become what we are capable of becomming is the only
end of life.
- Spinoza
What does love look like? It has the hands to help
others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and
needy. It has the eyes to see misery and want. It has
the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is
what love looks like.
- Saint Augustine
You must go on a little more, you must go on a long
time more, you must go on forever more.
- Samuel Beckett
In the struggle for justice the only reward is - to
participate in the struggle.
- Steven Douglas
A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a
single man contemplates it, bearing within him the
image of a cathedral.
- Saint-Exupery
And now here is my secret, a very simple secret. It is
only with the heart that one can rightly see; what is
essential is invisible to the eye.
- Saint Exupery
Have patience with all things, but chiefly have
patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in
considering your own imperfections, but instantly set
about remedying them. Everyday begin the task anew.
- Saint Francis de Sales
To love our neighbor in charity is so to love God in
man, or man in God.
- Saint Francis of Sales
(1567-1622)
Sermons
Part of the problem today is that we have a surplus of
simple answers and a shortage of simple problems.
- "Thought for Today" in the Syracuse Herald
Suffering which falls to our lot in the course of
nature, or by chance, or fate, does not seem so painful
as suffering which is inflicted on us by the arbitrary
will of another.
- Schopenhauer
Happiness comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to
enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life, to be
needed.
- Storm Jameson
Don't be afraid to go out on a limb. That's where the
fruit is.
Are we a community where all conflict is avoided and
differences are covered over? Do we see the poor?
Are we a community with organizations and groups
competing for power? Do we honor our differences?
Are we a community which allows emptiness and time for
healing? Do we have to control others or can we allow
the spirit to work through all of us?
Are we a community which nurtures and sustains itself?
Is our commitment a commitment to the permanent
well-being of all?
- M. Scott Peck
The Different Drum
I was overwhelmed by the suffering around me.
I prayed to God, saying "Stop it", and he responded:
"Stop it".
- Anonymous
Outstanding leaders go out of the way to boost the
self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in
themselves, its amazing what they can accomplish.
- Sam Walton
TO ENHANCE THE QUALITY
OF THE DAY
THAT IS THE HIGHEST
OF ARTS.
- Thoreau
The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity.
- Tolstoi
Should anyone turn aside the right of the stranger, it
is as though he were to turn aside the right of the
most high God.
- The Talmud
When mankind languisheth in pain let no man say I shall
return unto mine own household, eat and drink and be at
peace! Nay, each man must be willing to suffer with
his fellowmen. He who shares the afflictions of others
will merit to behold the comforting of humanity.
- The Talmud
There is less to this than meets the eye.
- T. Bankhead
Be kind. Remember everyone you meet is fighting a hard
battle.
- T. H. Thompson
He who has the gold makes the rules.
The growth and development of people is the highest
calling of leadership.
- Anon
THE HANDICAPPED AND THE WHOLENSS OF THE FAMILY OF GOD
The church's unity includes both the "disabled" and the
"able." A church which seeks to be truly united within
itself and to move towards unity with others must be
open to all; yet able bodied church members, both by
their attitudes and by their emphasis on activism,
marginalize and often exclude those with mental or
physical disabilities. The disabled are treated as the
weak to be served, rather than as fully committed,
integral members of the Body of Christ and the human
family; the specific contribution which they have to
give is ignored. This is the more serious because
disability--a world-wide problem--is increasing.
Accidents and illness leave adults and children
disabled; many more are emotionally handicapped by the
pressures of social change and urban living; genetic
disorders and famine leave millions of children
physically or mentally impaired. The Church cannot
exemplify "the full humanity revealed in Christ," bear
witness to the interdependence of humankind, or achieve
unity in diversity if it continues to acquiesce in the
social isolation of disabled persons and to deny them
full participation in its life. The unity of the
family of God is handicapped where these brothers and
sisters are treated as objects of condescending
charity. It is broken where they are left out. How
can the love of Christ create in us the will to discern
and to work forcefully aganst the causes which distort
and cripple the lives of so many of our fellow human
beings? How can the Church be open to the witness
which Christ extends through them?
The Fifth Assembly of the World Council of Churches in
Mairobi 1975 p.122 Strong at the Broken Places
The purpose of cooking is not the employment of cooks!
Three men were laying brick.
The first was asked, "What are you doing?"
He answered, "Laying some brick."
The second man was asked, "What are you working for?"
He answered, "Five dollars a day."
The third man was asked, "What are you doing?"
He answered, I am helping to build a great Cathedral."
Which man are you?
- Anon
The care of human life and happiness, and not their
destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of
good government.
- Thomas Jefferson
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men
are created equal; that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among
these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness...
- Thomas Jefferson
Guide us as we move through life and grow individually,
yet together. Fill our hearts with love and give us the
ability to express it to one another. Help us to turn
to each other for strength and touch our lives with
understanding. Lead us through times of trouble and
give to us the strength to do as needed. Help us to
earn each others trust and give us the ability to
forgive when hurt. Let us share our smiles and sorrows
to care and give unselfishly. We in turn shall do our
best to live our lives as family.
- Anon
Regard your neighbor's gain as your own gain, and your
neighbor's loss as your own loss.
- Toaist Golden Rule
T'ai Shang Kan Ying P'ien
Management by wandering around, may be the most
important thing managers can do to improve work quality
and productivity.
- Thomas Peters and Robert H. Waterman
In Search of Excellence
In a dark time the eye begins to see.
- Theodore Roethke
The Nazi Doctors
Our great human adventure is the evolution of
consciousness. We are in this life to enlarge the soul
and light up the brain.
- Tom Robins
Your neighbor's right is God's right.
- Turkish Proverb
Mental retardation is not something that can be
simply and scientifically defined, discussed,
dissected applied or studied. Mental retardation is
related to our very understanding of humanity, of human
potential, of educability, of equality, of rights and
privilege, of everything we are and everything that
relates to us.
Ready, Fire, Aim
- Executive at Cadbury's
UNITED METHODISTS COUNCIL OF BISHOPS 1986
We write in defense of creation. We do so because the
creation itself is under attack. Air and water, trees
and fruits and flowers, birds and fish and cattle, all
children and youth, women and men live under the
darkening shadows of a threatening nuclear winter. We
call the United Methodist Church to more faithful
witness and action in the face of this worsening
nuclear crisis.
"The secret of the power of Christianity is that it
does not shrink from the abyss..... We are made aware
in hours of defeat that life has dimensions of which we
too easily lose sight when everything is going well."
Here, at any rate, is my own summary of all that I have
tried to say to you in the past few weeks. I believe
that men cannot fully exercise compassion until they
have experienced humiliation. I believe that, before
they can help the pariahs and felons of society, they
must stand beside them in the dock and in the prison.
Just as the fight for personal self-conquest takes
place in each new generation, so in every epoch has
been waged the struggle to eliminate war. But that
conflict has now reached a point at which man must
overcome this worst of his enemies or himself be
annihilated.
War begins first in the human soul. When a man has
learned how to wrest honor from humiliation, his
mastery of his own soul has begun and by just that much
he has brought the war against war nearer to victory.
He no longer looks to the men on the heights to supply
him with evidence that God exists.
Instead, he himself
from the depths, becomes part of that evidence. He has
proved that power itself is powerless against the
authority of love.
That you and I will each leave some such evidence
behind us, is the perpetual hope of
Your Mother.
- Vera Brittain to her son
A human being is not a thing among other things;
determine each other, but man is ultimately
self-determining. What he becomes-within the limits of
endowment and environment-he has made out of himself.
In the concentration camps, for example, in this living
laboratory and on this testing ground, we watched and
witnessed some of our comrades behave like swine while
others behaved like saints. Man has both
potentialities within himself; which one is actualized
depends on decisions but not on conditions.
Our generation is realistic, for we have come to know
man as he really is. After all, man is that being who
has invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he
is also that being who has entered those gas chambers
upright, with the Lord's prayer or the Shema Yisrael on
his lips.
- Victor E. Frankl
Man's Search for Meaning
The Disabled & their Parents
VISION
Our Vision is that of creating an environment where all
people can grow, make choices, and be valued and
contributing members of our community. In this vision
we see the welfare of all people being vested in the
welfare of each individual. We believe that at the
most basic level all of us want a secure home, a
family, good health, friends, work we find meaningful,
presence in our community and valued social roles.
We believe that all human life is sacred, having equal
and unconditional value.
We believe that it is important when encountering
others to see ourselves; recognizing and valuing
individual differences and diversity as a means of
validating our own uniqueness and affirming the great
diversity of the human community. Our services and
supports will value and be responsive to the cultural,
racial and ethnic diversity of the communities,
individuals and families we serve. We will strive to
assure that all levels of our organization reflect this
diversity.
We believe that at the most fundamental level, it is
the nature of all human beings to grow and develop
throughout their lives. We believe that people who
help others to grow and change are under mutual
obligation to grow and change themselves and the same
growth and change principles apply equally to all
people.
Within our intent is a deep commitment to decrease the
dependence of individuals and families on formal
services. All that we do, should contribute to
strength, growth, independence, interdependence and
increased capacity. However, when an individual or
family needs formal services those services, must
be effective and, when appropriate time limited.
Our Vision is that of supporting people within their
communities in natural settings of home, work,
neighborhood and school. Over time we believe our role
will increasingly change from that of a provider of
services to that of a facilitator and a community
organizer.
Our structure is that of a family of organizations that
share a common Vision and set of values. Our structure
allows us to operate both as a collaborative whole as
well as small individualized agencies.
We believe that we have an obligation to serve as a
change agent sharing our experience with others both
individually and within the public policy process.
We desire that many people will experience their work
as a calling. We wish to encourage and nurture such
deep commitments, as well as friendships, non-paid
relationships, and life sharing. We believe that it is
important to live in an environment where all of us
have the opportunity to consider the philosophical and
spiritual aspects of our work, doing so in an
individual and personal way.
In this time of rapid social change, much of what we do
encompasses the creation of new social forms and
structures that have value to all people. We believe
that our striving to accept, value and understand
great diversity in human qualities as well as the
creation of community is linked to our role in creating
a safer world.
Eighty percent of success is showing up.
- Woody Allen
We talk the talk but we don't walk the walk.
Trust is the emotional glue that binds followers and
leaders together.
- Warren Bennis & Bert Nanus
I come, in conclusion, to the difference between
"projecting" the future and making a promise, the
"projecting" of "futurologists" uses the future as the
safest possible context for whatever is desired: It
binds one only to selfish interest. But making a
promise binds one to someone else's future. If the
promise is serious enough, one is brought to it by
love, and awe and fear. Fear, awe and love bind us to
no selfish aim, but to each other. And they enforce a
speech more exact, more clarifying, and more binding
than any speech that can be used to sell or advocate
some "future." For when we promise in love and awe and
fear there is a certain kind of mobility that we give
up. We are speaking where we stand, and we shall stand
afterwards in the presence of what we have said.
- Wendell Berry
Remember, Heaven has an avenging rod; To smite the poor
is treason against God.
- William Cowper (1731-1800)
Charity
I was not the lion, but it fell to me to give the
lion's roar.
- Winston Churchill
It is not enough that we do our best;
sometimes we have to do what's required.
- Winston Churchill
Never, never, never quit.
- Winston Churchill
The empires of the future are empires of the mind.
- Winston Churchill
The nose of the bulldog has been slanted backwards so
that he can breathe without letting go.
- Winston Churchill
What is the use of living if it be not to strive for
noble causes and to make this muddled world a better
place to live in after we are gone.
- Winston Churchill
When the eagles are silent the parrots begin to jabber.
- Winston Churchill
It is awesome and responsible to consider one's world
as one's representation. Then I am responsible when
the world gets mean and small, angry or guilty. I am
not only my brother's keeper. I am my brother.
Wilson Ban Dusen
Person to person
The Disabled & their Parents
Leo Buscaglia Ph.D. 1983
Our age, if it is to deliver on its promise, needs
people who can reach beyond that which is already
determined, that which is already predictable, that
which can already be expected, and take the lead in
creating new possibility.
- Werner Erhard
Well led followers feel useful, important and part of a
worthwhile enterprise.
- Anon
The service we render to others is really the rent we
pay for our room on this earth. It is obvious that man
is himself a traveller; that the purpose of this world
is not "to have and to hold" but "to give and serve."
There can be no other meaning.
- Sir Wilfred T. Grenfell
Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps; for he
is the only animal that is struck with the difference
between what things are, and what they aught to be.
- William Hazlitt
Happiness is essentially a state of going somewhere
wholeheartedly without regret or reservation.
- William H. Sheldon
"My dear, we live in a time of transition," said
Adam as he led Eve out of Paradise."
- W. Inge
Compared to what we ought to be, we are only half
awake.
- William James
The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to
be appreciated.
- William James
The best use of life is to invest it in something which
will out last life.
- William James
I know the enemy's brother.
- W. S. Merwin
For Now
The Moving Target p. 95
Ideas go booming through the world louder than cannons.
Thoughts are mightier than armies. Principles have
achieved more victories than horsemen or chariots.
- W.M. Paxton
Whereas the Supreme Power of the universe has deemed
it natural to create human beings of various colors,
races, and creeds; and
Whereas in his sight they all are his equally beloved
children;
Therefore be it resolved that there is no superior
race or group of peoples and that all men are brothers
of equal rank; and be it further resolved that we know
this and believe it now and forever!
- W. Newman
I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good
therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can
show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me
not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way
again.
- William Penn
Even though you're on the right track--you'll get run
over if you just sit there.
- Will Rogers
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
Deform'd, unfinish'd, sent before my time
Into this breathing world scarce half made up,
And that so lamely and unfashionable
That dogs bark at me as I halt by them.....
- William Shakespeare
King Richard III
act 1, scene 1, lines 19-23
Life is a battle in which we fall from wounds we
receive in running away.
- William L. Sullivan
Real joy comes not from ease or riches or from the
praise of men, but from doing something worthwile.
- Sir Wilfred T. Grenfell
Intimacy with God means becoming filled with love
towards everyone--love which means the desire to do
what will be good for them and not what will be good or
pleasant for us.
- William Temple
Daily Readings
There are many people, especially wounded and
handicapped people, who now do not have viable,
relatively unconditional one-to-one supportive
relationships. If people are no longer willing to
engage in those kinds of relationships, laws can be
passed, unlimited funds can be allocated -- and still,
nothing will work....if individual citizens, on a
personal basis do not bind the wounds of the sick, do
not give bread to the hungry, do not console the
broken-hearted and visit the imprisoned, do not
liberate the captives of oppression and do not bury the
dead, then nothing will work.
- Wolf Wolfensberger
We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers.
They see things in the soft haze of a spring day or in
the red fire of a long winter's evening. Some of us let
these great dreams die, but others nourish and protect
them; nurse them through bad days till they bring them
to the sunshine and light which comes always to these
who sincerely hope that their dreams will come true.
- Woodrow Wilson
Where there is passion, there is hope
- W. Wolfensberger
To the Commonwealth Institute
Your mission is to:
* Create a few islands of excellence.
* Save a few good staff.
* Minimize atrocities.
- W. Wolfensberger
"I do not think that, to prevent the propogation of
this class (mental retardation) it is necessary to kill
them off or to resort to the knife; but, if it is
necessary, it should be done" (Johnson, 1901, pp.
410-411).Barr, 1915, pp. 361-363).
"We must come to recognize
feeble-mindedness, idiocy, imbecility, and insanity as
largely communicable conditions or diseases, just as
the ordinary physician recognized smallpox, diptheria,
etc., as communicable"
Bullard (1910, pp. 14-15),
"Girls of the classes
described (mentally retarded) must be cared for by the
state . . . There is no class of persons in our whole
population who, unit for unit, are so dangerous or so
expensive to the state. This excepts no class, not
even the violently insane. They are much more
dangerous and expensive than the ordinary insane or the
ordinary feeble-minded or the ordinary criminal.
There is probably no class of persons who are more
fitted and more apt to spread disease and moral evil
than these girls. One evil girl may corrupt a whole
village. A single feeble-minded girl among a group of
young boys becomes a plague-spot, the consequences of
which are frightful" (Butler, 1915, p. 358).
...on Charities and correction, 1888, p. 396), and Taft
(*1918, p. 5450 ominously referred to a
"...final...solution...", a term that would come into
its full meaning 20 years later.
"The adult males become the town loafers and
incapables, the irresponsible pests of the
neighborhood, petty thieves, purposeless destroyers of
property, incendiaries, and very frequently violators
of women and little girls. The social and economic
burdens of uncomplicated feeble-mindedness are only too
well known. The feeble-minded are a parasitic,
predatory class, never capable of self-support or of
managing their own affairs. The great majority
ultimately become public charges in some form. They
cause considerable sorrow at home and are a menace and
danger to the community. Every feeble-minded person,
especially the high-grade imbecile, is a potential
criminal, needing expression of his criminal
tendencies. The unrecognized imbecile is a most
dangerous element in the community."
(Howe, 1848, 1852, 866), e.g.: "It appeared to us
certain that the existence of so many idiots in every
generation must be the consequence of some violation of
the natural laws; --that where there was so much
suffering, there must have been sin"
(1848, p. 4). Greene (1884, p. 270)
"Our wards are
innocent of crime or fault In the large majority of
instances, they are the feeble and deformed expressions
of parental sins or sorrows."
"Nosworthy (1907) probably expressed latent sentiments
most honestly when, in all seriousness, she raised the
question whether the feeble-minded constitute a
separate species, and then designed a study to
investigate this matter."
"The one effective way to diminish the number of the
feeble-minded in future generations is to prevent the
birth of those who would transmit feeble-mindedness to
their descendants." "Indeed, the results of eugenic
research are so impressive that we are almost convinced
that we are in possession of knowledge which would
enable us to markedly diminish the number of the
feeble-mind in a few generations if segregation or
surgical sterilization of all known defectives were
possible" (Fernald, 1915, p. 290).
Deutsch also described a case cited by Dorothea Dix in
1847, in which a harmless deranged person was kept
summer and winter in an open pen. He was fed hog slop
and kept on straw which was changed every two weeks in
summer, less often in winter. He was exposed to rain,
heat, cold, and snow, and his feet had frozen off into
shapeless stumps. The keepers of this wretch, however,
saw themselves as offering kindly treatment."
A 1787 visitor at Pennsylvania Hospital, the first U.S.
public institution to receive the mentally afflicted
for treatment, saw naked residents bedded in straw, in
locked, underground dungeonlike cells that had small
windows for passing food, and he exclaimed in seeming
self-satisfaction that "...every possible relief is
afforded them in the power of man," rejoicing in"...the
pleasing evidence of what humanity and benevolence can
do..." (Deutsch, 1949, p. 62).
Taft (1918), ...when by segregation we mean a fairly
complete shutting off from society of all the
feeble-minded, including the higher grade types, we
ignore a profound aversion on the part of people in
general to confinement for life for any human being,
particularly when no offense has been committed
commensurate with such punishment and when the
individual to be segregated seems to the ordinary
observer not to be very different from himself. This,
combined with the feeling which relatives, particularly
of the high grade feeble-minded have against
segregation, makes any very complete program of this
kind quite impossible for some time to come" (P. 545).
"The experience of the past thirty years proves that,
of those who are received and trained in institutions,
10 to 20 per cent are so improved as to be able to
enter life as breadwinners; that from 30 to 40 per cent
are returned to their families so improved as to be
self-helpful, or at least much less burdensome to their
people; "All of our schools for the feeble-minded have
succeeded in sending out a goodly number of persons
who are bearing bravely their share of the burden of
life" (Rogers, 1888, p. 102).
- From " The Origin and Nature of our Institutional
Models" Wolf Wolfensberger
That nature alone is good, which refrains from doing
unto another whatsoever is not good for itself.
- Zoroastrian Golden
After the enlightenment the laundry
- Zen Saying.
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