These little snippets of wisdom are cool so I'm sharing them with you, my cool readers. I particularly loved the idea that though everyone's faith is different, we all share a common belief in the goodness of people. No politics today, just ideas.
Alberto Mora, on Justice
Appointed
general counsel of the U.S. Navy by President George W. Bush in 2001,
Mora soon learned of abusive treatment of "unlawful combatants" at
Guantánamo. Over the next few years, he fought what he saw as an
attempt to legitimize torture in the war on terror by arguing to the
government's senior military and political officials that "cruel,
inhuman, or degrading treatment" is not only immoral but illegal. Mora
retired from the position in 2006.
Sometimes people fail to see that individual decisions have universal consequences.
At first it didn't cross my mind that [the mistreatment of detainees]
could have been a deliberate policy. Some people in the administration
who supported it were friends, colleagues, team members, people I
respected. But as one professor put it, sometimes "good people do bad
things for good reasons."
I felt the policies I believed in
would be best for our country, but regardless of politics, my
responsibilities were clear. I had to protect my client [the U.S.
military and its commander in chief].
My mother, whose
family fled the Communist regime in Hungary, would have killed me if I
had not stood up against government brutality and cruelty.
— As told to Amanda Robb
Eleni Gabre-Madhin, on Coming Home
Former
World Bank economist Eleni Gabre-Madhin returned to her native Ethiopia
in August 2004 with the goal of establishing the Ethiopia Commodity
Exchange, which would allow small farmers to more easily buy and sell
products and store their surpluses rather than waste them.
Gabre-Madhin's vision is that the exchange, which opened in April 2008,
will help Ethiopia feed itself.
In 1984–85, the year of
the famine that killed nearly a million Ethiopians, I was an
undergraduate at Cornell. At dinner one night, other students started
throwing food. And suddenly—shocking myself—I got up on a chair and I
screamed, "Stop doing this! In my country people are starving!" In that
moment, I knew that I owed my country something.
Anywhere the struggle is great, the level of ingenuity and inventiveness is high.
We spend most of our lives cutting down our ambitions because the world
has told us to think small. Dreams express what your soul is telling
you, so as crazy as your dream might seem—even to you—I don't care: You
have to let that out.
— As told to Tish Durkin
Kerry Kennedy, on Meeting the Pope
In late 2005, Kerry Kennedy, the founder of the human rights organization Speak Truth to Power and the author of Being Catholic Now (Crown),
met with Pope Benedict XVI. She asked him to consider changing the
church's position on birth control, especially relating to AIDS
prevention.
You never know when what you say or do will
make a difference and why somebody in a position of tremendous power
decides to take up an issue. As one of the largest providers of social
services in the world, the Catholic Church is acutely aware of the AIDS
pandemic. More than anything, I was hopeful that my words might be one
more straw on the camel's back. The Pope could have said, "How rude!"
but he said, "God bless you." I am grateful for that blessing. That was
in November, and by April he announced that he'd formed a committee to
look into the use of condoms. Maybe what I said had something to do it.
I'll never know, but you always have to try.
— As told to Tish Durkin
Tony Bennett, on Other People
I was going through a terrible divorce, and my personal life was a
mess. I goofed so bad. That Christmas I was in a hotel room by myself.
It was the first time I'd ever spent the holidays away from family. All
of a sudden, I heard some music. I opened the door to find one of the
greatest surprises of my life: There was a choir singing "On a Clear
Day You Can See Forever." My friend Duke Ellington, who happened to be
in town for a concert, had heard I was alone. So he sent a choir for
me. For years this kindness from Duke lifted up my whole life. It
showed me that no matter how bad things seem, there are always people
in this world who care about others. That revelation changed my life.
— As told to Michelle Burford
Haleh Esfandiari, on Solitary Confinement
Iranian-American
scholar Haleh Esfandiari is director of the Middle East program at the
Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. In early 2007, while in
Tehran to visit her 93-year-old mother, Esfandiari was detained by the
Iranian government. She spent nearly four months in solitary
confinement before being released.
You never get over
the experience of sudden arrest, interrogation, false accusation, and
imprisonment. It shatters your confidence in the order of things, your
belief that you are safe and secure. Solitary confinement can drive you
out of your mind. I feel a quiet pride that I survived with my dignity.
My rules of discipline—and they have seen me through the ups and downs
of a long working career, revolutionary upheaval, and prison—are
simple. I organize each day carefully; I make sure I exercise every
day, even in a prison cell. I know that the small, human gesture comes
to matter a great deal: When one of my guards noticed I was unable to
hold a knife to peel my fruit, because my arthritis was acting up, she
peeled and cut it for me. A human gesture in an inhuman place!
— As told to Tish Durkin
Julie Freischlag, MD, on Life and Death
Julie Freischlag is the first female surgeon in chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.
Human beings are unbelievably strong and terribly hopeful about what's
going to happen next. Though everyone's faith is different, I've seen
that people have faith in goodness. And whenever they get to the end of
life, that goodness takes over. They believe that when they leave this
world, a peace will come.
— As told to Amanda Robb
Excerpt taken from What Do You Know for Sure?
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