Radio Commentary
The 25 lessons for life written by Marian Wright Edelman
could be a syllabus for everyone’s schooling.
As
president of the Children’s Defense Fund, she wrote the book for her own
children, but they truly stand the test of time for all.
One lesson,
for example, cuts to the heart of many of our nation’s problems.
She writes:
“Remember, and help America remember, that the fellowship of human beings is
more important than the fellowship of race and class and gender in a democratic
society.”
She writes
to her children: “Be decent and fair and insist that others be so in your
presence.”
She asks
how long our nation will take before it . . . understands that its ability to
compete and lead in the world is bound as tightly to its poor and nonwhite
children, as it is with its white and privileged ones?
When it
comes to building a decent and just America for all our children, she
says:
“We are not
all equally guilty but we are all equally responsible.”
Certainly these
are important words for all children to hear and absorb, along with the adults
who impart this important message.
