Five (5) lessons about the way we treat people from a friend

This is not my composition but was passed to me by a friend.
Marc

Five (5) lessons about the way we treat people

1 - First Important Lesson - Cleaning Lady.





During my second month of college, our professor

Gave us a pop quiz. I was a conscientious student





And had breezed through the questions until I read

The last one:


"What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?"

Surely this was some kind of joke. I had seen the

Cleaning woman several times. She was tall,

Dark-haired and in her 50's, but how would I know her name?



I handed in my paper, leaving the last question

Blank. Just before class ended, one student asked if

The last question would count toward our quiz grade.



"Absolutely, " said the professor.... "In your careers,

You will meet many people. All are significant.. They

Deserve your attention and care, even if all you do

Is smile and say "hello.."



I've never forgotten that lesson.. I also learned her

Name was Dorothy.



2. - Second Important Lesson - Pickup in the Rain



One night, at 11:30 p.m., an older African American

Woman was standing on the side of an Alabama highway

Trying to endure a lashing rain storm. Her car had

Broken down and she desperately needed a ride.

Soaking wet, she decided to flag down the next car.

A young white man stopped to help her, generally

Unheard of in those conflict-filled 1960's. The man

Took her to safety, helped her get assistance and

Put her into a taxicab.



She seemed to be in a big hurry, but wrote down his

Address and thanked him. Seven days went by and a

Knock came on the man's door. To his surprise, a

Giant console color TV was delivered to his home. A

Special note was attached.



It read:

"Thank you so much for assisting me on the highway

The other night. The rain drenched not only my

Clothes, but also my spirits. Then you came along.

Because of you, I was able to make it to my dying

Husband's' bedside just before he passed away... God

Bless you for helping me and unselfishly serving

Others."



Sincerely,

Mrs. Nat King Cole.



3 - Third Important Lesson - Always remember those

Who serve.



In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less,

A 10-year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and

Sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in

Front of him.



"How much is an ice cream sundae?" he asked.

"Fifty cents," replied the waitress.



The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and

Studied the coins in it.



"Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?" he inquired.



By now more people were waiting for a table and the

Waitress was growing impatient..



"Thirty-five cents," she brusquely replied.



The little boy again counted his coins.



"I'll have the plain ice cream," he said.



The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on

The table and walked away The boy finished the ice

Cream, paid the cashier and left.. When the waitress

Came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the

Table. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish,

Were two nickels and five pennies..



You see, he couldn't have the sundae, because he had

To have enough left to leave her a tip.



4 - Fourth Important Lesson. - The obstacle in Our Path.



In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a

Roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if

Anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the

King's' wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by

And simply walked around it.. Many loudly blamed the

King for not keeping the roads clear, but none did

Anything about getting the stone out of the way..



Then a peasant came along carrying a load of

Vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the

peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the

stone to the side of the road. After much pushing

and straining, he finally succeeded.. After the

peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed

a purse lying in the road where the boulder had

been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note

from the King indicating that the gold was for the

person who removed the boulder from the roadway. The

peasant learned what many of us never understand!



Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve

our condition.



5 - Fifth Important Lesson - Giving When it Counts...



Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at a

hospital, I got to know a little girl named Liz who

was suffering from a rare & serious disease. Her only

chance of recovery appeared to be a blood

transfusion from her 5-year old brother, who had

miraculously survived the same disease and had

developed the antibodies needed to combat the

illness.. The doctor explained the situation to her

little brother, and asked the little boy if he would

be willing to give his blood to his sister.



I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a

deep breath and saying, "Yes I'll do it if it will save

her." As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed

next to his sister and smiled, as we all did, seeing

the color returning to her cheek. Then his face

grew pale and his smile faded...



He looked up at the doctor and asked with a

trembling voice, "Will I start to die right away".



Being young, the little boy had misunderstood the

doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his

sister all of his blood in order to save her.

On Arianna Huffington's Glenn Beck Goes After Me, But Forgets His Show Is on Video and Lies About Things He quote Never, Never unquote SaidArianna, al

Arianna, although I admit I did not see the actual video, Beck's inflammatory phrase, “They are taking you to a place to be slaughtered!”, although he obviously falls badly on his face in denying his saying it, falls under the generally accepted parameters of acceptability with regard to great leeway of interpretation. That means that while he used this exact phrase, he can argue that he didn't literally mean “slaughtered” as in physically murdered but meant it rhetorically as in a manner of speaking, implying that the Obama administration and the Democrat's planned policies and legislation would make life so miserable for Americans that it could be taken in the same way as the phrase, “You're killing me!” Obviously, for one thing, his denial seems to refer to the exact phrasing you quote, Arianna, and therefore he cannot have this battle. (On top of that, he's on the side that generally ropes us into a strict constructionist approach, so the idea that he would want to escape the literal meaning of these words is obviously far-fetched and therefore would make him want to deny its use altogether). He therefore loses this tiff on the grounds that his denial is of the literal meaning, not its interpretation. Were he that intelligent (as to argue for the symbolic meaning), he'd win the day with intelligent people. But they are not in his audience and they are diminishing increasingly as a force that seems to threaten either economically or politically, as they once did, sadly. Therefore, while in oratorical and rhetorical realms, Arianna is the clear winner, in the actual realm of where people are at, especially numbers-wise, its clearly a draw, with the state of American politics today seeming to pull to the right, suggesting that he might even win this one just on that basis, since Fox viewers will rah-rah-rah their hosts the same way the conservatives of my youth during the Vietnam War used to say “My country [is right whether it's] right or wrong.” Stubbornness and persistence, then as now, particularly as exemplified by the character of President Nixon, won and wins the day over reason, logic and moral persuasion. A similar phenomenon seemed to be at work the other day in a dispute between View cohost Joy Behar and Rush Limbaugh. On his show the other day, he played a clip of his being introduced on the Miss America pageant, in which Ms. Behar claimed that he was booed. On the clip, the sound of loud and enthusiastic cheering is definitely heard, which he claims disproves Behar's statement, however, there is a lower noise significant enough to be heard that does indeed sound like booing, even as played on Limbaugh's talk radio show. Limbaugh's intelligence seems as developed as Beck's because what gives away the booing is his playing of the two guests being introduced before him, in which you hear much less enthusiastic cheering, and then plays his clip, in which you definitely hear thunderous applause and enthusiasm for Limbaugh, but there is definitely a bass sound totally missing from the other two applauses. The show aired yesterday, 2/2/10, the same day that Arianna's article appears if you want to check it out yourself. It sounds very similar to a Red Sox-Yankees game, particularly one played in Fenway Park, or to be more seasonable, like a Super Bowl, where fans of both teams descend on the stadium which is always in a neutral city. Now if Behar had said he was only booed, then Limbaugh would win this round. But Behar did not use the word “only”, even in Limbaugh's own disclaimer. Hence, Behar carries the day on this one. Again, the presence of a growing number of Americans who love emotion-based reasoning and detest thinking as a member of a jury, Limbaugh might seize this one as Beck may have seized his victory from the jaws of defeat, the way “all's 'fair' in...war”.

What is more significant here in terms of Beck's remarks is less whether he did or didn't say what he did, but rather that his words, which he clearly did say, like much of his ongoing diatribe, are incendiary, and, if nothing else, function the same way yelling “Fire!” in a crowded theater causes people to be hurt and was once overruled by the High Court (a Court oh, so, so different from the present Roberts one) as unprotected by the First Amendment, in that they actually cause people to be lead to the exact fate he is accusing the Obama administration and the Democrats of causing. To still clearly a majority of Americans who are not convinced and converted by the likes his him and Limbaugh, the danger of Beck's and Limbaugh's overuse of this incendiary language is their becoming diluted and less effective in inspiring fear in people, like “the boy who cried wolf”. And for those who argue, “No they are actually quite effective because they are the most popular talk show hosts”, my response is, “So what? Most people don't listen to or watch talk shows. They're surfing the net! Arianna probably has lots more fans than they do.” But getting back to the dilution of this overly used incendiary language, here's the down side, which is actually a great danger. That is, the more watered down such inflammatory references to killing become, the more lightly life and death are taken by people who do join such a camp. Such people, numbed to the pain and hurt (as well exemplified in your quote, Arianna of Stuart Burguiere's comment “What suffering?”) of other people, will not think twice about doing something violent and dangerous to counteract the stated and perceived threat (in this case, the “slaughter”) will inevitably foster a dangerously zealous patriotism and religiosity and, in the process, many American citizens will turn into killers almost as callous as Al Qaeda's worst. For that alone, Beck needs to be brought to task publicly as one who is metaphorically shouting “Fire!” in a crowded theater. For this reason, Arianna, your making it an issue is a necessary first step because obviously refutation of such incendiary speech that occludes and masks its lethal danger is something that cannot be overstated. And regarding my own seeming paranoia and conspiracy theory, there's a truism in life that you become and you create what you perceive and your prism of the outer world becomes the world you create to yourself and, through others who are likemindedly inspired by you, a real change in the outer, objective world. Hence, in my presenting a vision of a world gone dangerous with much to fear from events that do not necessarily foreclude such, presenting the logical consequences of someone who puts such a drastic vision out there. It is not the vision of extremist violence and apocalypse that is inherently paranoic but rather the departure from reason and consistency of thinking that allows a different type of motive to create such a vision in the first place.