"Never doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead

At the end of every semester I tell my students that I hope the class has fired them up to go out and make a difference in their community. A student usually asks what good it will do; they are just one individual. This is when I pull out this quote from Margaret Mead to let them know that individuals and small groups have had a huge impact on social progress in this country.

Here are several quotes from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to selebrate the holiday.

"All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality."

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

"It may be true that law cannot make a man love me, but it can stop him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important."

"All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."

This is definitely one life that ended way too soon.

I begin this weblog with these two quotes because I like what they say about fairness in our society. First, for social and economic progess to be true progress, it must be experienced by everyone within society. The rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer just doesn't cut it. Second, diginity and equal treatment must occur everywhere in which a person interacts with society. Laws protecting equal opportunity do little, if the impact is not felt in the social and economic institutions a person interacts with in their daily life. The Americans with Disabilities Act does little if a person's employer or school will not make reasonable accomodations to help that person succeed in their work or school environment.

Where do human rights begin? In small places, close to home: the neighborhood; the school or college; the factory, farm or office. Such are the places where every man, woman and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Eleanor Roosevelt

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