Dear Guaranty:
When I was a young man, I remember watching the news one evening and they were covering a story on some tragedy in Africa, or the Middle East I don’t remember which, but the picture was of a mother holding her child who had died of malnutrition. I am ashamed to this day that I watched that segment with a feeling of indifference as if just because this woman lived in an impoverished land where famine was commonplace, that her suffering was somehow not as important or not as deeply felt as mine would have been if I were in a similar situation.
It was at that moment that I started to understand the roots of racism and prejudice. It happens anytime we start to view another human being as somehow less than we are, that he or she does not feel as we do, is somehow immune from grief, devoid of ambition or just because they may look different or be from someplace else, or just not like us. Over the years my thinking has matured, thankfully, but that fact has not eliminated racism and prejudice from the face of the earth. It still exists in every society and among all races, not by everyone to be sure, but certainly by some in every society. I realize that by myself I probably cannot change the entire world, but I can change my small slice of it, and that is Guaranty. So, I ask all of you to look into your own hearts today, then look around you and remember that your fellow team mates are just like you inside, they have the same feelings, hopes and fears that you do, the same good things and the same weaknesses, just like you.
Ed
