Wednesday; October 31


          I was an impressionable youngster during the early part of the 1970s and, needless to say, was an interesting time in the history of the United States.  As a nation, we were trying to decide who we were and what we wanted to become.  We had made it through the turbulent 1960s and were being led into the 1970s by President Richard Nixon.  President Nixon had won the 1972 election in a landslide, but his second term was not going too smoothly, nor would it end well for the president.  The Administration was constantly under the legal, moral, social and political microscope so at one point the president made this statement, “I made my mistakes, but in all of my years of public life, I have never profited, never profited from public service — I earned every cent.  And in all of my years of public life, I have never obstructed justice. And I think, too, that I could say that in my years of public life, that I welcome this kind of examination, because people have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I am not a crook. I have earned everything I have got.”
          I don’t know what you think of President Nixon – nor am I here to debate his pluses or minuses – but, the thing that sticks out to me in this quote is something that we struggle with as humans.  How many of us believe that we get to decide what people think of us?  President Nixon could proclaim what he wanted people to see him as a person of integrity, but his legacy would actually be defined by the legal courts and the court of public opinion.
          We do have a chance to influence what people think about us through our actions, but we shouldn’t rely upon our personal commentary or assertions to define our legacy.  We can hope we are perceived favorably – but the only way that will actually happen is if walk the walk.
          Think About It!

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