Tuesday; June 27
According to one of those “This Day In History” lists, on this day in 1991 Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall resigned from the United States Supreme Court. Justice Marshall had become the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States when it opened its 1967 session. Much can be said about Marshall, but I want to focus on one of his statements, “None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We got here because somebody – a parent, a teacher, an Ivy League crony or a few nuns – bent down and helped us pick up our boots.” Americans have grown up with the notion that the pathway to success begins with hard work and self-reliance. While this is important, we must not overlook the impact others have made on us. Being self-made is a misnomer that belittles the influence others have had in our lives. Competence may help us sustain our opportunities, but often the thing that opens the doors is the influence others have had in