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 Where has all the Courtesy Gone? |
August 17, 2006 |
Steve Truscott
Owner and Master Instructor
In 1860, after decades of personal struggle, family tragedy, and political defeats Abraham Lincoln appears to have the inside track to the Republican Party's presidential nomination. In the proverbial smoke-filled room the power-brokers meet to thrash out who will receive offices and favors if they can get this Illinois lawyer elected. At the eleventh hour of this bargaining session a telegram arrives. It is from Lincoln and it reads "Make no promises until I arrive." Lincoln knows his life-time of ambition is at stake, but he will not have any commitments made that compromise his integrity, even if it costs him the nomination. He alone seems to appreciate the very nation is at stake. He knows he will need the very best men to serve, even if they despise him.
Because of his integrity Lincoln was able to put together a cabinet of rivals, successfully prosecute the Civil War, end slavery, and save the Union. His integrity also earned him an assassin's bullet, but it also ensured his promise that the dead of Gettysburg would not have died in vain was honored. Like Lincoln, every leader who successfully battled injustice had to rely on the strength of his or her convictions when nothing else could sustain them. After winning the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize and world acclaim Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. could have retired to a life of considerable comfort and great respect almost anywhere in the world outside of the United States. But his integrity told him his battle was here. He returned to lead the fight, to be jailed as a common disturber of the peace, to have his children endangered by cowardly racists' bombs, to be assassinated, and then to win.
When Dr. King's inspiration Mahatma Gandhi saw that his beloved India was going to be torn apart into separate Hindu and Muslim nations, he begged Congress to appoint a Muslim Prime Minister and Cabinet of a united India. His attitude brought him a bullet from a radical Hindu. Similarly Nelson Mandela could have renounced his goals for South Africa and an ecstatic apartheid regime would have freed and feted him. Instead he endured imprisonment until world opinion and events in South Africa comported with his integrity.
Moliere wrote "If everyone were clothed with integrity… the other virtues would be well-nigh useless." If he was right then it is the duty of every responsible parent, grand-parent, and educator, including martial arts Instructors, to model and teach integrity to every young person we care about.
Of the five ancient tenets of Tae Kwon Do, integrity is the second. If you do us the honor of choosing Family Karate to teach your children or grandchildren we promise to influence them towards integrity. Please call or e-mail me for a complimentary month of classes for you and your family.
Steve Truscott, the son of missionaries, was raised in India, educated in British schools. His first language was Marathi, the language of west India, his second was Hindi, third was English. Today he is only fluent in English but understands the other two languages.
Family Karate has five locations in San Diego County with over 1000 students, 250 in Escondido alone.
Respect, Responsibility, Courtesy, Integrity, all are taught first, at Family Karate.
Call 746-0983 Steve Truscott, the son of missionaries, was raised in India, educated in British schools. His first language was Marathi, the language of west India, his second was Hindi, third was English. Today he is only fluent in English but understands the other two languages.
Family Karate has five locations in San Diego County with over 1000 students, 250 in Escondido alone.
Respect, Responsibility, Courtesy, Integrity, all are taught first, at Family Karate.
Call 746-0983
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