Post by Gregg Caplitz on May 26, 2021 11:53:18 GMT
C. Post: Reflect on what you have learned to date. How did General Marshall, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Martin Luther King, Jr. draw upon their strengths to overcome adversity?
General Marshal was a master organizer. Perhaps he can most succinctly be described as a “truth teller”. From early in his career, he would tell his superiors the unvarnished facts whether they appreciated his honesty or not. He was a master organizer, and his organizational skills were as important to winning WWII as anyone. His creation of the Marshal Plan led to stability in Europe that perhaps no one else could have at the time
Eleanor Roosevelt was a very different type of leader from Marshal. She held no position of power but lead in a very different fashion. Willing to write her thoughts in a daily column that appeared for 26 years and take positions that her husband never could. Her influence continued after her long stint as “First Lady” speaking out on progressive issues like racial equality and women’s right. She was someone born to a world of privilege yet who strived to help those less fortunate.
Martin Luther King was also a leader who held no position of power. His ability as an orator and his moral persuasion as a leader of the non-violent movement for racial equality in the 60’s made him an admired leader. Like many leaders his personal habits differed from his public persona. He knew his life was always in danger yet continued to speak “the Truth”. Unlike many leaders who in the lens of history seem to shrink MLK continues to be admired for his efforts and people still mourn his assassination.
D. Prepare for in-class discussion:
• How might the learning from the Ted talk translate to improving the culture within your area of focus?
The TED talk showed how happiness can be organized. The mind wants what it has and discards what it does not have. The speaker also showed how to utilize humor to make his point in what could have been a dry scientific lecture.
• When did you have to overcome a challenge/ an obstacle? What was the obstacle and how did you overcome it? (What “strength” did you call on to overcome it?)
The biggest obstacle I overcame was being sentenced to a 42 month stay in Federal Prison for financial crimes after my significant other embezzled monies from a company she controlled that I worked for. I found myself at 55 in prison a place I never imagined I could go. I often say if in 2012 when this began someone asked me which was more likely; going to prison or appearing in the Miss America pageant as a contestant I would have gone looking for tiaras. I had, in my opinion two choices. I could try and put my life back together or I could wallow in self-pity as most of my fellow inmates did. I choose the former. I became a student in a culinary program, then the instructor of the program when the teacher was disabled. I ended up running the senior officer’s mess. I choose to focus on what I could do not what was no longer open to me. I reconnected with my family and my faith. Prison was not fun but I am the man I am today because of how I choose to deal with it.
General Marshal was a master organizer. Perhaps he can most succinctly be described as a “truth teller”. From early in his career, he would tell his superiors the unvarnished facts whether they appreciated his honesty or not. He was a master organizer, and his organizational skills were as important to winning WWII as anyone. His creation of the Marshal Plan led to stability in Europe that perhaps no one else could have at the time
Eleanor Roosevelt was a very different type of leader from Marshal. She held no position of power but lead in a very different fashion. Willing to write her thoughts in a daily column that appeared for 26 years and take positions that her husband never could. Her influence continued after her long stint as “First Lady” speaking out on progressive issues like racial equality and women’s right. She was someone born to a world of privilege yet who strived to help those less fortunate.
Martin Luther King was also a leader who held no position of power. His ability as an orator and his moral persuasion as a leader of the non-violent movement for racial equality in the 60’s made him an admired leader. Like many leaders his personal habits differed from his public persona. He knew his life was always in danger yet continued to speak “the Truth”. Unlike many leaders who in the lens of history seem to shrink MLK continues to be admired for his efforts and people still mourn his assassination.
D. Prepare for in-class discussion:
• How might the learning from the Ted talk translate to improving the culture within your area of focus?
The TED talk showed how happiness can be organized. The mind wants what it has and discards what it does not have. The speaker also showed how to utilize humor to make his point in what could have been a dry scientific lecture.
• When did you have to overcome a challenge/ an obstacle? What was the obstacle and how did you overcome it? (What “strength” did you call on to overcome it?)
The biggest obstacle I overcame was being sentenced to a 42 month stay in Federal Prison for financial crimes after my significant other embezzled monies from a company she controlled that I worked for. I found myself at 55 in prison a place I never imagined I could go. I often say if in 2012 when this began someone asked me which was more likely; going to prison or appearing in the Miss America pageant as a contestant I would have gone looking for tiaras. I had, in my opinion two choices. I could try and put my life back together or I could wallow in self-pity as most of my fellow inmates did. I choose the former. I became a student in a culinary program, then the instructor of the program when the teacher was disabled. I ended up running the senior officer’s mess. I choose to focus on what I could do not what was no longer open to me. I reconnected with my family and my faith. Prison was not fun but I am the man I am today because of how I choose to deal with it.