  Dr. John Rudley
President
Texas Southern University
There is no doubt that both Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Barack Obama will go down in history as leaders of our time. But both men believed that leadership was something that shouldn’t be confined to the affluent, the educated or the privileged. To them, leadership was something even the everyday man could possess.
“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” “Everybody can be great. Because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve…. You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”
“You have an obligation to yourself. Because our individual salvation depends on collective salvation. And because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you will realize your true potential — and become full-grown…Failure doesn’t equal defeat. The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won’t. It’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.” Source: Northwestern University Commencement Speech, 2006  The interpretation of these truths is given from a community perspective as local leaders were asked “How do the quotes of these two men impact our race, our nation and our world? |
