"I've Been to the Mountaintop" - Martin Luther King Jr.

We, too, are living in an exciting era, on the cusp of change. The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delineated sweepingly the long arc of freedom history, and with searing, soaring details, articulated Black American freedom struggle of the 1960s. Re-reading this through Cambodian lenses this September 2010, parallels and resonances abound for us - the echoes of excuses (private or public), of oppression, of violent tactics, of deceit but also the resounding triumphant parallels of determined spirits, enduring principles of freedom, justice, peace, unity and hope in the knowledge that the long arc of moral history bends toward justice.

I hope every Cambodian will read this, particularly the Cambodian officials, the arm-chair critics, the naysayers and the anti-change stalwarts. May all of us be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

(For those of you who are not so strong in English but more fluent in another language, you can read a translated version among 60 languages of this speech at www.thearyseng.com by clicking on the flag at the bottom right-hand corner.) -- Theary Seng, Phnom Penh, 15 Sept. 2010

Delivered 3 April 1968, Mason Temple (Church of God in Christ Headquarters), Memphis, Tennessee

Thank you very kindly, my friends. As I listened to Ralph Abernathy and his eloquent and generous introduction and then thought about myself, I wondered who he was talking about. It's always good to have your closest friend and associate to say something good about you. And Ralph Abernathy is the best friend that I have in the world. I'm delighted to see each of you here tonight in spite of a storm warning. You reveal that you are determined to go on anyhow.

Something is happening in Memphis; something is happening in our world. And you know, if I were standing at the beginning of time, with the possibility of taking a kind of general and panoramic view of the whole of human history up to now, and the Almighty said to me, "Martin Luther King, which age would you like to live in?" I would take my mental flight by Egypt and I would watch God's children in their magnificent trek from the dark dungeons of Egypt through, or rather across the Red Sea, through the wilderness on toward the promised land. And in spite of its magnificence, I wouldn't stop there.

I would move on by Greece and take my mind to Mount Olympus. And I would see Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Euripides and Aristophanes assembled around the Parthenon. And I would watch them around the Parthenon as they discussed the great and eternal issues of reality. But I wouldn't stop there.

I would go on, even to the great heyday of the Roman Empire. And I would see developments around there, through various emperors and leaders. But I wouldn't stop there.

I would even come up to the day of the Renaissance, and get a quick picture of all that the Renaissance did for the cultural and aesthetic life of man. But I wouldn't stop there.

I would even go by the way that the man for whom I am named had his habitat. And I would watch Martin Luther as he tacked his ninety-five theses on the door at the church of Wittenberg. But I wouldn't stop there.

I would come on up even to 1863, and watch a vacillating President by the name of Abraham Lincoln finally come to the conclusion that he had to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. But I wouldn't stop there.

I would even come up to the early thirties, and see a man grappling with the problems of the bankruptcy of his nation. And come with an eloquent cry that we have nothing to fear but "fear itself." But I wouldn't stop there.

Strangely enough, I would turn to the Almighty, and say, "If you allow me to live just a few years in the second half of the 20th century, I will be happy."

Now that's a strange statement to make, because the world is all messed up. The nation is sick. Trouble is in the land; confusion all around. That's a strange statement. But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars. And I see God working in this period of the twentieth century in a way that men, in some strange way, are responding.

Something is happening in our world. The masses of people are rising up. And wherever they are assembled today, whether they are in Johannesburg, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; Accra, Ghana; New York City; Atlanta, Georgia; Jackson, Mississippi; or Memphis, Tennessee -- the cry is always the same: "We want to be free."

And another reason that I'm happy to live in this period is that we have been forced to a point where we are going to have to grapple with the problems that men have been trying to grapple with through history, but the demands didn't force them to do it. Survival demands that we grapple with them. Men, for years now, have been talking about war and peace. But now, no longer can they just talk about it. It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence in this world; it's nonviolence or nonexistence. That is where we are today.

And also in the human rights revolution, if something isn't done, and done in a hurry, to bring the colored peoples of the world out of their long years of poverty, their long years of hurt and neglect, the whole world is doomed. Now, I'm just happy that God has allowed me to live in this period to see what is unfolding. And I'm happy that He's allowed me to be in Memphis.

I can remember -- I can remember when Negroes were just going around as Ralph has said, so often, scratching where they didn't itch, and laughing when they were not tickled. But that day is all over. We mean business now, and we are determined to gain our rightful place in God's world.

And that's all this whole thing is about. We aren't engaged in any negative protest and in any negative arguments with anybody. We are saying that we are determined to be men. We are determined to be people. We are saying -- We are saying that we are God's children. And that we are God's children, we don't have to live like we are forced to live.

Now, what does all of this mean in this great period of history? It means that we've got to stay together. We've got to stay together and maintain unity. You know, whenever Pharaoh wanted to prolong the period of slavery in Egypt, he had a favorite, favorite formula for doing it. What was that? He kept the slaves fighting among themselves. But whenever the slaves get together, something happens in Pharaoh's court, and he cannot hold the slaves in slavery. When the slaves get together, that's the beginning of getting out of slavery. Now let us maintain unity.

Secondly, let us keep the issues where they are. The issue is injustice. The issue is the refusal of Memphis to be fair and honest in its dealings with its public servants, who happen to be sanitation workers. Now, we've got to keep attention on that. That's always the problem with a little violence. You know what happened the other day, and the press dealt only with the window-breaking. I read the articles. They very seldom got around to mentioning the fact that one thousand, three hundred sanitation workers are on strike, and that Memphis is not being fair to them, and that Mayor Loeb is in dire need of a doctor. They didn't get around to that.

Now we're going to march again, and we've got to march again, in order to put the issue where it is supposed to be -- and force everybody to see that there are thirteen hundred of God's children here suffering, sometimes going hungry, going through dark and dreary nights wondering how this thing is going to come out. That's the issue. And we've got to say to the nation: We know how it's coming out. For when people get caught up with that which is right and they are willing to sacrifice for it, there is no stopping point short of victory.

We aren't going to let any mace stop us. We are masters in our nonviolent movement in disarming police forces; they don't know what to do. I've seen them so often. I remember in Birmingham, Alabama, when we were in that majestic struggle there, we would move out of the 16th Street Baptist Church day after day; by the hundreds we would move out. And Bull Connor would tell them to send the dogs forth, and they did come; but we just went before the dogs singing, "Ain't gonna let nobody turn me around."

Bull Connor next would say, "Turn the fire hoses on." And as I said to you the other night, Bull Connor didn't know history. He knew a kind of physics that somehow didn't relate to the transphysics that we knew about. And that was the fact that there was a certain kind of fire that no water could put out. And we went before the fire hoses; we had known water. If we were Baptist or some other denominations, we had been immersed. If we were Methodist, and some others, we had been sprinkled, but we knew water. That couldn't stop us.

And we just went on before the dogs and we would look at them; and we'd go on before the water hoses and we would look at it, and we'd just go on singing "Over my head I see freedom in the air." And then we would be thrown in the paddy wagons, and sometimes we were stacked in there like sardines in a can. And they would throw us in, and old Bull would say, "Take 'em off," and they did; and we would just go in the paddy wagon singing, "We Shall Overcome." And every now and then we'd get in jail, and we'd see the jailers looking through the windows being moved by our prayers, and being moved by our words and our songs. And there was a power there which Bull Connor couldn't adjust to; and so we ended up transforming Bull into a steer, and we won our struggle in Birmingham. Now we've got to go on in Memphis just like that. I call upon you to be with us when we go out Monday.

Now about injunctions: We have an injunction and we're going into court tomorrow morning to fight this illegal, unconstitutional injunction. All we say to America is, "Be true to what you said on paper." If I lived in China or even Russia, or any totalitarian country, maybe I could understand some of these illegal injunctions. Maybe I could understand the denial of certain basic First Amendment privileges, because they hadn't committed themselves to that over there. But somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read of the freedom of press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for right. And so just as I say, we aren't going to let dogs or water hoses turn us around, we aren't going to let any injunction turn us around. We are going on.

We need all of you. And you know what's beautiful to me is to see all of these ministers of the Gospel. It's a marvelous picture. Who is it that is supposed to articulate the longings and aspirations of the people more than the preacher? Somehow the preacher must have a kind of fire shut up in his bones. And whenever injustice is around he tell it. Somehow the preacher must be an Amos, and saith, "When God speaks who can but prophesy?" Again with Amos, "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." Somehow the preacher must say with Jesus, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me," and he's anointed me to deal with the problems of the poor."

And I want to commend the preachers, under the leadership of these noble men: James Lawson, one who has been in this struggle for many years; he's been to jail for struggling; he's been kicked out of Vanderbilt University for this struggle, but he's still going on, fighting for the rights of his people. Reverend Ralph Jackson, Billy Kiles; I could just go right on down the list, but time will not permit. But I want to thank all of them. And I want you to thank them, because so often, preachers aren't concerned about anything but themselves. And I'm always happy to see a relevant ministry.

It's all right to talk about "long white robes over yonder," in all of its symbolism. But ultimately people want some suits and dresses and shoes to wear down here! It's all right to talk about "streets flowing with milk and honey," but God has commanded us to be concerned about the slums down here, and his children who can't eat three square meals a day. It's all right to talk about the new Jerusalem, but one day, God's preacher must talk about the new New York, the new Atlanta, the new Philadelphia, the new Los Angeles, the new Memphis, Tennessee. This is what we have to do.

Now the other thing we'll have to do is this: Always anchor our external direct action with the power of economic withdrawal. Now, we are poor people. Individually, we are poor when you compare us with white society in America. We are poor. Never stop and forget that collectively -- that means all of us together -- collectively we are richer than all the nations in the world, with the exception of nine. Did you ever think about that? After you leave the United States, Soviet Russia, Great Britain, West Germany, France, and I could name the others, the American Negro collectively is richer than most nations of the world. We have an annual income of more than thirty billion dollars a year, which is more than all of the exports of the United States, and more than the national budget of Canada. Did you know that? That's power right there, if we know how to pool it.

We don't have to argue with anybody. We don't have to curse and go around acting bad with our words. We don't need any bricks and bottles. We don't need any Molotov cocktails. We just need to go around to these stores, and to these massive industries in our country, and say, "God sent us by here, to say to you that you're not treating his children right. And we've come by here to ask you to make the first item on your agenda fair treatment, where God's children are concerned. Now, if you are not prepared to do that, we do have an agenda that we must follow. And our agenda calls for withdrawing economic support from you."

And so, as a result of this, we are asking you tonight, to go out and tell your neighbors not to buy Coca-Cola in Memphis. Go by and tell them not to buy Sealtest milk. Tell them not to buy -- what is the other bread? -- Wonder Bread. And what is the other bread company, Jesse? Tell them not to buy Hart's bread. As Jesse Jackson has said, up to now, only the garbage men have been feeling pain; now we must kind of redistribute the pain. We are choosing these companies because they haven't been fair in their hiring policies; and we are choosing them because they can begin the process of saying they are going to support the needs and the rights of these men who are on strike. And then they can move on town -- downtown and tell Mayor Loeb to do what is right.

But not only that, we've got to strengthen black institutions. I call upon you to take your money out of the banks downtown and deposit your money in Tri-State Bank. We want a "bank-in" movement in Memphis. Go by the savings and loan association. I'm not asking you something that we don't do ourselves at SCLC. Judge Hooks and others will tell you that we have an account here in the savings and loan association from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. We are telling you to follow what we are doing. Put your money there. You have six or seven black insurance companies here in the city of Memphis. Take out your insurance there. We want to have an "insurance-in."

Now these are some practical things that we can do. We begin the process of building a greater economic base. And at the same time, we are putting pressure where it really hurts. I ask you to follow through here.

Now, let me say as I move to my conclusion that we've got to give ourselves to this struggle until the end. Nothing would be more tragic than to stop at this point in Memphis. We've got to see it through. And when we have our march, you need to be there. If it means leaving work, if it means leaving school -- be there. Be concerned about your brother. You may not be on strike. But either we go up together, or we go down together.

Let us develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness. One day a man came to Jesus, and he wanted to raise some questions about some vital matters of life. At points he wanted to trick Jesus, and show him that he knew a little more than Jesus knew and throw him off base....

Now that question could have easily ended up in a philosophical and theological debate. But Jesus immediately pulled that question from mid-air, and placed it on a dangerous curve between Jerusalem and Jericho. And he talked about a certain man, who fell among thieves. You remember that a Levite and a priest passed by on the other side. They didn't stop to help him. And finally a man of another race came by. He got down from his beast, decided not to be compassionate by proxy. But he got down with him, administered first aid, and helped the man in need. Jesus ended up saying, this was the good man, this was the great man, because he had the capacity to project the "I" into the "thou," and to be concerned about his brother.

Now you know, we use our imagination a great deal to try to determine why the priest and the Levite didn't stop. At times we say they were busy going to a church meeting, an ecclesiastical gathering, and they had to get on down to Jerusalem so they wouldn't be late for their meeting. At other times we would speculate that there was a religious law that "One who was engaged in religious ceremonials was not to touch a human body twenty-four hours before the ceremony." And every now and then we begin to wonder whether maybe they were not going down to Jerusalem -- or down to Jericho, rather to organize a "Jericho Road Improvement Association." That's a possibility. Maybe they felt that it was better to deal with the problem from the causal root, rather than to get bogged down with an individual effect.

But I'm going to tell you what my imagination tells me. It's possible that those men were afraid. You see, the Jericho road is a dangerous road. I remember when Mrs. King and I were first in Jerusalem. We rented a car and drove from Jerusalem down to Jericho. And as soon as we got on that road, I said to my wife, "I can see why Jesus used this as the setting for his parable." It's a winding, meandering road. It's really conducive for ambushing. You start out in Jerusalem, which is about 1200 miles -- or rather 1200 feet above sea level. And by the time you get down to Jericho, fifteen or twenty minutes later, you're about 2200 feet below sea level. That's a dangerous road. In the days of Jesus it came to be known as the "Bloody Pass." And you know, it's possible that the priest and the Levite looked over that man on the ground and wondered if the robbers were still around. Or it's possible that they felt that the man on the ground was merely faking. And he was acting like he had been robbed and hurt, in order to seize them over there, lure them there for quick and easy seizure. And so the first question that the priest asked -- the first question that the Levite asked was, "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?"

That's the question before you tonight. Not, "If I stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to my job. Not, "If I stop to help the sanitation workers what will happen to all of the hours that I usually spend in my office every day and every week as a pastor?" The question is not, "If I stop to help this man in need, what will happen to me?" The question is, "If I do not stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to them?" That's the question.

Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation. And I want to thank God, once more, for allowing me to be here with you.

You know, several years ago, I was in New York City autographing the first book that I had written. And while sitting there autographing books, a demented black woman came up. The only question I heard from her was, "Are you Martin Luther King?" And I was looking down writing, and I said, "Yes." And the next minute I felt something beating on my chest. Before I knew it I had been stabbed by this demented woman. I was rushed to Harlem Hospital. It was a dark Saturday afternoon. And that blade had gone through, and the X-rays revealed that the tip of the blade was on the edge of my aorta, the main artery. And once that's punctured, your drowned in your own blood -- that's the end of you.

It came out in the New York Times the next morning, that if I had merely sneezed, I would have died. Well, about four days later, they allowed me, after the operation, after my chest had been opened, and the blade had been taken out, to move around in the wheel chair in the hospital. They allowed me to read some of the mail that came in, and from all over the states and the world, kind letters came in. I read a few, but one of them I will never forget. I had received one from the President and the Vice-President. I've forgotten what those telegrams said. I'd received a visit and a letter from the Governor of New York, but I've forgotten what that letter said. But there was another letter that came from a little girl, a young girl who was a student at the White Plains High School. And I looked at that letter, and I'll never forget it. It said simply,

Dear Dr. King,

I am a ninth-grade student at the White Plains High School."

And she said,

While it should not matter, I would like to mention that I'm a white girl. I read in the paper of your misfortune, and of your suffering. And I read that if you had sneezed, you would have died. And I'm simply writing you to say that I'm so happy that you didn't sneeze.

And I want to say tonight -- I want to say tonight that I too am happy that I didn't sneeze. Because if I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around here in 1960, when students all over the South started sitting-in at lunch counters. And I knew that as they were sitting in, they were really standing up for the best in the American dream, and taking the whole nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the Founding Fathers in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around here in 1961, when we decided to take a ride for freedom and ended segregation in inter-state travel.

If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around here in 1962, when Negroes in Albany, Georgia, decided to straighten their backs up. And whenever men and women straighten their backs up, they are going somewhere, because a man can't ride your back unless it is bent.

If I had sneezed -- If I had sneezed I wouldn't have been here in 1963, when the black people of Birmingham, Alabama, aroused the conscience of this nation, and brought into being the Civil Rights Bill.

If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have had a chance later that year, in August, to try to tell America about a dream that I had had.

If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been down in Selma, Alabama, to see the great Movement there.

If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been in Memphis to see a community rally around those brothers and sisters who are suffering.

I'm so happy that I didn't sneeze.

And they were telling me --. Now, it doesn't matter, now. It really doesn't matter what happens now. I left Atlanta this morning, and as we got started on the plane, there were six of us. The pilot said over the public address system, "We are sorry for the delay, but we have Dr. Martin Luther King on the plane. And to be sure that all of the bags were checked, and to be sure that nothing would be wrong with on the plane, we had to check out everything carefully. And we've had the plane protected and guarded all night."

And then I got into Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers?

Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop.

And I don't mind.

Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!

And so I'm happy, tonight.

I'm not worried about anything.

I'm not fearing any man!

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!!

There's no change without belief

Click on the comic strip to zoom in

September 15, 2010
By A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
Pacific Daily News (Guam)

Opportunities to interact with others and engage in situations through which our own beliefs and habits are challenged, are engaging and stimulating. Through such interactions, we learn to take new perspectives into account.

The reconsiderations that result are an important element to improving the quality of our thinking. To paraphrase Sir Isaac Newton -- and take his reference into a new realm -- an object at rest tends to stay at rest; an object in motion tends to stay in motion; unless stopped by an unbalanced force.

A founding partner of a firm that provides global corporations with training, facilitation and consultation in productive thinking and innovation, Tim Hurson, says better thinking can be taught.

He admits "truly focused thinking" is hard work. It involves "observing, remembering, wondering, imagining, inquiring, interpreting, evaluating, judging, identifying, supporting, composing, comparing, analyzing, calculating, and even metacognition (thinking about thinking)."

It's no wonder "why so few people" actually engage in it, he says.

In the words of Martin Luther King: "Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think."

No 'cut to the chase'

In this age of instant gratification with a click of a keyboard or a push of a button, who has the patience to wait 20 years for education to bear fruit? In my teaching days, students' whispers and body language could transmit their frustration with the hard work of "thinking." As a teacher, sometimes my best efforts to engage my students fell short.

But as the world marches on, dedicated teachers inspire, challenge and prepare students for a competitive world.

Education takes time; there is no "cut to the chase," no ABC action manual, no one-size-fits-all.

We have to rely on our "one kilo of brain" to think -- and to think better.

Denial

"You are in denial. I am in denial, We are all in denial," someone wrote.

Denial is used across cultures and national boundaries, by individuals, groups or nations as a defense mechanism to escape from unwanted feelings of hurt, shame or guilt. Denial is an unwillingness to face an unpleasant reality or a painful truth.

Children love to play in their fantasy worlds. But they grow and learn about reality.

The comic character Calvin plays in his fantasy world, away from the real world of his father and mother. Invincible fantasy Calvin saves the world from inhumanity and injustice -- until his parents subject him to human cruelties such as eating dinner or taking a bath or doing homework.

Then Calvin knows his world of fantasy has ended.

For us grownups, denial persists. We live in the real world, where we cannot avoid an unpleasantness or a pain that we wish never occurred. Life affects us with its ups and downs. We are not beyond doing foolish things and making mistakes, being neither saints nor angels.

We differ from animals in that they rely on instinct. We have our intelligence to help us think, learn from our errors and move on.

Yet there are those who are stuck, who cannot move on.

Denial and blaming go hand in hand.

Simple denial is a rejection of a reality or a truth: "No, that's just not so!"
As we live in a world of our own creations, our self-righteousness makes us the good guys who can't do wrong; the others are the bad ones, responsible for all ills under the sun.

Minimization is playing down the level of seriousness of a reality or a truth, without really denying it: "But I had only two social drinks."

A most dangerous form of denial is transference: One in denial excuses oneself from the unpleasant painful reality but holds others responsible for unpleasant, hurtful things: "Had you not done that, this wouldn't have happened!"

One excuses oneself from culpability, but reproaches and condemns others as responsible.

Change

Karma -- or what Cambodians termed "prumlikhit" -- is a belief that one's lot is determined by a supernatural force, or by what is ordained that can't be changed. They explain one's failed exam, bad marriage, accident, illness, poverty and so on.

If so, is any person responsible for anything?

Cambodians in general say they worry about Cambodia's continued existence as an entity. Their neighbors to the east, the Vietnamese, and to the West, the Thais, have repeatedly encroached on Khmer territories over centuries. Much of today's Vietnam and Thailand once belonged to the Khmers. Many denounce Khmer kings, queens, princes, princesses and elites for the disintegration and shrinkage of modern Cambodia, and condemn their neighbors.

Justifiably so, one can argue.

But is such an exercise misplaced energy? Energy should be channeled to educating and to learning for a better future.

I, myself, write about the losses of Khmer territories, the usurpation of Khmer land by the neighbors, the maddening Vietnamization of Cambodia with the compliance of Khmer rulers, royal and non-royal.

Khmers should learn from their neighbors to block their dark designs. They must unlearn old habits that keep Khmers from advancing. A respected Cambodian-American scholar said the Khmers' neighbors to the east were Khmers Anh-Em, a term of endearment, while Khmer activists refer to them in pejoratives, as if this is going to change anything.

Change begins with one's self. There cannot be change until we believe change is possible.

A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam, where he taught political science for 13 years. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.

Creativity helps change happen

"No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path" - Lord Buddha

"I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul." - Invictus by William Ernest Henley

June 9, 2010
By A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
Pacific Daily News (Guam)

On Memorial Day weekend, my wife and I watched "Invictus," in which actor Morgan Freeman plays South Africa's black anti-apartheid activist-turned-president, Nelson Mandela, and Matt Damon acts as the country's Springboks rugby team captain Francois Pienaar.

The two joined forces to help unite their people during the team's unlikely but successful quest to win the third Rugby World Cup in 1995.

Mandela condemned the white Springboks while in prison. As the country's president, he wanted it to be the team for all: blacks and whites. The film shows Mandela sharing with Pienaar the poem, "Invictus," which had inspired him in the prison "to stand when all I wanted to do was to lie down."

"Invictus," Latin for "unconquered," was a 1875 Victorian poem by English poet William Ernest Henley, who, at age 12, suffered tuberculosis of the bone that spread to his foot. His leg was amputated below his knee when he was 25. From his hospital bed, he wrote "Invictus."

"Out of the night that covers me, / Black as the pit from pole to pole, / I thank whatever gods may be / For my unconquered soul," reads the poem, which ends with "I am the master of my fate: / I am the captain of my soul."

Henley lived until age 53.

Mandela, now 92, was a leader of the African National Congress. In 1962, he was arrested, convicted of sabotage and sentenced to life in prison. He served 27 years, mostly on Robben Island, where he performed hard labor.

Mounting domestic and international pressure led South African President de Klerk to reverse the life sentence in 1990. On the day of his release, Mandela told the nation of his commitment to peace and reconciliation with the country's white minority.

With his party, he negotiated the country's first full democratic elections, which gave him the presidency. Taking office in 1994, Mandela worked on "balancing black aspirations with white fears."

Change is possible.

I write repeatedly that things and people change; that if we don't influence the kind of change we want to see, the change we don't want to see will crush us; that quality thinking brings quality life, and creative thinking and critical thinking determine our future.

But creative thinking and critical thinking are mistakenly interpreted negatively -- creative as in "a nutty professor" with "off-beat ideas"; critical as in "given to fault-finding," says the Foundation for Critical Thinking.

Yet, as the foundation reminds us, Webster's definition of "creative" is "showing imagination and artistic or intellectual inventiveness ... stimulating the imagination and inventive powers"; and the definition of "critical" is applying to "persons who judge and to their judgments ... imply an effort to see thing clearly and truly ... that it as a whole may be fairly judged and valued."

In the May 19 "What Chief Executives Really Want," Frank Kern, the senior vice-president of International Business Machines, the world's largest technology company, said a survey of 1,500 chief executives revealed "priorities" in leadership competency have changed in today's world.

Kern wrote that today's CEOs identify "creativity" as "the most important leadership competency for the successful enterprise of the future," and that "success requires fresh thinking and continuous innovation at all levels of the organization." The new "creative leaders" break with "traditional strategy-planning cycles" and pursue "continuous, rapid-fire shifts and adjustments," through a "combination of deeply held values, vision and conviction -- combined with the application of such tools as analytics to the historic explosion of information."

In her book "This Year I Will...," change expert M.J. Ryan of Professional Thinking Partners -- an organization that specializes in maximizing thinking and learning -- wrote: "I believe that people can change ... that we have the ability within us to truly rearrange our inner landscape and make changes happen within ourselves and our lives."

Speaking of humans' "awareness that we can stop doing the things that hold us back or cause us suffering," she asserts, "to bring new behavior into being takes work ... you have to really want to bring something into being. Deeply, truly, honestly." Or you'll be repeating "the same old, same old."

Ryan warned of the "paralysis by paralysis" -- a tendency to "get stuck in the (endless) whys," rather than decide and take action. Trying to understand "why we are the way we are ... can even prevent us from moving forward," she said, and urged that we switch from the "'why' thinking" -- which leads to "rumination and stuckness" -- to the "'what' thinking" -- which leads to "creative possibilities and forward momentum."

Aristotle, a student of Plato and teacher of Macedonian king Alexander the Great, wrote, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."

Lord Buddha taught, "No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path."

Theodore Roosevelt advised, "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." And Abraham Lincoln, author of the Emancipation Proclamation (freeing American slaves), said "That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well."

Visionary leadership drives change, but change is sustained by teams of people who believe in it and are committed to it. All of us form those teams.
A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam, where he taught political science for 13 years. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.

One person with a good idea can cause change

"It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped" - Robert F. Kennedy

November 18, 2009
A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
Pacific Daily News (Guam)

An inspiring quote by Mahatma Gandhi, "You must be the change you wish to see in the world," makes many feel hopeful, even feel empowered.

If change is inevitable, do we allow the change to emerge without our input, which puts us at risk of being destroyed by it, or do we take action to affect the change we would like to see?

Today, I'd like to write about how to lead change. I'm drawing from bestselling author, entrepreneur and blogger Seth Godin's observations. He has interesting ideas about how to foment change. I think each of us can see things around us that we know are wrong or that could be better. Our instincts tell us we should do something, but we don't. We're busy, someone else will take care of it. This is where Seth Godin comes in: how change occurs. His theory of tribes dovetails nicely with the political socialization model I've written of over the years.

Starting with factories, Godin asserts that the industrial age offered a significant opportunity to create real change. The assembly line, instituted first by Henry Ford, was the catalyst for tremendous social change: Goods were produced faster and with greater efficiency; the wage scale for the skilled workers who manned the line changed their living standard.

As more and more goods were produced, there grew a need to market them. Cultural change began to be sparked by mass media, through which advertising was blasted to the masses. We might have thought we were immune to the cacophony of calls to buy one product over another, or a deluge of things we didn't need; the fact is we all are subject to the subliminal pull of repeated entreaties to buy, buy, buy. And so the marketplace changed our culture.

The nature of tribes

Godin says we now have moved to a larger stage, thanks in part to communications tools, when change -- for good or ill -- is more easily undertaken. We are at a time in history where one person truly can make a difference because of the nature of tribes, says Godin.

He defines a tribe as an association of people with a common interest. Each of us is potentially a member of many tribes. We're members of a church, pagoda, mosque group, we volunteer for Meals on Wheels, we're members of a golf club, a mountain biking group. We work in an office. We teach in a school. Each of these intentional or accidental associations becomes a tribal association of common interest.

Godin says great change, a movement, is created when these tribal circles intersect, overlap, and expand their connectivity to larger numbers of people. This is how momentous change occurs. Godin proposes that one person can galvanize a tribe. Change, he says, comes from leading and connecting people and ideas.

Examples

Godin offers examples of people unknown to most of us who have seen a wrong and worked to right it by gathering like-minded people together behind the same good idea: the San Francisco City ASPCA, which became the first ASPCA affiliate in the world to successfully implement a "no-kill" policy for the animals it sheltered. Led by a single determined individual, the people in the city who cared about animals rallied behind the concept in spite of official opposition, and won. Godin recalls the young man who started a movement that supplies shoes for children who have none; an architect who started a green building movement by communicating with those who have similar interests across the nation. A single person with a good idea who took the lead started movements.

Godin suggests that action can come from each of us asking ourselves three questions: Who are you upsetting? (If you're not upsetting someone, you're not changing the status quo.) Who are you connecting? Who are you leading?

Leaders, he says, challenge the status quo. They have curiosity. They ask questions. They build a culture with small common symbols that give the new tribe an identity. But most importantly, leaders commit. They commit to working to make the change. The tribe that spreads the message promotes the change exponentially, and a movement is created around one good idea. Leaders are charismatic, says Godin, but here's the secret: They are charismatic because they are leaders, because they commit, because they take a good idea and share it and share it and share it again and again and again until it catches fire and ignites a conflagration that changes what had seemed unchangeable.

No action, no result

Which brings us back to Gandhi. "You may never know what results come of your action, but if you do nothing, there will be no result." To hear Godin, an optimist, is to believe that the power to instigate a movement is within the grasp of most of us. Surely the communications tools at our fingertips offer us the opportunity to reach a wide audience -- potential tribe members -- relatively easily. Surely, these same tools can be used for ill as for good, but that's a discussion for another day.

For now, the point is, change is not an abstract. It is not something for someone else to do. It is something you can make happen with a good idea, energy, commitment, and connection to a tribe. Any one of us can become that leader who made a great and positive difference with determination to communicate and implement one good idea. Have the courage to go after your goals rather than feel overwhelmed by them.

As Robert F. Kennedy said, "It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped."

A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam, where he taught political science for 13 years. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com

'Don't just sit there, do something'

September 9, 2009
A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
Pacific Daily News (Guam)

An educator in a Mid-Atlantic area public school system in the United States captured students' and parents' attention as he addressed them: "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got."

What simple logic and common sense. But, as another saying goes, none is so blind or deaf as those who do not see or hear. German-born American physicist Albert Einstein said, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result."

But men and women, creatures of habit, excel at repeating routine actions and creating patterns which can keep us walled in, providing perhaps a false sense of security and an excuse for not trying something new in order to avoid failure.

This, in a life of countless unknowns. As patterned thought and routine action become "fossilized," they stifle and block man's ability to think critically, a necessary factor to survive socially, politically and economically in the 21st century world.

A reader from a Southeast Asian country wondered in an e-mail -- having read what I wrote about free thinking, innovation, willingness to try and confronting moderate risks -- how one is expected to think outside the box when one's head is already in the box.

Tim Hurson, a founding partner of a firm that provides global corporations with training, facilitation and consultation in productive thinking and innovation, and author of "Think Better," advised against rushing to conclusions, because it curbs man from becoming creative and blocks his road to knowledge.

He advised man must "keep asking questions" until he arrives at a "vast panorama of possible answers" from which to choose.

Remember Einstein's assertion, "Information is not knowledge," and German playwright Johann von Goethe, who emphasized, "Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do."

A short video on the Internet keys off the factoid that water boils when the heat is increased one degree, from 211 to 212, and reminds the viewer, "With boiling water, comes the steam. And steam can power a locomotive." It offers a lesson: "The only thing that stands between a person and what they want in life is the will to try and the faith to believe it possible. ... Having a simple, clearly defined goal can capture the imagination and inspire passion."

I recently was privileged to read an e-mail discussion among some Cambodians continents away. One, energized by memories of Filipina housewife-turned-president Corazon Aquino's people power revolution, called for one in Cambodia. Another was skeptical: unless military chiefs join in like in the Philippines, no people power in Cambodia is possible. Still another observed the widespread fear in Cambodia.

The people power advocate impressed me with his determination to try and his belief that it's possible. In spite of odds, he doesn't sit still. From his perspective, he is seeking to attain the "public good" and appeals to others to join in a collective action, because the public good benefits everyone.

Indeed, there exist enormous problems: the "free riders" who sit out while others sweat trying to get a job done; the "willing executioners" who accept to be tools of authoritarian rulers, to overwhelm, distract and disrupt efforts opposed by the dictators; an international community that prefers a semblance of political stability because its peoples' skins are not directly involved.

But, as the video mentioned earlier tells viewers: "To get what we've never had, we must do what we've never done."

Someone said somewhere that we exist in the real world but live in an ideal world. And it's that idealism, hope and belief that distinguish humans from beasts.

In the world of dictators, intimidation and fear are facts of life. Burmese democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi said in an interview that fear is a habit, humans are conditioned to fear, but, "Don't just sit there, do something." Growing up a little girl afraid of the dark, as an adult, Suu Kyi has walked toward soldiers with weapons raised to shoot her. But a Burmese officer intervened and spared her life.

Lesson 1: Not all uniformed soldiers and officers are loyal servants of dictators. Lesson 2: Down deep in a person's heart, one knows what justice is and wants it, too.

Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.'s words should be recalled: "There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us."

On a personal note, in the early 1980s I was holed up in a resistance bunker at Ampil, Cambodia, as hundreds of artillery shells rained everywhere for hours. I admit I saw death staring at me with every sound of an incoming shell. With each shell, the ground shook. I believed I was in God's hands, I prayed. Obviously the Almighty was not done with me.

Proverbs and words of the wise are inspirational. A Moorish proverb says, "He who fears something gives it power over him." The Germans say, "Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is."

And fear takes on a different dimension through the words of Yiddish poet Edward Yashinsky, who survived the Holocaust but died in an Eastern European prison camp: "Fear not your enemies, for they can only kill you; fear not your friends, for they can only betray you. Fear only the indifferent, who permit the killers and the betrayers to walk safely on the earth."

A saying goes: "Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely."

Through our strengths and human frailties, we grow. Life is learning, but we cannot learn unless we unlearn something and relearn new hope, which gives us the energy to move forward.

A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam, where he taught political science for 13 years. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.

Power ... a view by an anonymous reader

A Noble Tradition

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama walk the inaugural parade route in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2009. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Op-Ed By Jayakhmer
On the web at http://www.modernprogressivekhmer.blogspot.com

On this sunny but chilly Tuesday morning, up to 2 million people converged at the country’s capitol to take part in history. Barack H. Obama became the president of the United States at noon as required by the 20th amendment of the Constitution.

As the President Obama solemnly took the oath “to faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and will” to the best of his ability to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States,” the people and the world, for that matter, welcomed the 44th president of the United States.

As a Cambodian American, I found this auspicious occasion very gratifying. A peaceful transition of power from one government to the next is a tradition I am very much hoping that Cambodia will someday adopt.

Cambodia’s past governmental transitions were any but peaceful. March 18, 1970 was a coupe, April 17, 1975 Khmer Communists usurped the power by force, and January 7, 1979 was an invasion.

This noble tradition went back to the first president of the United States. After serving two terms as president, George Washington retired from politics in 1796. The notion for a leader holds on to power for life simply does not exist. I am sure that some may have attempted, but the elections, the rule of law, and the tradition always dictated. After Franking D. Roosevelt who served as president for three terms, the country rectified the issue by adopting the 22nd amendment in 1951 allowing a president to serve only up to two four-year terms.

President Obama know all too well of the challenges the country and the world will face.

“…That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet…”

I am very hopeful, however.

What so great about America is that the fact that it has a political structure to renew itself through term limits and through elections.

President Bush also shared this sense of optimism as he leaves his office. In his farewell address, Mr. Bush said, “America is a young country, full of vitality, constantly growing and renewing itself. And even in the toughest times, we lift our eyes to the broad horizon ahead.”

What truly captured my attention was when President Obama said this in his inaugural speech.

“To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West: Know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.”

I am looking forward to seeing the changing world. I also hope that Cambodia and its leaders will take this opportunity to work with the new administration to renew their commitments to promoting democracy so that every Cambodian can enjoy freedom, liberty, justice, dignity, and decency.