January 2006 Newsletter
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy”
~Martin Luther King, Jr.
Best wishes for the Brave New Year
New is good. What did you do new last year? I left a 30-year career of social movement leadership to become a solo practitioner writing and speaking about my passions. I got my ears pierced so I can wear those beautiful dangly earrings.
What are you going to do new this year? I’m working on a fun new book about life lessons for women and have created a new speech to share leadership lessons I learned the hard way. I’m working out with a trainer who has made me physically stronger than ever. We’re going to need strength to counteract the rightward drift of the Supreme Court. (See commentary, right column).
As words of encouragement, I want to share with you sentiments that have been attributed to Abel Muzorewa, former prime minister of Zimbabwe, and that have guided me through many new years and challenges. Dr. King exemplified such inspiration:
INTENTIONING
Sex, Power, Pandemics, and How Women
Will Take The Lead for (Everyone’s) Good
The new book from Gloria Feldt about the future, taking the leadership lessons learned from this disruption and creating a better world for all through the power of intention.
People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered
Love them anyway
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives
Do good anyway
If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies
Succeed anyway
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow
Do good anyway
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable
Be honest and frank anyway
The biggest person with the biggest idea can be shot down by the smallest person with the smallest mind
Think big anyway
People favor underdogs, but follow only top dogs
Fight for some underdogs anyway
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight
Build anyway
People need help, but may attack you if you help them
Help people anyway
Give the world the best you have and sometimes you’ll get kicked in the teeth
Give the world your best anyway
“Well behaved women rarely make history”
~Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
March is Women’s History Month. I’ll be speaking at Bradley University and the Brooklyn Public Library on the history and future of reproductive rights in a speech entitled “Motherhood in
Bondage / Motherhood in Freedom: The Choice is Yours.”
My Recent Commentary:
For Alito Hearing Theater, Get Your Playbill Here
Women’s eNews – New York,NY,USA
Be careful about whose script you follow and offers a playbill for an interactive performance. …
High Court Case Takes Aim at Heart of Roe
Women’s eNews – New York,NY,USA
Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood is nothing less than an attack at the heart of Roe v. Wade. …
By the way, if you don’t already subscribe to Women’s e-News, you should.
GLORIA FELDT is the New York Times bestselling author of several books including No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power, a sought-after speaker and frequent contributor to major news outlets, and the Co-Founder and President of Take The Lead. People has called her “the voice of experience,” and among the many honors she has been given, Vanity Fair called her one of America’s “Top 200 Women Legends, Leaders, and Trailblazers,” and Glamour chose her as a “Woman of the Year.”
As co-founder and president of Take The Lead, a leading women’s leadership nonprofit, her mission is to achieve gender parity by 2025 through innovative training programs, workshops, a groundbreaking 50 Women Can Change The World immersive, online courses, a free weekly newsletter, and events including a monthly Virtual Happy Hour program and a Take The Lead Day symposium that reached over 400,000 women globally in 2017.