Читать книгу Becoming an Invitational Leader - William W Purkey - Страница 28

Thomas Jefferson— inventor, architect, astronomer, mathematician, anthropologist, and botanist (not to mention author of the Declaration of Independence) — was a living example of what it means to respect people and their opinions. Although he was born into a society that justified the abhorrent practice of slavery, he worked to abolish its practice and to encourage democracy.

When Alexander Hamilton and others questioned the ability of men and women to rule themselves, Jefferson never wavered in his respect for the self-directing powers of people to find their own best ways.

Jefferson’s commitment to reason and democratic practice is illustrated by an incident involving the Prussian Ambassador to the United States, Baron Alexander Von Humboldt. When the Baron entered Jefferson’s study and noticed on Jefferson’s desk a Federalist Newspaper which featured a scurrilous attack on him, Baron Von Humboldt asked, “Why do you tolerate such lies? Why don’t you shut down the newspaper and have the editors arrested?” Jefferson laughed and replied, “Mr. Ambassador, please take this newspaper and put it in your pocket. When you get back to Europe and they ask you whether or not there is freedom in the new nation, please take the paper from your pocket, show it to your friends, and tell them where you got it.” Jefferson believed that if the people made poor decisions, the remedy was not to take away their power but to educate them.

Another poignant example of respect is beautifully presented in George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, when Eliza Doolittle speaks to Colonel Pickering:

You see, really and truly, apart from the things anyone can pick up (the dressing gown and the proper way of speaking, and so on), the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she’s treated. I shall always be a flower girl to Professor Higgins, because he treats me as a flower girl, and always will, but I know I can be a lady to you because you always treat me like a lady, and always will.