HE LIFTED HIS SISTER UP: Sometimes we forget. Sometimes we dont recognize. Some people get awards, high praise and new props by which to prop themselves and their causes. Others, not so much of any of that, but more like private pats on the back and whispers of go head. None of that matters in struggle. We just keep moving anyway. I am thinking of our ancestors, whose names we do not know, whove had no books, songs or speeches written for them. For those who labored in the invisible, standing behind others, doing what must be done--for us. You were there. That we may be here. Thank you. There are rewards, not by the hand of man. But, in 1868, the great civil rights leader Frederick Douglass wrote to Harriet Tubman: Dear Harriet: I am glad to know that the story of your eventful life has been written by a kind lady, and that the same is soon to be published. You ask for what you do not need when you call upon me for a word of commendation. I need such words from you far more than you can need them from me, especially where your superior labors and devotion to the cause of the lately enslaved of our land are known as I know them. The difference between us is very marked. Most that I have done and suffered in the service of our cause has been in public, and I have received much encouragement at every step of the way. You, on the other hand, have labored in a private way. I have wrought in the day--you in the night. I have had the applause of the crowd and the satisfaction that comes of being approved by the multitude, while the most that you have done has been witnessed by a few trembling, scarred, and foot-sore bondmen and women, whom you have led out of the house of bondage, and whose heartfelt God bless you has been your only reward. The midnight sky and the silent stars have been the witnesses of your devotion to freedom and of your heroism. Excepting John Browns sacred memory, I know of no one who has willingly encountered more perils and hardships to serve our enslaved people than you have. Much that you have done would seem improbable to, those who do not know you as I know you. It is to me a great pleasure and a great privilege to bear testimony to your character and your works, and to say to those to whom you may come, that I regard you in every way truthful and trustworthy. Your friend, Frederick Douglass
Posted on: Sun, 03 Aug 2014 14:23:19 +0000