"While I was on my way home one afternoon, a black lady who had been our maid got on. I had been taught that when a lady gets on a bus, you offer your seat. So I gave her mine, but some kids started snickering and whispering as though I had done something really dumb. When I got home, I told this to Mom who was fixing dinner at the long table in the kitchen. She stopped what she was doing, sat me down opposite her in the breakfast nook, and told me that what I'd done was right. Then she said: "You have to understand that you're one of the luckiest people in the world. You were born white, you were born Protestant, and you were born American. That means you'll be spared prejudices that a lot of other people have to put up with. But always remember: You had nothing to do with the fact that you were born that way. It gives you no right to look down on anybody who wasn't. No matter what the other children say, you must never look down on anybody."
General Norman Schwartzkopf
General Norman Schwartzkopf
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