West Virginia's Civil Rights

Life's most urgent question is: what are you doing for others?
Martin Luther King, Jr.

February 12-18 2007 is Random Acts of Kindness Week

A random act of kindness is a selfless act performed by someone for no reason other than to make people happier. An act of kindness can be large or small, but doing something is better than doing nothing at all.

"If you have not often felt the joy of doing a kind act, you have neglected much, and most of all yourself."
Author:A. Neilen

"No act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted."
Author:Aesop

"Only a life lived for others is worth living."
Author:Albert Einstein

"Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust and hostility to evaporate."
Author:Albert Schweitzer

"To give without any reward, or any notice, has a special quality of its own."
Author:Anne Morrow Lindbergh

"Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world."
Author:Archbishop Desmond Tutu

"Wise sayings often fall on barren ground; but a kind word is never thrown away."
Author:Sir Arthur Helps

"Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment."
Author:Benjamin Franklin

"Kind words do not cost much. Yet they accomplish much."
Author:Blaise Pascal

More Acts of Kindness quotes at  http://www.actsofkindness.org/inspiration/quotes.asp

February is Black History Awareness Month. It started as Black History Week in 1926 because it marks the birthdays of two men who greatly influenced the Black population, Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. Later on in 1976, as the nation reached its bicentennial, the week was expanded into an entire month. See http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhm1.html for more information on Black History.

Like the quote at the top of the page, the following are by Martin Luther King, Jr.

At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.

Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else? The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.

He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

I have a dream that one day the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

More Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes at
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/martin_luther_king_jr.html

Leonard L. Jackson is the Black Emphasis Program Manager. He may be contacted by phone at 304-284-7550 304 or e-mail at Leonard.Jackson@wv.usda.gov

March is Women’s History Awareness Month

Women's History Month is an annual declared month in the United States that highlights contributions of women to events in history. The annual event traces its beginnings to the first International Women's Day in 1911. In 1981, responding to the growing popularity of the event, Congress passed a resolution making Women's History Week a national designation. Congress legally expanded the focus to a whole month in 1987.

See http://www.infoplease.com/spot/womenshistory1.html for more information on Women's History.

Carol Lagodich is Federal Women's Program Manager. She may be contacted by phone at 304-284-4826 304 or e-mail at carol.lagodich@wv.usda.gov

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