I love how Marian Wright Edelman moves so easily between the analytical and the spiritual, between devastating statistics and poetry. Her oratory posits great moral truths with quiet, almost casual, certainty - as if decency is common, and she expects it, and shouldn’t need to raise her voice or ask us twice.
Jimmy Wayne speaks like the soul of country music - honest, full of faith but often irreverent, celebrating narrative. He also has a way of eliciting decency from us; like a friendly stranger on a Greyhound headed south, he shares the difficult story of where he’s been and the love that saved him, and invites us to give that sort of love to someone who needs.
Thanks Freddie Mac Foundation and Higher Achievement for allowing me to share a story in this lyrical and enlightened company. I am renewed in my will to serve children.
