TAKE THE STING OUT OF BEING WRONG - ADMIT IT! Any fool can try to defend his mistakes...and most fools do! It raises one above the herd and gives one a feeling of nobility and exultation to admit ones mistakes. Dale Carnegies words were never so right. Robert E. Lee blamed himself for the failure of Picketts charge at Gettysburg and the results were amazing. As Carnegie described it, Picketts charge was undoubtedly the most brilliant and picturesque attack that ever occurred in the western world. Pickett himself was picturesque. He wore his hair so long that his auburn lockes almost touched his shoulders; and, like Napoleon in his Italian campaigns, he wrote ardent love-letters almost daily on the battlefield. His devoted troops cheered him that tragic July afternoon as he rode off jauntily toward the Union lines, with his cap set at a rakish angle over his right ear. They cheered and they followed him, man touching man, rank pressing rank, with banners flying and bayonets gleaming in the sun. It was a gallant sight. Daring. Magnificent. A murmur of admiration ran through the Union lines as they beheld it. Picketts troops swept forward at an easy trot, through orchard and cornfield, across a meadow and over a ravine. All the time, the enemys cannons were tearing ghastly holes in their ranks. But on they pressed, grim, irresistible. Suddenly the Union infantry rose from behind the stone well on Cemetery Ridge where they had been hiding and fired volley after volley into Picketts defenseless troops. The crest of the hill was a sheet of flame, a slaughter-house, a blazing volcano. In a few minutes all of Picketts brigade commanders except one were down, and four-fifths of this five thousand men had fall Picketts charge...brilliant, heroic...was nevertheless the beginning of the end. Lee had failed. He could not penetrate the North and he knew it. The South was doomed. Lee sent in his resignation to Jefferson Davis and asked him to appoint a younger and abler man. Lee had more than enough reasons to blame Pickett. Division commanders had failed him. The calvary wasnt there in time to assist the infantry attack. Lee was above the need to blame others. Robert E. Lee rode out to meet Picketts beaten troops and greeted them with, All this has been my fault, I and I alone have lost this battle. One of our most original authors, Elbert Hubbard, aroused fierce resentment with his literature, so much so that irritated readers would write in to disagree with his statements. Hubbard would respond with: Come to think of it, I dont entirely agree with it myself. Not everything I wrote yesterday appeals to me today. I am glad to learn what you think on the subject. The next time you are in the neighborhood you must visit us and well get this subject threshed out for all time. So here is a hand clasp over the miles, and I am Yours Sincerely,.... If I had received a return letter like this, Hubbard would have had a new friend. Those times when we are right, lets try to win people over to our way of thinking by using a gentle and tactful manner. When we are wrong, which is usually more times than not, lets try to admit our mistakes with no hesitation but with enthusiasm. It is alot easier to admit our own mistakes than to have someone else do it for us. Every time you view and experience the power of the colors: violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange or red, you value the need to admit when you are wrong. Take care to share, Jean Genet tibetan-delegation.org
Posted on: Sun, 01 Dec 2013 01:02:11 +0000
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