My Pledge

Change begins with me. First there was the ethics seminar. Then there was the article on the loss of empathy. Then when researching the post on Empathy and Ethics I discovered this quote:

''Finally -- well, he wasn't the president. He was the chancellor, Hitler, decided that it was the only empathetic thing to do, is to put this child down and put him out of his suffering. It was the beginning of the T4, which led to genocide everywhere. It was the beginning of it. Empathy leads you to very bad decisions many times.''

—Glenn Beck, on President Obama's statement that he would consider ''empathy'' in choosing a Supreme Court nominee, Fox News' Glenn Beck show, May 26, 2009

To say I completely disagree with that quote would be the understatement of all time.

I'm not happy with manners seemingly disappearing in my world. I'm not happy that ethics seems to be disappearing as well. I'm certainly not happy that so many have lost their empathy. Change begins with me. It starts today.

At the seminar on ethics they did spend a few minutes on the Human Rights Pledge that the member nations of The United Nations take. That encouraged me to make to formulate my own pledge. This is the pledge that I am making to you and to myself:

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THE DAHN PLEDGE:

I will treat my fellow human beings with respect and dignity regardless of their race, religion, color, ethnic origin, physical limitations or disabilities, or if their sexual persuasion are different than mine.

I will respect the right to privacy of others.

I will perform one act of kindness towards another human or animal each day.

I will respect my elderly.

When faced with an ethical dilemma I will follow my heart and do what benefits others more than myself.

I will not steal from other humans or businesses.

If I am in a committed relationship I will not violate that commitment and cheat on the man or woman that I am committed to.

I will tell the people close to me at least once a day that I love them.

If I have sixteen items or more I will not go through the fifteen items or less aisle at the checkout stand.

I will take a deep breath instead of using my middle finger when driving.

I will not make judgments about others' feelings, decisions or comments, particularly those close to me.

I will not project my expectations onto others, nor will I allow my perceived expectations others may have of me to drive my life or feelings.


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A pledge is not a requirement to be perfect. I know there will be days when I fail miserably at keeping my pledge but it is a goal of the person I hope to be. If you would like to add a line item to the pledge, please do so and I will add it to the above list. If you want to share the pledge with others be my guest. If you would like join me in taking the pledge more power to you!

May this day begin change.

Who AM I?

Yesterday's answer was Mary Elizabeth Bowser.

I am not only more well-known than most of the featured Who Am I's (even Laura Linney knows of me) the owner of The Dahn Report is a descendant of our family. I was an advocate of married women's property rights and more opportunities for women, particularly in the field of education. I believed, women should not submit to laws not made in their interest, nor should they be content with the simple role of being companions to their husbands. I believed they should educate themselves and thus be recognized for their intellectual capabilities, so they could guide and influence the lives of their children and husbands. Along with my husband I believed that slavery was evil and a threat to the American democratic experiment. An example of this is whene a free black youth came to my house asking to be taught how to write. I placed the boy in a local evening school despite objections from a neighbor. I responded that he was "a freeman as much as any of the young Men and merely because his face is black, is he to be denied instruction? How is he to be qualified to procure a livelihood? ... I have not thought it any disgrace to myself to take him into my parlor and teach him both to read and write."

I was both a mother and wife of famous men. I was born in 1744 and died in 1818. I was born a Smith to a reverend and a homemaker. My mother was a cousin of a famous signature. I was a sickly child and was not considered healthy enough for formal schooling but my mother taught my sisters and I to read, write and cipher. I married a man nine years my elder. My dad was all for the match but Mom was appalled that I would throw my life away on a country lawyer with farm manners. We had three boys and three girls. My first daughter and I did get to go to Paris to join my husband and son as my husband served there a diplomat. My first daughter would later die of breast cancer. Although I was a second first, I was also the first to live in a famous house. I died before my son lived there. I once asked my daughter in a letter, "When will Mankind be convinced that true Religion is from the Heart, between Man and his creator, and not the imposition of Man or creeds and tests?" Who Am I?