The true sign of having achieved equality is when you can lose magnanimously and graciously. For when you blame your gender, or race, or whatever for a failure, you are proclaiming that you don't consider yourself equal.
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Friday night I attended the graduation ceremony of Thomas Edison High school. They are a high school for students with LD (which used to be an acronym for Learning Disabled, but now is more properly Learning Differently). What was amazing was the candor displayed as these students told their stories. Many had been told by teachers and councilors in regular schools to give up, that they would never graduate from high school. And yet, here they stood, graduating, and most of them on their way to university. That was a great success, but they also talked about their failures, and I was struck by the fact that these young people never blamed others, never whined or acted like victims. Beyond graduating, they were in command of their futures, and were personally, quietly responsible for their own successes and their own failures. And in that, they were not only equal to students at any "normal" high school, they were far more mature than many I have seen. I was impressed and humbled.
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