REMEMBER THIS
IF YOU WORK FOR A MAN, in Heaven's name,
WORK for him. If he pays you wages which supply
you bread and butter, work for him; speak well of him;
stand by him and stand by the institutions he represents.
If put to a pinch, an ounce of loyalty is worth a pound
of cleverness. If you must vilify, condemn and eternally
disparage--resign your position, and when you are
outside damn to your heart's content, but as long as
you are part of the institution do not condemn it.
If you do that, you are loosening the tendrils that are
holding you to that institution, and at the first high wind
that comes along, you will be uprooted and blown away,
and probably will never know the reason why.
Final Word from BILL FOIL.
Paid for with private funds by Bill and his two friends.
Small towns can be smaller than they are. “Remember This” proved it. So did the years that followed its publication in the local newspaper in Marion County, South Carolina.
Dissatisfaction with the county’s educational system precipitated my writing a letter to the editor criticizing what I believed to be fiscal irresponsibility by school officials. My first public outcry immediately created turmoil in the community, causing sides to be taken for and against our public school administrators and for and against me.
For some inexplicable reason I could neither still my pen nor my fury. I was a concerned citizen with the right to speak freely; I was also a teacher in the very system I was criticizing. It was not until my superintendent, Dr. William C. Foil, published his “Final Word” that I fully grasped what would happen to me if I did not keep silent. And therein lay my naiveté:
“…at the first high wind that comes along,
you will be uprooted and blown away,
and probably will never know the reason why.”