You must be the change you want to see in the world

Among the hundreds of people waiting to visit Mahatma Gandhi one day was a mother who sought help in battling her son’s obsession with eating sugar. When it was their turn in line, instead of immediately counseling the boy, Gandhi asked the pair to come back in two weeks. Following a two-hour wait on the day of their return, the anxious mother repeated her request. Gandhi promptly spoke with her son and the boy agreed to work on breaking his sugar fixation. The mother expressed her gratitude, of course, but remained puzzled as to why Gandhi refused to counsel her son during their first visit. His response, for me, represents one of the most teachable moments in world history. Gandhi shared that he could not initially talk to the boy about his sugar habit because Gandhi himself was eating sugar at that time. How could he legitimately speak to her son about not eating sugar, Gandhi reportedly asked, if he had yet to ‘take the journey himself ’? This powerful lesson, from an encounter many years ago and thousands of miles away, aligns so well with my belief that the best advice comes from people who themselves have walked the path one is about to take. The Media Democracy Agenda: The Strategy and Legacy of FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps appraises the strategies and priorities of one of the Federal Communications Commission’s most consequential members, a commissioner who sought to change the agency by making it more accountable to the American people.

[Mignon L. Clyburn served as a commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission]