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September 01, 2007
Talib Sadiq is a self-made, self-improved man
Daily Hampshire Gazette, Northampton, MA: News and information for Saturday
September 01, 2007
Talib Sadiq is a self-made, self-improved man
To the editor:
Having been educators in the Amherst-Pelham schools for 30 years, we have been following reactions to the hiring of Talib Sadiq with more than a little interest. For once, the Amherst-Pelham Regional School District has, by its actions, reconciled its stated philosophy of inclusion with action. In the hiring of Talib, the district has shown that personal redemption is an attribute to be rewarded and included by example in the daily lives of the young men and women of ARMS. As his principal and teachers, we knew Talib when he was Vincent Bias. As a student in the high school, he possessed an air that suggested he had more to give to his community and much more he needed to give to himself.
It would be far too easy to blame Vincent's fall from positive citizenship on a military that spits out its soldiers, ill-prepared to re-enter civilian life. The statistics bear witness to the number of men and women who served and who are in emotional, legal, economic and psychological distress. The mark of Talib's character is that he did not blame this abandonment for his legal predicament. He, as they say, "manned up," did his time and went on to become a husband, a father, and an educator.
It certainly must have occurred to Talib as he sat in his classes that, unlike his classmates, the path to full redemption, gaining employment in his chosen field, would be difficult. Yet, he did not waver, and he did succeed. What better testament to the resiliency of the human spirit, and what better model of the self-made, self-improved man could one ask for?
Gaylord F. Saulsberry (former principal of Amherst High School) Janet Elias Saulsberry Amherst
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Posted by lois at September 1, 2007 10:56 AM