Happy birthday to the wonderful Sidney Poitier, born on this day February 20, 1927 in Miami, Florida. Some of his most loved film performances include his roles in Blackboard Jungle, The Defiant Ones, Lilies of the Field, A Raisin in the Sun, To Sir, with Love, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, and In the Heat of the Night.
“I don’t mean to be like some old guy from the olden days who says, “I walked thirty miles to school every morning, so you kids should too.” That’s a statement born of envy and resentment. What I’m saying is something quite different. What I’m saying is that by having very little, I had it good. Children need a sense of pulling their own weight, of contributing to the family in some way, and some sense of the family’s interdependence. They take pride in knowing that they’re contributing. They learn responsibility and discipline through meaningful work. The values developed within a family that operates on those principles then extend to the society at large. By not being quite so indulged and “protected” from reality by overflowing abundance, children see the bonds that connect them to others.”
-Sidney Poitier, The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography
