Early in April the Ashland Independent Film Festival occurs in our town in Oregon. The festival features primarily documentaries, some of which are very difficult to see anywhere but at film festivals.
The documentary voted best at this year’s festival was The Case Against 8, about the effort to overturn California’s Proposition 8 banning marriages between same-sex couples.
The film hit home for me for a couple of reasons. My brother was gay and had an amazing partner, but they both died before there was a chance of being married. We have many gay and lesbian friends, who truly love one another and deserve to be married if they want to be. (By the way, EVERYONE knows people who are gay or lesbian. Often times some don’t always find out the truth.)
What I found remarkable was that the two lawyers who had argued the Bush vs. Gore case in front of the Supreme Court in 2000, which ultimately decided the presidential election outcome, came together to work to overturn Prop 8. Ted Olson is the noted conservative lawyer who argued on behalf of Bush that the ballot recount in Florida should stop. David Boies argued on behalf of Gore that the recount should continue.
These two incredibly smart and capable lawyers came together to help with the work to overturn Prop 8. Why? Because they both felt it was the right thing to do.
You and your employees are constantly being given opportunities to a make choice, to decide what is the right thing to do. One of the most important things you do as a business owner or a manager is to always be preaching your company’s mission statement and core values so that all involved know what “right” is.
Sounds like hard work. That is true. However, doing what is right is where we truly realize what it means to be a human.
Think about it. And go do something hard that is the right thing to do.
