January 19, 2021
Who Do We Serve?
“I believe in people and their hopes, their aspirations, and their faith; in their right to make their own plans and arrive at their own decisions; in their ability and power to enlarge their lives and plan for the happiness of those they love.”
So begins the Extension Workers Creed written by W.A. Lloyd in 1922.
On this day after Martin Luther King Day, I ask you to focus on the word “people” in the creed. Also, please note the words around it. There are no adjectives tied to the word “people” and, as such, it is meant to be inclusive.
Inclusive means that we serve rural, suburban, and urban peoples. We serve the poor, the rich, and everyone in between. We serve those who were raised like you and those who were not, those who look like you and those who do not, those who love like you and those who do not, those who identify like you and those who do not, those who communicate like you and those who do not, those who think like you and those who do not, those who feel like you and those who do not, those who enjoy like you and those who do not, and those who believe like you and those who do not.
The creed says we are to help all people who dream to aspire to, and want to make decisions that improve their lives and the lives of their families. Those are its only qualifiers, and they are ubiquitous in the human experience.
Our goal as extension professionals and as an organization of extension professionals is to help people achieve their goals. In the near future, a plan will be unveiled and implemented that will help us be more inclusive as an organization, but I request three things of you now. First, I ask that each of you think about whether you as an extension professional are living up to the inclusiveness that is inherent in the very first stanza of our Extension Workers Creed. Second, I ask you to think about ways to become even more inclusive in the future. Finally, I ask that you start acting today to be more inclusive as an extension professional by serving the life enhancing education needs of people who are like you and people who are not like you. After all, we are called upon to serve people, all people.
The full version of the Extension Workers Creed can be found at https://www.ksre.k-state.edu/esp-alpharho/resources/creed.html. We will be referring to it more in future Tuesday Letters, so I encourage you to read and think about it.