I had a visitor just a bit ago who came by here looking for an answer to a question: What did Booker T. Washington mean by "One man cannot hold another man in the ditch without remaining down in the ditch with him."
Possumblog comes up twice because I've used that quote twice up in the weekly quote space, but I've never actually commented on it.
I believe Dr. Washington was saying that that you are no better than your prejudices. If you think it's your job to keep someone else down, you'll never rise up yourself. It was directed at the culture of the South that made an industry out of marginalizing and demeaning black people--he realized that no one wins in such a situation. Even passive neglect would have been better than the overt effort to enforce inequality--at least that way, SOMEone could get on with life. As it was though, the South had trapped itself into a continuing morass of unproductiveness. The inscription on the monument to Dr. Washington at Tuskegee reads, "He lifted the veil of ignorance from his people and pointed the way to progress through education and industry," but really, that is a promise that can hold true with all people--learn, and get to work. Understood is that true progress for all requires mutual assistance.
From the book of Ecclesiastes:
9 Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor.
10 For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow; but woe to him that is alone when he falleth, and hath not another to lift him up.
11 Again, if two lie together, then they have warmth; but how can one be warm alone?
12 And if a man prevail against him that is alone, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
Washington's collected papers can be viewed here.