From: ralph@eddlewood.demon.co.uk   
      
   What value do you place on persistence? It is not often listed amongst   
   the virtues, but I suspect that it should be.   
      
   During my private sector career, if a supplier did not satisfy me I   
   found a new one. If I did not satisfy a client, I knew that he would   
   find a new supplier, and I had to look for a new client.   
      
   Moving to the public sector, there is often only one supplier (central   
   government for many things), and if you don't get on, you suffer. The   
   fact that many others are suffering with you may lead you to join, or   
   even start, some kind of pressure group in order to change things. If   
   you do, you may find that it takes many years to achieve your   
   objectives.   
      
   If you do achieve them, it will be due to powerful arguments being   
   found, and powerful protagonists to put them forward. But these will be   
   in vain without persistence; you need someone who will stay on the job,   
   year after year, until the climate changes, your opponents die off, or   
   hell freezes over.   
      
   My personal experience suggests that real persistence is most commonly   
   found amongst trade union leaders (or former ones). A worker can always   
   leave a job if it gets unbearable, but a trade union rep has to continue   
   to represent his flock however awful the employer may be. It's a good   
   training.   
      
   Currently humanists need a lot of persistence to get a hearing when both   
   politicians and media are obsessed with Muslims vs Christians. So we   
   have some feeling for those crying in the wilderness.   
      
   --   
   ralph   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)