Jamie Reidy comments on the story of Sargent Shriver, founder of the Peace Corps, devoted husband and father of five kids.
I just ordered Mark Shriver’s biography of his father, the legendary Sargent Shriver. But I did so with trepidation.
Just reading this article on WBUR.com, Boston’s NPR station, has me fearful of learning all the ways I am failing the world. That’s what a good man Shriver was.
A Good Man is also the title of Shriver’s new memoir about his father, R. Sargent Shriver. The elder Shriver, who once ran for president, ran the War on Poverty, the Peace Corps, Job Corps and the Special Olympics. On top of that, he was U.S. ambassador to France and married into the Kennedy family.
Shriver tells NPR’s Scott Simon that great men and women may have power, prestige and money, “but when the lights are turned off and no one’s paying attention, they’re not good.” Sargent Shriver, on the other hand, “was as kind and thoughtful to the waitresses at his favorite restaurant as he was with presidents or cardinals,” he says.
Obviously, everybody can learn something from Sargent Shriver.
GMP readers, what will you take away from this story?
Photo by:Â Robert Miller
