W.W.A.D. What Would Atticus Do?
W. W. A. D.? What Would Atticus Do? If that name Atticus doesn’t grab you right away, it’s from the character Atticus Finch from Harper Lee’s Pulitzer prize winning novel “To Kill a Mocking Bird.” Played by Gregory Peck in the movie, Atticus was a widower raising two young children in the deep south during the Great Depression. He was an attorney fighting racism and bigotry and he was armed only with his intelligence, his dignity and his faith in the goodness of his fellow man.
So powerful was the impact he made on viewers (changed my life) that when the American Film Institute (”AFI”) polled it’s members and asked them to rank the Top 50 Movie Heroes of all time, surprisingly to all, Atticus Finch was ranked #1. Can you imagine? Frankly, it’s times like these that restore my faith in my fellow man.
Over the coming months I will be looking at the behavior of our leaders and one of the ways I will be measuring their behavior will be with this simple question: What Would Atticus Do…W.W.A.D?
Next time you’re in a pickle and can’t quite decide what the right thing to do is - you might ask yourself. I do all the time and the one thing I’ve learned about myself is that as hard as I try, I’m no Atticus Finch!
Talk to you next time.