March 2, 2012

Remember this poem? I can’t help but reflect on it this Friday, as over 850,000 Americans, through the Just Label It campaign, have contacted the FDA asking for the right to know what we are feeding our families. Together, we can create the changes we want to see in the health of our families and food system.

Somebody said that it couldn’t be done,

  But he with a chuckle replied

That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one

  Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.

So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin

  On his face.  If he worried he hid it.

He started to sing as he tackled the thing

  That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

Somebody scoffed: “Oh, you’ll never do that;

  At least no one ever has done it”;

But he took off his coat and he took off his hat,

  And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.

With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,

  Without any doubting or quiddit,

He started to sing as he tackled the thing

  That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,

  There are thousands to prophesy failure;

There are thousands to point out to you, one by one,

  The dangers that wait to assail you.

But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,

  Just take off your coat and go to it;

Just start to sing as you tackle the thing

That “cannot be done,” and you’ll do it.