This is my third posting of the day. While dining out on Brisbane's South Bank the other night with colleagues, discussion turned to 'famous' people we'd 'met' or at least had been in the presence of. I brought the house down so to speak when it was my turn to talk. The most famous person I'd met was ... Martin Luther King ... and the meeting was much more than the passing of two ships in the night, so to speak.
This story also ties in with the launch of QE II because both events were of the same vintage. MLK was in Newcastle (UK) for the award of an honorary doctorate after his award of the Nobel Peace Prize, and asked to meet some 'students'. I put up my hand immediately and, as treasurer of the student union, I was 'selected' along with another. This led to about 40 minutes alone with the great man ... and he was a GREAT man ... discussing the ins and outs of the struggle for economic and social improvement among America's black population via the civil rights movement.
It was an inspiring story, and one that I've followed for my entire adult life. MLK was eloquent, lucid, thoughtful, and quietly spoken on the outside, but obviously focused and determined, qualities at the core of his undoubted success. Perhaps Obama will carry on from where he left off and cement the rise of the US's minority groups to full participation on the centre stage.
My university days were inspiring because of such events. Does anyone else remember such historic and vivid occasions from their university days?
AS
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