I wanted to celebrate DrMLKJr day by doing lots of clapping and frenetic singing of songs like This Little Light of Mine and Oh Freedom, but couldn't find the right venue at the right time. So instead, Amy and I went to listen to a forum commemorating the desegregation of the University of Alabama in 1963, the last university to do so. It was pretty cool to hear from the man who actually entered the school that day, as well as from Kennedy's old speech writers and advisers. But it all would've been a lot cooler had the event taken say, 10 years ago, while the players involved still remembered what they did. Old people apparently talk slowly, excessively, and aimlessly This is pretty much what happened for 90 minutes today:
Moderator: Sir, you [did a lot of extraordinary things- be it challenge the University, direct the removal of Governor Wallace, or craft Kennedy's speech that framed the civil rights movement as a moral issue], could you tell us what you were feeling during this momentous event in 1963?
Panelist: I... don't... really... remember. It... all... happened... so long ago. But I did... write... about it... in my memoir, so let me paraphrase a passage. Then... I will... talk for ten minutes... about something else.
But it was all OK at the end because Amy took me to the best falafel place in Quincy (are there many? I don't know) where I had the best beef-lamb sandwich (sic) I'd ever had. It was actually the first time I'd had beef-lamb. Even know, I'm not sure what beef-lamb is. But it was tasty and lamb-y.
No comments:
Post a Comment