For an Ancient Old, Brain-Diseased man, in my younger pre-BA days (it
> is even getting hard now for me to remember, but there _was_ a time I
> was a whole, healthy person, prior to November 25, 1999 which is known
> by me as Black Thursday, the evening of my (B)rain (A)neurysm and the end
> of my life as I remember it). In those days, at least until the
> middle-late 1980's I was, while not 'well-to-do' wealthy, I was at
> least 'comfortable', associated with the 'proper' kind of people, did
> the 'proper' kind of activities, was well-known, at least by my group
> of people, and over the course of a half-century had the distinct
> honor of meeting at least two relatively famous persons in real
> life.
> One of these famous persons was Ms. Ayn Rand, an author whom I met in
> high school, and had the opportunity to have dinner with in a small
> intimate group (three of us). The other 'famous person' in my life was
> Dr. Martin Luther King, and by extension, his wife Coretta Scott
> King. Again, it was a small dinner party, in this instance there were
> eight of us, as I recall, present. We can discuss Ms. Rand another
> time, but today is the commemoration of Dr. King, so I will mention > that for now.
> In 1963-67, Dr. King frequently came around Chicago. I recall his
> visits _always_ included meetings with Civil Rights activists in the
> town and he would always speak to civic and religious groups. One
> weekend marked the fortieth anniversary of the employment of the first
> black person the Chicago Public Library. Although *her* name escapes
> me at the moment, it was on that date in the 1920's she had been hired
> by the Library as the first black (anything) at CPL, in the children's
> book department as a librarian. Prior to that, they only had white
> people employed there (librarians, clerks, custodians, etc).
Pat,
Thanks for sharing that with us. I really wish we'd see dynamic characters on the national stage again. As an ultra-liberal I think we're staring into the abyss unless someone steps up to the plate and does something about it.
Tony
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: IMO, do not expect it anytime soon. PAT]