November 6, 2008 I had the opportunity to give a keynote talk to one of my important volunteer groups called the Business Advisory Council. That day the original keynote speaker from NC State University was called away on some racially charged graffiti and anger associated with those issues on campus. Remember the election happened two days before.
So the keynote to this great group called me.
I just wanted to share this article with you. It’s part of what formed my dad’s opinion on people.
We were brought up by my parents to see people’s unique qualities not their differences.
In this talk I also added two other stories – my brother’s Canada Man story and my son’s reaction of What are white and black people? I will explain these stories in another blog entry. The bottom line is we were brought up not to label people by race but the content of their character, their service and their humanity. We need that lesson today.
But let me focus on my dad’s experience with history in the 50’s when there were many different impression of MLK.
This is the background foundation of what I read in this talk:
First Rites – http://tinyurl.com/7gld2t
It’s a real glimpse into what formed my dad and how we viewed others.