Your choices do show great promise, but what of those not as gifted, or moderately left at the side of the road, so to speak, that have all of the same characteristics, but few support mechanisms? All sorts of things leave a talented and gifted up and comer with a slow start, back at the starting gate. With no support and a late start, I feel for these kids. There is less likely a college degree and if any education beyond high school, it will come from what they can afford, not neccessarily a bad education, but far from Harvard or VMI! How do I know this? I was one of the many that faced this as a poor farm kid, who struggled with family, no money and few choices. Two years in Vietnam after poor or close to no training as a turbine engine mechanic, only to be told that with a credical job specialty, that my company had plenty of enginemen, I was now assigned to the hydraulic shop! I managed, and I learned how not to be taken advantage of in a system that chews up humans everyday without so much as a thought to what they are doing to people. I traveled the world, made it around the globe by age 21, and did it in less than three years in the Army. I was home13 days and headed for New York City to straighten out my passport and off for a ten month trip hitch hiking Europe fromas fae north as Dwnmark to as far south ass Morrocco in Africa. I came home to New York City where my flight ended and hitch hiked back to Iowa in four days on a $20 billI borrowed in Genoa, Italy and arrived with seven dollars remaining when I got home to Iowa. From there I made some good starts only to have the rug pulled out from under me several times, got a couple of years college at Kirkwood Community College married, had a child, divorced, bought a house that almost financially killed me, but I kept it, paid it off and eventually got remarried. I'm 73 now, have had open heart surgery due to exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam, live a comfortable life in a small Iowa town with no contact with my son for over ten years. Not even close to some of the people you helped. How different it might have been with some encouragement we will never know! The fact that I have survived and done moderately well for me says enough. It certainly is a long way from that day in January when I got kicked out of my house in my senior year of High School, moved into a rooming house, worked two part time jobs, and graduated from High School on my own! No one knew anything about it at school, it wasn't their business. I aplaud you for helping out kids that need a little push, but I would suggest there are a hundred more that could simply use a kind word or some sympathtic encouragement that might not be headed for the top of their class at Harvard, but could make the world just as good being better parents, school board members, volunteers for Head Start or the local Community Action Program.
You raise magnificent points... which I will endeavor to address soon. But not tonight... friends are coming. Thanks for your interest in this topic! Much appreciated. --KM
Hi Kurt, you've made me want to meet all four of these young guys. But I feel a special calling to follow Lou, the political campaign worker, newspaper writer and baseball player at Harvard. Will he be writing baseball while he plays it? I hope so. Please update us on all four of these fellows from time to time.
I will... at least I'll update you. Lou is such a great guy. And as is true for all four of them, if I could buy stock in him, I would. He's got "greatness" written all over him. One quick Lou story. A former boss worked for the Crimson in the late '40s and was a stickler for always having middle initials of individuals in company reports, something I passed on to Lou when he told me he was gonna be writing for the paper. He then sent me a screen shot of their new Crimson writer training session, which included "rule #9" on an overhead projector: "ALWAYS include middle initials when you refer to or quote an individual." Ha. I guess some rules are long lasting! I'll keep you posted on this foursome. It will be my great pleasure. Oh, I should have added, the campaign Lou worked on was Angie Craig's successful re-election in MN2. And Lou, whose title was "campaign fellow," became Angie's 18-year-old driver. The campaign staff and her congressional staff took to and used my nickname for him: "Boy Wonder". I love the kid!
Your choices do show great promise, but what of those not as gifted, or moderately left at the side of the road, so to speak, that have all of the same characteristics, but few support mechanisms? All sorts of things leave a talented and gifted up and comer with a slow start, back at the starting gate. With no support and a late start, I feel for these kids. There is less likely a college degree and if any education beyond high school, it will come from what they can afford, not neccessarily a bad education, but far from Harvard or VMI! How do I know this? I was one of the many that faced this as a poor farm kid, who struggled with family, no money and few choices. Two years in Vietnam after poor or close to no training as a turbine engine mechanic, only to be told that with a credical job specialty, that my company had plenty of enginemen, I was now assigned to the hydraulic shop! I managed, and I learned how not to be taken advantage of in a system that chews up humans everyday without so much as a thought to what they are doing to people. I traveled the world, made it around the globe by age 21, and did it in less than three years in the Army. I was home13 days and headed for New York City to straighten out my passport and off for a ten month trip hitch hiking Europe fromas fae north as Dwnmark to as far south ass Morrocco in Africa. I came home to New York City where my flight ended and hitch hiked back to Iowa in four days on a $20 billI borrowed in Genoa, Italy and arrived with seven dollars remaining when I got home to Iowa. From there I made some good starts only to have the rug pulled out from under me several times, got a couple of years college at Kirkwood Community College married, had a child, divorced, bought a house that almost financially killed me, but I kept it, paid it off and eventually got remarried. I'm 73 now, have had open heart surgery due to exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam, live a comfortable life in a small Iowa town with no contact with my son for over ten years. Not even close to some of the people you helped. How different it might have been with some encouragement we will never know! The fact that I have survived and done moderately well for me says enough. It certainly is a long way from that day in January when I got kicked out of my house in my senior year of High School, moved into a rooming house, worked two part time jobs, and graduated from High School on my own! No one knew anything about it at school, it wasn't their business. I aplaud you for helping out kids that need a little push, but I would suggest there are a hundred more that could simply use a kind word or some sympathtic encouragement that might not be headed for the top of their class at Harvard, but could make the world just as good being better parents, school board members, volunteers for Head Start or the local Community Action Program.
You raise magnificent points... which I will endeavor to address soon. But not tonight... friends are coming. Thanks for your interest in this topic! Much appreciated. --KM
Hi Kurt, you've made me want to meet all four of these young guys. But I feel a special calling to follow Lou, the political campaign worker, newspaper writer and baseball player at Harvard. Will he be writing baseball while he plays it? I hope so. Please update us on all four of these fellows from time to time.
I will... at least I'll update you. Lou is such a great guy. And as is true for all four of them, if I could buy stock in him, I would. He's got "greatness" written all over him. One quick Lou story. A former boss worked for the Crimson in the late '40s and was a stickler for always having middle initials of individuals in company reports, something I passed on to Lou when he told me he was gonna be writing for the paper. He then sent me a screen shot of their new Crimson writer training session, which included "rule #9" on an overhead projector: "ALWAYS include middle initials when you refer to or quote an individual." Ha. I guess some rules are long lasting! I'll keep you posted on this foursome. It will be my great pleasure. Oh, I should have added, the campaign Lou worked on was Angie Craig's successful re-election in MN2. And Lou, whose title was "campaign fellow," became Angie's 18-year-old driver. The campaign staff and her congressional staff took to and used my nickname for him: "Boy Wonder". I love the kid!