Harry´s Blog

Our next president didn’t start off rich, but he rose to the top. He set an example for us, and he’s going to go on to do great things. We’re grateful to Barack Obama for showing us the way.

Old Man in a Bus

In 1960, while I was in Richmond, Virginia, I gave an elderly black man my seat in a bus. That deed brought about a stony silence among the passengers - save one. The man who had taken my seat struck up a conversation, informing me about his children. All four of them had gone to college. There was a school principal, a teacher, a doctor and a lawyer. Their father was a widower, a pensioned janitor with leathery skin. I was a bit embarrassed at the situation and did not feel at ease in the bounding bus.

The old man’s message was as clear as can be. The only way out of the quandary was learning and coming up in the world. He had done his best to see to it that his children took that course. And in spite of all the disadvantages that being black brought, they had managed to study by taking odd jobs and with the aid of scholarships.

That incident remains in my mind as clearly as here and now. He reminded me of my mother who had come to the United States as a refugee from the Third Reich with one ambition above all: to see that her son got a good education.

- Herbert Kuhner