As the millenium draws to a close, humans being what they are, my
thoughts turn to Person of the Century and even, God help me,
Person of the Millenium.
As for Person of the Century, I've given it a lot of thought,
and have come up with only one real strong contender: Mohandas K.
Gandhi. I will hopefully be filling this in later, as to why I
think this is so - in the meantime, just think about it.
(Added later: I realize now that Mikhail Gorbachev is also a
strong contender! Certainly the man most responsible for defusing the
Cold War deserves recognition and praise!)
As for American of the Century, I think that has to go to Martin
Luther King, Jr. for similar reasons. Indeed, for the third time
in the last two years, I have recently visited the MLK, Jr., Center in
Atlanta. Each time I come away more moved, more convinced that we were
extraordinarily lucky to have this individual in that place, at that time,
or the history of the USA would have been very different, and very ugly.
While some of the ugliest moments in our history have occurred during
the Civil Rights struggle of the 1950s and 1960s, some of the most
beautiful have also occurred. Visit the King center to see what I mean.
I realize we can't all get to Atlanta easily, so try reading his book,
Strive towards Freedom in the meantime.
And Person of the Millenium? That's much harder, and I'll have
to think more on it. At this point I'm leaning towards St. Francis
of Assisi, but that may change ...
Serious email responses welcomed.
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