A couple of years ago, my best friend Jon bought this little book with a bright pink cover. I don't remember the exact name of the book, but it was a basiscally a book of conversation starters. On the Fourth of July in 2001, we drove over the highway 17 with some friends to go to Santa Cruz and he read the questions as we drove over the mountains, just to generate interesting discussion.
One of the questions was, "Who is the most famous person you've ever met."
The question reminded me of a time during my senior year of college when I was studying in Manhattan. I excitedly burst into my friend, Angie's room.
"Guess who I just saw standing in front of me at an ATM in SoHo," I said.
"Madonna?" she said, sitting up and putting her book down.
"No. Janeane Garafalo," I said, deflated.
"Oh," she said. "Well, that's good. Good for you."
It was one of the few times where life's reciprocal conversations were as witty and sharp as movie dialogue.
At any rate, even if you don't count that encounter, I have a good list of famous people I have met (on the drive, we defined "met" as someone who you locked eyes with, said something to and got their personal attention for at least 5 seconds. So - for example - briefly touching Nick Carter's left calf as he and the other Backstreet Boys appeared for their encore on a small raised mini-stage right in the middle of your section at Arco Arena doesn't count as "meeting." Hypothetically.)
But like I said, I'd had some good success while at college. You see, my freshman year, this very rich alumni named Timothy Ubben and his wife Sharon had donated a large sum of money to DePauw University. The money was put into an endowment and every year was used to bring top-notch, fascinating people to speak to the campus. The lecture series has brought Shimon Peres, Spike Lee, Peyton Manning and Mikhail Gorbechev to my tiny alma mater in the middle of Indiana cornfields. During that lecture series, I had the rare chance to have a front row seat to some major players in world history. Including:
Jim LovellI met Jim Lovell, the captain of Apollo 13 and subject of the movie by the same name which chronicled the tense and dramatic story of the Apollo 13 vessel which suffered an explosion en route to the Moon but was brought back safely to Earth by the efforts of the crew and mission control. I actually got to sit at a 12-top table and have lunch with the guy. It's funny what movies will do - I think I would have rather met Tom Hanks. But then again, I'm a really, really big Tom Hanks fan.
H. Ross PerotI met Ross Perot, whose entry into the presidential race in 1992 as an independent was not only important, but important as Perot received 19 percent of the popular vote, despite the fact that he looks like he should have been one of the Seven Dwarves.
Dan QuayleI also met former Vice President Dan Quayle, who in addition to being an alumni of DPU, also blazed the trail for our current president in terms of having the free world question his general intelligence due to the sheer number of his
off-the-cuff public speaking gaffes. During his Ubben lecture, Quayle said, and I quote, "There are some that believe that morals should not be teached in our schools." And there are some that believe that grammar should not be teached in our schools, Mr. Vice President, sir.
Bob WoodwardI met Bob Woodward, one half of the Woodward and Bernstein tandem whose investigative journalism uncovered the Watergate scandal that led to Richard Nixon's resignation, which pretty much destroyed a lot of people's belief in the position of president. He was a pretty ornery guy. I guess you have to be to take on, you know, the Executive Branch of the US government.
Colin PowellI met Colin Powell, the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and - unbeknownest to us - a future Secretary of State - whose work with Jimmy Carter in Haiti in 1995 had just helped pave the way for free elections in Haiti. Funny story - after a brief Q&A with about 50 DPU students and professors before his speech (of which I was one), Powell opened up the room for autographs and handshakes. As people milled forward haphazardly, Powell didn't like what he saw. "Okay, everyone against that wall," he barked. "File forward, proceed across the stage and exit on that side." We all scattered like cockroaches. This man was a military man. Personally, I think he'd be a great president.
Those meetings all might clamor for the most famous person I've ever met, but I think the most important person I've ever met is Benazir Bhutto.
Benazir BhuttoBhutto came to DePauw in the Fall of 1996, my junior year as part of the Ubben Lecture series. As part of my major, I was taking a class in international politics with my professor Sunil Sahu, who was from India. Once word got out that Bhutto was going to be on our campus, Sahu got permission to do a small Q&A with Bhutto and took our class. I happened to be enrolled in the right class at the right time.
Bhutto was exceptional for a number of reasons. First of all, she was a female prime minister in a very traditional, very Muslim nation. She was elected in 1988, when she was 35. She not only was the first woman to become the head of a Muslim-majority state in modern times but she was also the youngest person period.
Second of all, you could tell this woman had a firm grasp on the complexity of the world. Educated at Oxford, and Harvard, she was the first Asian woman to be the head of the prestigious Oxford Union Debating Club. You got the sense with this woman that you were encountering a mind to be reckoned with.
Lastly, she seemed to bring every question around to the topic of the people of Pakistan. This was her passion - the people of the subcontinent. She spoke about the place of women in her society, voicing her concerns especially about women's health issues, and speaking about the importance of banks for women to enable economic opportunity and entrepreneurship. You got the sense that she was fighting for women, but that she had to be careful and measure her words.
I remember in particular someone asked her about the AIDS crisis in her country, and she sat back, removed her glasses and sighed. "I am afraid. We do not have the ability, culturally, to speak about sexuality in public places. And if that does not change, I am afraid AIDS will spread like fire in dry grass through my country."
A year after she left our campus, rumors began swirling that her husband had received kickbacks from government contracts, which garnered him the nickname "Mr. 10 Percent." There was an investigation, and I followed (albeit distantly) in watching her step down, be forced into exile in Dubai, and leave politics on her home country entrenched in scandal.
She returned this year, after the corruption charges that dogged her were finally dropped. She mounted a campaign that attracted attention. She took on the religious right, the Muslim Extremists, who wanted a Muslim state. She was anti-Taliban and anti-Al queda. She was anti-terrorism, pro-democracy, pro-populist, progressive. And it's quite astounding - this woman who travelled across the world in private jets also captured the undying support of the poorest people in remote villages. The US liked her a great deal, as you can imagine.
So did her people. Well, some of them. Others viewed her as an infidel dog. Earlier, in 1988, when she ran for office with the same progressive-minded goals and values, some religious leaders ran ads in newspapers saying that Allah would not let you into heaven if you voted for this woman. She had her enemies - mostly religious extremists.
And eventually, they silenced her voice. On Dec. 27, after leaving a political rally, Bhutto climbed out of the sunroof of our transport to meet some supporters. A suicide bomber rode up, fired a pistol at Bhutto and then blew himself up near her car. Bhutto died of injuries to the neck and head.
Final ThoughtsI imagine that the web is filled with accounts of people who actually knew Benazir Bhutto and who penned columns about "The Benazir I Knew." I can't do that, but when I heard about her assassination, I realized that the world had just gotten a little darker. Evil had won. Intolerance had won. And the religion that propped up both as "core values" had won. I imagine many people in Pakistan feel the way many in the US did the day Bobby Kennedy was killed. One is left with a sense of "What now?"
Jesus talked about this with his disciples. In John 16, Jesus says:
"All this I have told you so that you will not go astray. They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. I have told you this, so that when the time comes you will remember that I warned you.
It's nice to know that Jesus tacitly rejects such kinds of religious expressions of hatred and anger. It's also nice to know that in America, at least so far, extremists on the left and right might have fiery rhetoric, but at least it's not coupled with actual firebombs.
At least, not yet. Hopefully, the world can learn from this. But judging from our past, it's unlikely we will.
