Last night Vicki and I were guests of the Mahboubi Family, former EA Parents and their son, Neysun, at a symposium of the Foreign Policy Research Institute at Penn. The topic was
“The Struggle For Hong Kong, 2014 to 2024”. The speakers were Trudy Rubin, foreign affairs columnist of The Philadelphia Inquirer, Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Chancellors’ Professor of History at UC Irvine, and Neysun who is the Director of the Penn Project on the Future of US-China Relations at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also Senior Fellow of the Asia Program.
Neysun did a magnificent job of making the connections among the speakers and pointed out the larger message involved in their presentations. He also introduced me and his EA French teacher to the assembled gathering. I mention this because one of his unique gifts that I discovered in him in his early days at EA is that he has never forgotten where he came from. This includes his heritage and those people important to him, something that has been lost in our culture.
The symposium was timely, and my takeaway was that foreign democracies are on shaky ground and the world looks to our nation as the model and inspiration for budding democracies aboard. They depend on us to model democracy, but Putin and others would like to see us fail.
I always say to Trudy Rubin when I am with her that she is my hero. She writes about the Middle East, Ukraine, and other trouble spots around the world. Looks can be deceiving as one would not pick her out as one of the most courageous journalists anywhere in the world. She goes to these troubled places in the world and is in regular conversation with the people who live there. Part of her wardrobe is a flak jacket. She let me know that The Inquirer was alerted to the news that The LA Times and The Washington Post were not going to designate their choice for President. The Inquirer decided to issue their choice, Kamala Harris, with their reasons why in an effort to model what the press has always done. It struck the editorial board of The Inquirer that they should post their choice as early as this past Friday. The fear that Trump creates made other papers including The Washington Post decide not to post a favored candidate. It was a sad day for the press. Never let a bully win. Bullies are always people with low self-esteem and lack a sense of belonging.
When we left the symposium, we walked to an ice cream shop, after a fabulous dinner at a Greek restaurant. These places were on the way to the lot where the Mahboubis’ car was parked. The ice cream shop had room for maybe a half dozen people. Who should be there but a former member of our EA’s Admissions Department?
People always say that if you need help, go see the Rev. “He knows people!” I always tell those people that is because EA is everywhere. It is a large school community including alumni. That is why I know people.
A case in point. The Mahboubis’ told me that I should meet the guy in the parking lot who parked their car. When we arrived there, they introduced me to the parking attendant. He was an African American gentleman whose son was at EA. They told him who I was, and he quickly got his phone from his pocket to show me pictures of his son and family. The first pic was of his son in his EA dress code formal attire, bule jacket, EA tie, and white pants. But in a world of taking things for granted, what stood out was this man’s gratitude to EA and how wonderful the school had been to his family. His gratitude for a chance to be part of a place and its faculty to give opportunity to his son was palpable. It was something that he had never had.
So, the takeaways! Never forget where you came from! Neysun is literally making the world a better place! Give someone a chance to be all he can be. These are core values!
EA is everywhere from Penn to a city parking lot!
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