My online comment posted 11-22-2013 RE UN secretary-general: JFK left indelible imprint on me

President Kennedy addresses Red Cross youth group at the White House on Aug. 29, 1962. Ban Ki-moon is second to the right of JFK.( Photo: Family photo)

RE: UN secretary-general: JFK left indelible imprint on me
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/11/22/ban-ki-moon-un-secretary-general-jfk/3639233/

comment i left on usatoday website

Delighted to see UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon's inspiring op-ed "JFK left indelible imprint on me"...  In giving sincere thanks, and telling such a charming story, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon helps elevate an important person, but more importantly he promotes magnificent ideas and ideals. 
Annie Annab

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UN secretary-general: JFK left indelible imprint on me

Ban Ki-moon 6 a.m. EST November 22, 2013

Meeting the president as a youth led to my decision to choose a life of public service.

Story Highlights

• President Kennedy that day reminded us that we could be friends even if our governments were not.
• His last speech at UN reads like a primer for addressing the problems that still plague us today.
• I deliver the message JFK gave me: Be a global citizen and love your country by serving the world.

One of my great personal regrets is not having better preserved the autograph I received from President Kennedy when I had the overwhelming good fortune to meet him as a nameless teenager from a dusty village in Korea.

I was in the United States as part of an eye-opening tour organized by the Red Cross for a group of young people from around the world. It was more than a visit to a foreign country -- it was a pilgrimage to the land of possibility, a shining democracy that had helped to save my nation in its darkest hour.

President Kennedy's signature was quickly dispersed among the many fingerprints of my friends who grabbed at the glossy White House Bulletin and passed it around with such eagerness that by the time it returned to me no trace of his writing remained.

But nothing could remove the imprint the American president made on my life...READ MORE

 

 

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]