(no subject)

Jun 13, 2007 21:50

READ THIS:

A lady in a faded gingham dress, and her husband, dressed
in a homespun threadbare suit, stepped off the train in Boston,
and walked timidly without an appointment into the Harvard
University President's outer office.

The secretary could tell in a moment that such backwoods,
country hicks had no business at Harvard & probably didn't
even deserve to be in Cambridge. "We'd like to see the
president," the man said softly. "He will be busy all day,"
the secretary snapped. "We will wait," the lady replied.

For hours the secretary ignored them, hoping that the couple
would finally become discouraged and go away. They didn't,
and the secretary grew frustrated and finally decided to
disturb the president, even though it was a chore she always
regretted.

"Maybe if you see them for a few minutes, they'll leave,"
she said to him! He sighed in exasperation and nodded.
Someone of his importance obviously didn't have the time to
spend with them, and he detested gingham dresses and
homespun suits cluttering up his outer office.

The president, stern faced and with dignity, strutted toward
the couple. The lady told him! , "We had a son who attended
Harvard for one year. He loved Harvard. He was happy here.
But about a year ago, he was accidentally killed. My husband
and I would like to erect a memorial to him, somewhere on
campus." The president wasn't touched. He was shocked.

"Madam," he said, gruffly, "we can't put up a statue for
every person who attended Harvard and died.. If we did, this
place would look like a cemetery." "Oh, no," the lady
explained quickly. "We don't want to erect a statue. We
thought we would like to give a building to Harvard."

The president rolled his eyes. He glanced at the gingham
dress and homespun suit, then exclaimed, "A building! Do you
have any earthly idea how much a building costs? We have
over seven and a half million dollars in the physical
buildings here at Harvard."

For a moment the lady was silent.

The president was pleased. Maybe he could get rid of them
now. The lady turned to her husband and said quietly, "Is
that all it cost to start a university? Why don't we just
start our own? " Her husband nodded. The president's face
wilted in confusion and bewilderment.

Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford got up and walked away,
traveling to Palo Alto, California where they established
the university that bears their name, Stanford University, a
memorial to a son that Harvard no longer cared about.

You can easily judge the character of others by how they
treat those who they think can do nothing for them.

A TRUE STORY By Malcolm Forbes

Hopefully we will all keep this in mind whenever we start to judge.
Previous post Next post
Up
[]