Mr. Pfeiffer - A member of the 'Greatest Generation'

When I was in high school, in the late 80's, we had a semester on 'Sociology'.

Sociology is an academic and applied discipline that studies society and human social interaction. Sociological research ranges from the analysis of short contacts between anonymous individuals on the street to the study of global social processes. The field focuses on how and why people are organized in society, either as individuals or as members of associations, groups, and institutions. As an academic discipline, sociology is typically considered a social science.
Wikipedia

Mr. Pfeiffer taught that class. He whistled whenever he spoke a word that has an 's' in it, so you could imagine that high school kids had fun with that.

On the day of 'racism' he taught the syllabus. As usual, the kids, myself included, just heard 'blah, blah,' we hear this anti-racism stuff all the time in school.

Him being an old white man, and since I was your average know-it-all high school kid, I asked him if he had any personal experiences with racism.

He did.

He told the story of when he was in the military and escorting a black soldier back to home on a train. The conductor told Mr. Pfeiffer that a black man couldn't sit in the same seat as him, a white man. Mr. Pfeiffer told the conductor that since the black man lost his eyes in a couple of months ago in WWII, and he was returning home, he was going to stay were he was. And he did.

Minutes later the class bell rang, and the kids ran out of the room to their next class. I moved a little bit more slowly. Seeing this man that the kids made fun of, standing-up for what was unpopular, and against the law at the time, because of his moral conviction.

I didn't have his moral conviction or knowledge at the time to shake his hand and tell him, 'Thank-you'.

Well, now, thank-you Mr. Pfeiffer.

EDIT: Maybe this is BTS material, but I'm a PTS booster!


[edit on 23-4-2007 by curme]