Every year i like to post something on social to remind people about Mark Bingham, a great American hero, and of course true Golden Bear.
If you'd like to read my thoughts this year, i've posted them here:
https://instagr.am/p/B2RpmUBhVav
I also gave a talk in one of my classes last year about him which you can watch here:
https://www.facebook.com/montgomeryken/videos/10156680950952835/
If you'd like to read my thoughts this year, i've posted them here:
https://instagr.am/p/B2RpmUBhVav
Quote:
Mark Bingham was a great hugger and would give me grief for not being a good hugger. That's why a lot of you now have to suffer through my big bear hugs. More on that below. MARK BINGHAM is an American hero.
And as It's 9/11, and while like all siginifcant days in history, as time goes on it recedes into history, I like to make sure to pay annual tribute to Mark Bingham. Even though I am finally now a Cal graduate, oh and would Mark have been proud and there celebrating, since I'm not ot campus, I hope on campus today in some classrooms people are sharing with current @ucberkeleyofficial students the history of this Americam hero.
I look at that picture, as we all do with lost loved ones, with mixed emotions... sure, some sadness but mainly with great fondness and appreciation. What I see are happy times and wonderful people for which I am eternally grateful. My goodness, we were so young, so energetic, so hopeful, the future ahead of us. Mark's future, while too short, would be filled with heroics that would impact the world. The stuff of which poets sing. For me to allow for too much sadness gives the crime too much power.
So today I miss Mark I get a little meloncholy, like I am now. Not in a bad way, just in that way that's good for your soul remembering people who leave us too early. The last words Mark ever said to me were as we were saying good-bye in New York City. We hugged good-bye as he got into his taxi and as it drove off he was shouting "THAT WAS A GREAT HUG!!!! YOU GOT IT! GREAT HUG!!!!" And through the rear window of the taxi Mark was smiling and waving... And I'm pretty blessed to have that has my last memory. Thinking of all the people who were touched by Mark's light.
For Mark - GO BEARS!!!!
I also gave a talk in one of my classes last year about him which you can watch here:
https://www.facebook.com/montgomeryken/videos/10156680950952835/