If I had met Robert Mayer (Publius Pundit) this past weekend, and it almost happened, and I met up with Charlie Szrom yesterday, and I will be seeing Gagan Thapa this coming weekend, that would have been three weekends in a row with some major student leaders. (Soaking In Howard Dean)
So I got to see Charlie. He flew in from Bloomington, Indiana, for a scholarship interview with some kind of a Polish American foundation. Looks like you get a thousand bucks for saying you take pride in your Polish heritage.
First we were to meet around 10 in the morning, then maybe around 11:30, when I showed up at the southern tip of Central Park. And I got a call from him. Can meet around 4:30 PM. So I got a few hours to stroll all over Central Park, and I also ventured north into Harlem. I watched some soccer at a Hispanic pizza establishment there.
And then there was this text message from Charlie. He was running a little late.
But then we met, and he said he had to catch a bus at the Grand Central Terminal by 8 PM. And so we had a few hours. We went to Ground Zero first. And then after we walked the unimpressive Wall Street walk - it is but a little pavement - I thought I was taking him to see the Statue Of Liberty.
"Is that not the Brooklyn Bridge?" Charlie asks.
"No," I said. And I pulled out my left hand, and made my palm the shape of Manhattan. I was trying to explain to him how we had walked to the other side of the southern tip. Considering this was Charlie's first time in New York City.
But he was right. It was the Brooklyn Bridge. Considering I live in Brooklyn. But Charlie did not hold it against me.
Then we crossed the Manhattan landmass again, and got to see the Statue, all the time talking. I was trying to emphasize upon Charlie that the moral support he and his organization, the Students For Global Democracy, had been extending to the movement in Nepal, and the simple fact that he was part of the conversation, was itself a major help to the movement in Nepal. He was already being helpful in a major way.
After the Statue, we headed north. The idea was to cross into Central Park, walk down to Times Square, and then walk over to the Grand Central. But we were running late. We skipped Central Park: it was kind of dark too by then. But he got a glimpse of the Upper East Side. And he took the train shuttle from Times Square to the Grand Central.
The train ride back home for me was confusing. They do all this construction work during weekends, and trains don't go where they are supposed to go. Routes not on the subway map get revealed. It has got to be mysterious down there.
Charlie can be hilarious sometimes. Like there was this story he told me about the movement in Ukraine last year. There were people who thought there was some sort of conspiracy going on, all these people out in the streets, out of the blue.
"No. They just wanted democracy," he related.
Charlie has interned at the National Endowment For Democracy. Considering how committed we both are to a global spread of democracy, I can so totally see us meeting again and again down the line.
We sure will stay in touch.
40 Photos.
Charlie
Dear Charlie
Email To Charlie Szrom
Email From Charlie Szrom
Mary Joyce, Demologue
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