I can't say that I'm a big Montel Williams fan. But after hearing him talk on Dennis Miller's show...I'm a little more impressed. Apparently, he has been sadly stricken with MS, and it has humbled him a bit and he seems to be focussed on some of the better things in the world. But anyway, he was telling a great story and I wanted to remember it. It was one of those "who was the greatest influence on you" type of questions.He replied that a teacher was his greatest influence.
I was interested.
He proceeded to tell a story that how when he was younger, like 8 years old, he wrote a story for some sort of Christmas essay contest at school. He was actually raised in a very affluent household, as his father was quite demanding that he and his siblings came to the dinner table every night with a couple of new words from the dictionary. So his story was probably above average for a typical 8 year old. Not perfect as the author was still an 8 year old boy....
He was very proud of this story. It was about how he saved up his life savings for a gift for his mom and how he ran down to the local store to get her the perfect gift. A typical, nice, family-style Christmas story with presents and frost-covered department store windows. He turned it in and was insufferably pleased with himself...in a good way of course.
The next day, the teacher pulled him aside and proceeded to absolutely bash him, his story and his race. A veritable home-run in my books. She told him "that's what's wrong with you people and why you and your people will never amount to anything. You people only have one thing on your minds you filthy so and so..." Very, very tough words for anyone to hear, let alone an elementary student from his teacher. His grievous mistake:
He misspelled the word "wrapped" and spelled it "raped".
And that person, whomever she is, created the most lasting impression on this man. I feel bad for all the great people that Montel has bumped into through the years. He's probably met a ton of really, really good people in his line of work. It's too bad that a dreadful incident like that, and a miserable person like this nameless teacher would still be his greatest influence.
This story just serves as a reminder to me that influence can be good or bad.