In 1961, my twin brother and I were attending a rich-kids Jesuit High School in Kansas City. (Not that we were rich.)

One of my brother’s buddies had been given a bright red Chevy Corvair by his parents.  I got to ride in it on occasion. 

A rather strange car, I later found out, with an engine in back, along with the spare tire – and a propensity to catch fire and kill passengers – profiled in Ralph Nader’s 1965 book: Unsafe At Any Speed.

Fast forward to about 1971....I was fresh out of the Navy...had a new p.r. job for a Kansas City community college.

And my boss told me to pick up Raph Nader at a downtown hotel for an evening campus speech on "Consumer Advocacy."

And rather oblivious to lots of things back then, I picked him up in a borrowed Chevy CORVAIR.

Two friends  --  students in the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s law school --  had successfully begged to ride along in the back seat – so they could meet and soak up a bit of Nader. (Not a word of warning from them.)

I remember pulling up to the downtown hotel entrance....Nader standing outside…waiting  for us.

And the  uncomfortable exchange.

  “I can’t ride in that car,” Nader yelled at me. “If the news media sees me, I’m crucified.”

I didn’t tell him he wasn’t Jesus. 

Just it was getting dark; raining, no cabs; no one would see him;  he’d travelled all this way; the campus crowd was waiting; and,  of course, that his speaking fee meant showing up.

So Nader swallowed his corvair foibles….and got in.

I think about Nader and that encounter.... almost every time I take the apartment trash out these days.

Next to the apt. trash dumpster, in Barney’s Brake Service's backyard, is this silent witness:

The end of the road for an old Corvair....weeds growing like a hothouse in the back seat – where the law school students were sitting in 1971. 

And the old, rusted Covair with broken windows seems to be  sinking into the mud and  ground ….like a casket  slowly lowered into the grave.

To think Ralph Nader is still making a run for the White House 37 years later.

At least now we all know he's not Jesus. 

For the past two evenings, PBS’s Travis Smiley has interviewed Sidney Poitier on a late night TV show.

What a wakeup.  What a brain treat.

Poitier continues to consciously defy racial stereotyping.

He's the first Black man to win the best actor Oscar and, in a 50-year-plus career, has starred in over 40 films, directed nine and written four. He's also a best-selling author of three autobiographies, including Life Beyond Measure.

Poitier came to the U.S. at age 15, from the Bahamas, and began his acting career with the American Negro Theatre. An activist and humanitarian, he has appointments as the Bahamas' ambassador to Japan and UNESCO.

Poitier is now 81.  His hair has thinned and grayed.  But his wonderful smile and hand mannerisms remain.  And his serious, thoughtful stare can still melt butter, or racists as Poitier did in “In The Heat of The Night” 41 years ago.

For a  balanced and revealing perspective on many topics, check out the transcript of the Poitier interviews at: http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/archive/200806/20080610_poitier.html