The Editor:
Putting things in perspective

On September 30, 1962, James Meredith enrolled as the first African-American student at the University of Mississippi. Last month CNN commemorated the event by visiting the campus—which now has a very diverse student population—and interviewing students.

It surprised me—but maybe it shouldn't have—how indifferent the current African-American students were to the significance of the 40th anniversary of Mr. Meredith's accomplishment. At the time of his entering Ol' Miss, federal troops had to protect him, and the only other African-Americans on campus were janitors.

The event opened the doors for thousands of future African-American students to enter the University, yet today's beneficiaries of Mr. Meredith's courage and efforts scarcely noticed the marking of an important historical event.

Anniversaries, of course, range from the trivial to the significant and some of us pay more, and others less, attention to the various events in our personal and community lives. Often we get so busy we forget to recognize an important date. To help prevent anyone from forgetting and to encourage those who tend to overlook, let me point out an upcoming significant event.

During the coming year—2003—we will celebrate an important anniversary at Loma Linda, the 50th year anniversary of the beginning of the School of Dentistry.

When we look at the history leading up to the beginning of our School, we are amazed at the work and leadership it took to get the dental program started (see Dr. Crawford's guest editorial, page 5). Both the faculty—the few who were here at the beginning—and the first students had to have a large measure of faith and courage to take the first necessary steps to get the School going. We owe them, and the many other pioneers who played significant roles in this adventure of faith, the paying of attention to this important anniversary.

All of us who have benefitted from the opportunity to study at Loma Linda University School of Dentistry owe a great deal to the founders of the School, and we recognize that many lives and careers have been made better for the privilege of being an LLUSD alumnus.

Leif K. Bakland, SD'63