More than 150 parents and community members attended the second Parent Up Distinguish Speaker talk by Anand Giridharadas last Friday in the Hurlbut Theater. Mr. Giridharadas is a journalist working most recently for the New York Times. His latest book, The True American, was an example of the power of mercy and hope, a heart-wrenching tale of two men and their struggles for the American Dream.

Following his talk with parents, Mr. Giridharadas gave a shorter presentation to the Middle and Upper School students, faculty and administration.

“The purpose of having him here was to contemplate the role of moral storytelling in leadership,” said Dr. Jeneen Graham, St. Margaret’s academic dean. “He had a story to tell about how we as a culture can use stories to lead.”

In the days after September 11, 2001 as the country was rocked with uncertainty and fear, Rais Bhuiyan, a Bangladeshi immigrant to the United States, was brutally shot at the mini-mart where he worked by Mark Stroman, a self-described Dallas biker who dabbled in white supremacist ideology. The only words exchanged before the attack were Stroman’s question, “Where are you from?” and Bhuiyan’s bewildered reply, “Excuse me?” What seemed like a simply robbery--not uncommon to Bhuiyan--turned into an attack on perceived Muslims. Bhuiyan’s accent was enough to convince Stroman that Bhuiyan was not truly American. Two other mini-mart clerks were shot dead by Stroman but Bhuiyan survived.

MR. Giridharadas laid out a complicated tapestry of influences that impacted these two men’s lives in the story’s dramatic unfolding. Stroman, a patriotic Texan raised with the promise of the American Dream, was held back from that dream by the failed institutions of his educational system, his family life riddled with addiction, and ultimately the penal system that continued to harden Stroman as he moved in and out of it throughout his life. Bhuiyan on the other hand left a stable job and life in Bangladesh to come to American in search of the globally understood dream. He planned to work his way slowly through menial jobs until he could bring his fiancee to the States and ultimately move into the tech world. After the attack, Bhuiyan lost his eye, his job, his apartment and his wife. Slowly he pieced himself together physically, emotionally and economically until he found the stability he searched for.

The poignancy of Mr. Giridharadas’ retelling of these two men’s stories takes full form when years later, Bhuiyan decides to forgive Stroman publicly for his crime and fight for clemency for Stroman living on Texas’ death row. Remarkably, Stroman was on a parallel path of growth. Removed from the structural restraints and hardships for the first time in his life, Stroman began studying and writing and curiously reaching out into the world. He emerged as a changed man by the time he heard of Bhuiyan’s quest for a stay of execution. In an emotional exchange between the two men just before Stroman’s slated execution, both men could see each other newly as individuals rather than as stereotypes. In the end, Bhuiyan lost his case and Stroman was “put to death by lethal injection by the very state he loved so much.”

Mr. Giridharadas’ impactful style and his weaving through of social influences and emotional resonance left the audience with much to reflect upon and perhaps more questions than answers.

For a copy of The True American click here. To see Giridharadas’ TED Talk on the subject click here.