Message from Curtis Wilkie

i'am looking forward to meeting with the group next tuesday.  i've visited northern ireland and south africa (the latter with an ole miss study abroad program) as an individual, but not as a reporter, so i have some familiarity with the conflicts there, but no great knowledge.  as a young journalist in the 1960's, it was my good fortune to cover the civil rights movement in mississippi.  it became a frame of reference for me for the rest of my career --even in the middle east, where i lived and worked for several years in the 1980's.  so i hope we can have a good discussion about conflicts and reconciliations.