Columbia lawyer Tommy Preston felt like he was having a strange dream as he took in his surroundings.
Glancing around the stately East Room of the White House, he saw Fox News pundit Bill O’ Reilly sitting near his rival Al Sharpton, host of a show on MSNBC. He spotted Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York City. And there was Earvin “Magic” Johnson.
And sitting directly in front of Preston: Judge Greg Mathis, star of a syndicated reality TV court show.
“I asked him if he liked Judge Judy,” said Preston, an associate at Nexsen Pruet. “He said he liked her a lot.”
Preston
Later, President Obama made an entrance and addressed the eclectic, high-caliber cast of characters that had gathered Feb. 27 for an event that kicked off the “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative, an effort to help young minority males succeed.
Preston serves as the national president of the Gates Millennium Scholars Alumni Association and was invited to the shindig to represent the group’s 12,000 scholarship recipients, of which he is one.
“My parents were divorced. I lived with my mom. That scholarship provided me the opportunity to go to any college I wanted to in this country,” said Preston, a graduate of the University of South Carolina School of Law.
He also attended Carolina as an undergrad, a bold move considering that he hails from Clemson and has to answer to a family of tiger fans.
“It’s still a touchy subject,” he said, “but it was a good decision.”
Preston certainly has done well. Who else can say that in one afternoon they met a NBA legend, several TV personalities, a famous civil rights activist, and a high-profile mayor and capped the day off by shaking hands with the president?
Not only that, but at the end of the event Preston got to hang around and chomp on carrots and apples — courtesy of our health-conscious first lady — while chatting with a handful of congressmen and women about the hit political drama “House of Cards” on Netflix.
Their consensus, according to Preston, was that the show’s ruthless main character, Frank Underwood, has “some characteristics of real members of congress, but it’s just way over the top.”
Preston himself is a fan of the fictional lawmaker.
“I also acknowledged to them that Frank Underwood represents the state of South Carolina,” he added, “and I was proud that he was our congressman.”