Thank you Michelle....

Last night my friend Michelle treated me to a ticket to the National Civil Rights Museum 20^th Anniversary Freedom Awards. Her company was one of the sponsors, and I enjoyed meeting some of her friends and coworkers. It was a black tie affair, beginning in the Cannon Center, with the group moving over to the convention center ballroom for dinner. It was a beautiful affair, wonderfully produced.  The dinner was good (catering for a 2000 at a sit down event is a nightmare from my former life) and the company at our table was delightful.  I sat next to an IP spouse, and we shared a few hearty laughs before the night was done.

But the most spectacular part of the evening was the actual Award show. There were plenty of celebrities, Usher, Cicely Tyson, Hill Harper, Alonzo Mourning, Bill Russell, Susan L Taylor, Memphian Kirk Whalum. Each award was preceded by video that gave us a short history of the honoree, his/her life, work, foundations etc.  The evening was broken into segments…Icons, Pioneers, and Legacy awards.  While I was very impressed with the wonderful work being done by the younger generation, it was the lives of the Icons that really moved me.  I lived thru the 60’s… was old to know what was going on, but did not have the lens to really understand.  I know now how heroic they were.

Two quotes from last night…(and I regret I can’t remember who spoke either of them…and they may not be word-for-word)  

·         The hands that help are holier than the lips that pray.

·         There is no freedom if the cost of being yourself is too high.

I had a great time, but really wish that I had the chance to take some of the black kids who have lived in my house, or live here now.  They have no real history of the struggles that went on before them… and would have benefited from the show. And then again, they may be too young to appreciate it anyway.

I know there are black folks who are angry that the lgbt struggles are compared to their own civil rights struggle.  But … the similarities are simply too strong.  There were murders then, murders now. There was job discrimination, then and now. I think as long as we think in Them and Us… the struggles will always be the same. The difference? Most lgbt kids can’t go home to parents who share the same struggle.  The kids we work with have no US at home, so for them… this struggle is worse.

Oh, and I got to speak with the person who accepted the honor for the Southern Poverty Law Center, and thank her for the "Bullied" video.  AND I shaked hands with Bill Russell.  Wonderful evening!

It was a lovely evening; lots of challenges to share the stories. And that’s what we do, share the stories one heart at a time.