The inaugural OutRaleigh Festival last Saturday, May 14th, was very good for me. On a completely irrelevant and trivial level, I was happy to acquire some snazzy new rainbow earrings that I just might need to wear everywhere. On a personal level, it was very nice to spend quality time signing petitions with a friend and expressing my political side in a safe and welcoming environment. On a professional level, I benefited from seeing the many area agencies and faith-based organizations who are doing important work to stand against discrimination, bigotry and hate.
My experience in education non-profits has been fulfilling in that I know our work is important and makes a difference for individuals. The injustice of illiteracy, of education denied and the consequences thereof, however, somehow lacks the urgency and furor of a civil rights movement. Sure, the problem is rooted in civil rights issues decades, even centuries, in the making; however, the causes seem so far removed from present-day repercussions that the injustice tends to appear inadvertent, rather than deliberately perpetrated. Where then, to focus one's righteous anger? There is also the mode of remedy to consider. It is through individual patient, plodding persistence, rather than collective fire, fervor and foment that a life is changed through literacy. My connection to my work has been wrought of pragmatic concerns rather than emotional fulfillment. Thus the passion which drove me to pursue social inquiry has become dormant during recent years, sublimated into a theretofore alien preoccupation with paying bills and folding laundry.
Not so this day. I was one of many citizens vividly and seamlessly exercising political will simply by embracing love, decrying hate, reminding ourselves that we are both in the polis and of it.
My experience in education non-profits has been fulfilling in that I know our work is important and makes a difference for individuals. The injustice of illiteracy, of education denied and the consequences thereof, however, somehow lacks the urgency and furor of a civil rights movement. Sure, the problem is rooted in civil rights issues decades, even centuries, in the making; however, the causes seem so far removed from present-day repercussions that the injustice tends to appear inadvertent, rather than deliberately perpetrated. Where then, to focus one's righteous anger? There is also the mode of remedy to consider. It is through individual patient, plodding persistence, rather than collective fire, fervor and foment that a life is changed through literacy. My connection to my work has been wrought of pragmatic concerns rather than emotional fulfillment. Thus the passion which drove me to pursue social inquiry has become dormant during recent years, sublimated into a theretofore alien preoccupation with paying bills and folding laundry.
Not so this day. I was one of many citizens vividly and seamlessly exercising political will simply by embracing love, decrying hate, reminding ourselves that we are both in the polis and of it.
Speaking of civil rights, happy birthday to the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision.
ReplyDeletehttp://laws.findlaw.com/us/347/483.html