A Line in Sight

Last night I had the honor of hearing Nikki Giovanni speak to a crowd of about 1300 people at the Mesa Arts Center.  Her talk was punctuated by numerous comments that were both humorous and insightful.  Several of which I’m sure I’ll be mulling over for many, many months.  There was one thing she said though, that brought me so much hope.  Hope, is something I've been struggling with lately.

Before Giovanni’s talk, I attended a private reception in her honor.  A colleague and I were discussing how sometimes it feels as though things in the world are getting worse.  Beheadings are becoming an almost weekly occurrence.  In certain parts of the country, a black boy, or even girl, who happens to be near someone with a gun is suddenly in grave danger.  The Ebola epidemic is growing at an exponential rate and is showing no signs of slowing.  Nearly 300 Nigerian school girls are still missing - probably being raped and tortured while we all go on with our lives.  

My colleague and I wondered if it simply appeared that things were getting worse because of advances in social media coupled with the 24 hour news cycle.  He put forth the idea that maybe a hyper focus on certain new stories can actually perpetuate violence or wrong doing.  By the time we finished our conversation and got in line to get some food, a thoughtful, albeit weighty silence had come over us.

Then we went to hear Giovanni speak.  If you've never had the chance to hear her give a talk, find a way to do so before you die.  

She is hilarious, dead serious, and full of innovative ideas for addressing global and local problems - all while never taking herself too seriously.  She's an everyday woman who just happens to be armed to the tenacity to take on just about anything.  

After giving her talk, she and Dr. Lester sat on stage and he fielded questions from the audience and asked a few of his own as well.  One of the things he asked Giovanni was whether or not she thought we are losing our humanity.  She was quick to joke that to ask whether or not we’re losing our humanity assumed that we had some in the first place.

But after a few laughs she said something that brought me such peace.  She said that when people are running a race and get to the point where they can see the finish line, they often feel as if they should be running faster.  Since the finish is so close they begin to sense that maybe they should already be there, that they should already have arrived.

For the most part, we can see the finish line.  Yes, there are people who still hate homosexuals, Jews, people of color, and the like.  However, those individuals have found themselves living on the fringe of society.  Most people consider them to be extremists, disturbed, or grossly uninformed.  No doubt, there is still a lot of work to do in terms of bias, acceptance, and living in a world where people are not unsafe or unaccepted simply because of who they choose to marry or how they choose to love. 

But most of us want to get there.  

We can see the finish line.  Some people think we already crossed it and therefore just need to stop talking about it.  That's another post, but even in that dilemma there is hope.  We want the same thing.  We just disagree on how close we are to achieving it.  

I do believe that we still have a ways to go, but I can see the finish line.  Most of us can see the finish line.  That is a far, far cry from where we were as a nation just sixty years ago. 

Thank you, Nikki Giovani, for reminding me that even though we’re not there yet, we still have cause to celebrate.