"The world is watching each one of you today, because if you can succede in overcoming the hatred that birthed the genocide of your past, then there is hope for the rest of mankind that we too may live in a world of compassion not bigotry. A world of hope, not hopelessness. A world, that should we be brave enough to create it, will herald in an era of peace for mankind...
I have a challenge for all the elders here today: Continue to plant the seeds of compassion in your children. Know too that it will make a difference. I stand before you understanding what it means to recieve a gift that changes ones life, a gift that makes the difference between poverty and opportunity. I stand before you the beneficiary of other's generosity, knowing that I did nothing for the blessings given to me, but rather understanding that with those blessings comes great responsibility to help others that I meet on the pathway of life. So that is the challenge for you...to recieve not only the means to better your life, but also the responsibility to help your brothers and sisters.
Now I have a challenge for all the children here today: Carry on the torch of your elders who have struggled to elminate the flames of hatred in themselves and instead pick up the torch of love for one another. Their work means nothing should you not continue it in your hearts and your minds. It is never enough that we forget the past. We must remember it so that we can create a different, more hopeful future for ourselves..."
"...I was recently downtown at a new restraunt called, "Fuse", because it's located in the old electric building. I had just finished my meal and was getting up from a lovely experience of fine dining when I realized I had been dinning on white linen table cloths in the very elevator shaft that my father had not been allowed to use. They ahd converted the old elevator into a private dinning room. You see, he was Roman Catholic, and Catholics were told to use the African American entrance, only they called it something much more derogatory in those days. His job had been to carry huge blocks of ice to each floor of the building to keep it cool, because that's how people avoided the heat back then. Now it was a typical Texas summer, (and I know ya'll know what that means!), but even though it would mean that they would have to weight a lot longer to enjoy the cool air the ice on his back would bring them, the people in the building insisted that he not be allowed to use the elevator because they hated the way he chose to praise God. That is how strong their hatred was. Now, tonight, I've been watching the children in the audience run back and forth, playing with each other, and I want to thank those parents here for bringing their children so that they too can be among those of different belief systems. I want to also thank the elders because your presence is an act of grace in times like these, where there are many who profess hatred disguised as values held by our elders. Your presence sends a message to the rest of us to stand up and embrace a new world free of that hatred. You, each and every one of you, has made me beleive that we, as a society can raise ourselves above that. Thank you."
"Dr. Henry Kissinger once said to Nelson Mandela that he was a great leader because he had not only taken his society from where it was to where it had never been, but because he had also lifted up his people as an example for the rest of the world of what humanity is truly capable of. I was thinking about this exchange recently while on a trip to Rwanda where the people had suffered from terrible years of recurring genocide, the worst of which was in the 90's. I was led, unexpectedly, to a crowd of hundreds of people, who were looking intently at me, much like you are doing now, only their faces bore the scars, burns, broken limbs, and bashed in skulls from the violence that had occurred. Many of them were children. I stood there for a moment looking into the sea of faces, wondering what on earth, a person privileged like I am, could ever offer to them that would be of any value in their world. It was then I realized that the were the ones teaching me. Teaching all of us. For if they could progress past the hatred that had fueled the extreme violence and into an era of cooperation, of peaceful co-habitation, then we, here in the United States of America, who have not yet gone so far, can do it to.
Look around you. It is the diversity of flavors that makes our food taste good. It is the diversity of color that makes Fall and Spring so beautiful to behold. For wouldn't it be ironic for the tree to say to the flower that it is more deserving of life in the eyes of the earth? Is it not ironic then for any one of us to profess to be more deserving in the eyes of the Divine Whom we all profess to love?
We can return to an equal appreciation of our common humanity.
I was told while in Rwanda that the genocide had been fueled in part because of a radio program where a popular radio host repeatedly called the Tutsi tribe 'roaches' and referred to them as 'a disease that must be eradicated.' This was on my mind only a week ago when driving down the street here in Dallas, I heard a very popular, national radio host come on the air complaining that 'the gays in California lied to us. They said they wanted tolerance, but what they really wanted was acceptance, not tolerance. They want to be allowed to live peacefully next door to us. They want to be allowed to live their lives as accepted and contributing members of society. This must not happen! If they are allowed to do this in California, acceptance of their lifestyle and open existence will spread across the nation like a disease and we must work to eradicate the disease!' Hearing this man say these words and worse, hearing the people who called in thanking him for his fight against the impending 'disease', made me stop in my tracks. I had to park the car and hold back tears. These were the same kinds of words used in Rwanda before the genocide. Now, I am going to say something controversial, and just because I'm sharing this stage with so many admirable civic and spiritual leaders does not mean that they agree with anything I am about to say. That said, let me ask all of you here, take out the noun in that sentence and replace the word 'gay' with whatever demographic you most identify with.
Now, ask yourself, 'How does it feel to be called a disease that must be eradicated?'
Now stand with me now, just stand up where ever you are in this room, stand up against the bigotry our country was founded against. Stand up against the prejudice so many in this room have been the victims of. Stand up in honor of all those who have gone before us, who fought so you and I can stand together on equal ground.
Stand!
Stand in a pledge to all our elders that we will not just take the torch they have borne for granted, but we will promise to carry it during our lifetime, adding to to its legacy. Stand!
Stand in a pledge to all our children that we will not just leave them a world of problems, of hatred, of bigotry , or of prejudice, but that we will fight so that they can inherit a world that values the beauty diversity can bring!
Thanks to every one of you who is standing now, for you are the people who inspire me to get up in the morning with the belief that this world which we share can evolve. Thank you for that inspiration!"
