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Saturday, Nov 21, 2009
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Rev. Robinson's beautiful invocation |
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| Rev. Robinson's beautiful invocation | ||
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by Jennifer Vanasco -
SGN Contributing Writer Unless you were in Washington DC last Sunday, you probably didn't see it. You didn't see Rev. Gene Robinson's beautiful invocation. Despite all the controversy over the choice of Rev. Rick Warren to lead the opening prayer during the inaugural ceremony, despite the last-minute addition of Robinson in order to appease the fierce (and righteous) anger of Gays and Lesbians, you didn't see Robinson's prayer. Because HBO didn't show it. HBO is a Gay-friendly network, but their choice not to show Rev. Robinson means that we were once again rendered invisible. That's too bad, because Rev. Robinson's prayer was worth hearing. "Oh God of our many understandings," he said, "we pray that you will bless us with tears - for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS. "Bless us with anger - at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender people. "Bless us with discomfort - at the easy, simplistic 'answers' we've preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and the world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future. . . . "Bless us with patience - and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be 'fixed' anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah. . . . "Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance - replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences, and an understanding that in our diversity, we are stronger. "Bless us with compassion and generosity - remembering that every religion's God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in the human community, whether across town or across the world. "And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States. "Give him wisdom beyond his years, and inspire him with Lincoln's reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy's ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King's dream of a nation for ALL the people. . . . "Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims. . . ." Obama hadn't yet entered from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial when Robinson gave his prayer. Perhaps he was somewhere in a ready room getting a last brush of makeup powder, or going over notes for his own quick speech. But whatever he was doing, I hope he heard Robinson's words. And I hope he heard the plea behind him: that many of us Gays and Lesbians supported Obama because we believed he would be a president for all the people. We need him to be a president for all the people - a president for us. Because although there is much we can do as activists, there are some barriers that can only be crossed with the help of leadership from the top. Lincoln freed (some of) the slaves. Johnson gave us the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which abolished the discriminatory Jim Crow laws (and helped ensure the rights of women, as well). We need Obama to be the president who will help secure our full civil rights. It is easy for Gays and Lesbians to be somewhat invisible. We don't have an obvious attribute - say, purple skin - to set us apart from the general population. That's why, although the D.C. Gay Men's Chorus sang at that Lincoln Memorial celebration, no one knew - unless you were savvy enough to guess, thanks to the AIDS ribbons they wore. It is easy to be cut out of national discourse - as easy as not showing the prayer by one of our own on HBO. But the president is never invisible. And he can help make sure that our issues are the nation's priority. That's why, even though I'm not a fan of inclusivity-by-laundry-list, it matters that Obama included Gays and Lesbians in his Lincoln Memorial speech as important threads in the nation's quilt of diversity. Americans may not have heard Robinson's speech - but they heard Barack Obama's. And that's why his support matters. Jennifer Vanasco is an award-winning, syndicated columnist. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/JenniferVanasco. E-mail her at Jennifer.vanasco@gmail.com. |
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