You never know where you’ll meet a member of your tribe

The Friday Photo
July 29, 2016
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Wednesday afternoon I stopped to get gas after picking up some groceries in Milledgeville, the “big” city to the west of my home town of Sandersville. A small SUV pulled up at a pump diagonally to mine. The driver, a woman maybe in her mid 60s, jumped out of her car and started walking toward me, smiling as she approached me standing at the rear corner of my car.

With great enthusiasm in her voice she asked me where I got my bumper sticker. She looked so happy, like she had finally come across another kindred soul, that she gave me a high five and immediately started telling me how worried she is about Donald Trump becoming President.

I replied that the racism and hate people feel comfortable sharing is horrifying, adding that the judgmental attitudes about people who don’t look or behave like them is stunning.

She said she’s taken issue with people she knows who judge gay people as sinners, saying that her response has been, “Do you believe God made everyone, and does God make mistakes?”

From there she said friends and family had turned away from her after she came out as gay, and that others in her family have been treated similarly.

Think about that- a family shunned one of their own, not because she was a murderer or thief, but because she wanted to date women instead of men.

This woman then looked at my car tag and realized I live in a neighboring county, and she said, “You live in Washington County and you have this one your car? You are a brave woman.”

It’s not so hard to be a privileged, white, straight woman driving around rural Georgia with a Democratic pride sticker on your car. When it helps you find members of your tribe while doing the ordinary things in life, it is even easier.

Thank you Bonnie, for extending your hand, telling me your name and story, and saying We Are Stronger Together.

The language of love

The Tonys are one award show worth watching, and I tuned in for a little while on Sunday night. This ad by Wells Fargo, which aired between the incredible theatre performances, is worthy of an award in its own right.

Conservative Christian leader Franklin Graham, took to Facebook to announce he would move the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association’s money out of Wells Fargo to “fight the tide of moral decay that is being crammed down our throats by big business, the media, and the gay & lesbian community.”

Graham counted on Facebook as an effective tool for announcing his outrage and call to action action Well Fargo.

I guess Graham made an exception, just this once, about using Facebook, a company that promotes same-sex equality. As Domenick Scudera points out, Graham is going to have to make a lot of exceptions if he wants to go much past snail mail for broadcasting his calls for moral righteousness.

I’d sure like to know who did the homework on finding a new bank for stashing Graham’s cash. On Monday, Graham announced that the association bearing his father’s name is moving its money to BB&T.

Ooops. BB&T sponsors a Gay Pride parade in Miami. The bank even set up a makeshift chapel in their South Beach branch for a wedding ceremony legally uniting two men who have been together for 55 years.

Graham did mention, while announcing that BB&T is his newly anointed bank, that the organization would save $100,000 a year on fees.

Does this mean if the savings are large enough, it is ok to compromise on “fighting the moral decay” brought on by equality?

 

 

 

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