Showing Spirit on October 20, 2011

After a recent visit to the exhibit at the Tennessee  State Museum that highlighted the Nashville sit-in movement I was struck buy the lessons to be learned about Nashville youth.

The leaders of the movement in Nashville were young. The students understood that to take action was the only option.  As I look at the flood relief movement in Nashville 50 years later I see the same type of encouraging youthful leadership.

Have you noticed it?  Ten-fifteen years ago if you asked a random Nashvillian where they were from they’d say; California, Michigan, Kentucky, Texas, Oklahoma, Illinois, New York .. all sorts of places.  Very few would say they grew up here. It’s changed.  The often written about, Generation Y in Nashville, TN is so much more often now actually FROM Nashville, TN.

Some may say it’s simply a generational transition, this since of community, this pride in home and the basic effort to love your neighbor.

I think it may be in the water.

check out the Hands On Nashville Report Card

The White House issued a memo. In it was this:

“Yet every day, all across America, patients are denied the kindnesses and caring of a loved one at their sides — whether in a sudden medical emergency or a prolonged hospital stay. Often, a widow or widower with no children is denied the support and comfort of a good friend. Members of religious orders are sometimes unable to choose someone other than an immediate family member to visit them and make medical decisions on their behalf. Also uniquely affected are gay and lesbian Americans who are often barred from the bedsides of the partners with whom they may have spent decades of their lives — unable to be there for the person they love, and unable to act as a legal surrogate if their partner is incapacitated.”

Each May the Human Rights Campaign releases the Health Equality Index — I am guessing they are ‘hitting palm against head’ and working on a supplement now.

Joan and I were quoted four years ago (2006)  for the the  the 2007 report:

Examiner reporter Kelvin Lynch helps sort out the new policy –

Power of attorney and healthcare proxies will be honored, regardless of sexual orientation, which also applies to unmarried heterosexual couples. Take special notice of the stipulations in the order – legal documentation is still required for non-immediate family members to visit or make healthcare decisions on behalf of their partners.  That means everyone should have an advance directive, power of attorney, and healthcare proxy carried with them at all times on a USB drive or CD.  If you show up at the hospital without these documents, you can still be denied visitation rights. The importance of this cannot be understated.  Hospitals may still prohibit visitation with out this.

Look at this helpful legal kit from LambaLegal or  This  Family Tool Kit from HRC

We have our documents on file at all the hospitals in our city, however, my project this month to celebrate the new national policy is to scan them all and put them on flash drives so that we both have a copy everywhere we may be.

If you were unable to speak for yourself,  do you have the papers that will speak for you?  In what way does this new policy effect you were you are?

a tiny piece of gold hanging off the edge of a neon cliff - photo by badrenalin

I enjoyed the speakers at TedxNashville so very much and am so grateful to all the volunteer hours and efforts it took to make a wonderful afternoon. Writer, filmmaker, speaker and activist Molly Secours challenged the sell out audience of 400: What is your personal moment of alchemy?

Quotes from TedxNashville

“treat the individual, not the average.”, “I need chocolate” , “I saw a human ear growing on a mouse”, “I am never satisfied.”, “Love everybody”, “My name is Jill, please pass the health care bill”, “We are winning the pursuit of life liberty and happiness”, “Music is medicine.”, “Fear is the enemy”, “Researchers at Meharry will stop HIV”, “10 million orphaned by AIDS”, “38% of DC adults can’t read.”, “Jesus, kittens and flowers” and from the heart of mouth of a Youth Speaks Nashville poet; “…..all he can do with his memory card brain was to try to remember the time when games were actually games.”

My personal alchemy? It isn’t going through this extended unemployment, it wasn’t when Joan was terribly sick in 2002, or when I lost 10% of my right hand to the improper use of a mouse at a workstation in 2001. Or learning completely over again how to pick up anything, much less hold a brush to paint or pencil to write. It wasn’t when my mom got cancer or when she survived so well that I forget she had cancer. It wasn’t 9-11 or the AIDS crises on the 1980s or the the space shuttle exploding in the blue sky. I wasn’t when I helped record producers make money or when I helped reggae bands spread the gospel. My alchemy wasn’t saving Shakespeare for Nashville by falling on the pointy pen of a budget’s balance sheet. It wasn’t seeing my father respond to injustice in 1967 . It wasn’t seeing my garden renew every spring. It wasn’t even when I literally changed my name. It’s not knowing the strong strange love of a dog.  It wasn’t buying a house and selling a  house to buy a different house. It isn’t seeing friendship in real action.  It isn’t a political campaign.  What was my trial by fire, my personal alchemy that pushed out a person that was different than the one before?  What has happened in my life that not only influenced my character, which all these things have done, but actually changed my character?  For many people, this hasn’t happened, and maybe never will.  Maybe your alchemy will burn hot and nearly kill you, like a chemotherapy treatment.

When I ‘came out’ to a few in 1999 and everyone in 2000 it was a hot burning fire.  My character not only changed, it was transformed.  The pursuit of kindness, the hunt for equality and the determination for dignity became a part of my passion, a part of me. This passion is not just for my community of gay folks but for my community of people who want to literally change the world. I feel like I am only ten years old and my journey is long and wide ahead of me. It takes a long time for you to really have hindsight, about a decade.

Leave a comment about your personal moment of alchemy:

When Sam Davidson, co-founder of Cool People Care, asked me if I was willing to present a workshop a the 7th Annual TIRRC Annual Convention I was eager to be helpful.

The coalition is the only statewide entity in Tennessee working to create a voice in the public area that is truly representative of the interests of the “newest Tennesseans.”  They help by creating unifying support to organizations that are services based, the empower the grassroot leaders to effectively advocate for policy changes at the local, state and federal levels.  They guard the freedoms of Tennessee immigrants and refugees by educating individuals about ther rights and organizing communities to address alleged cvil liberties/civil rights abuses.

The workshop:

We Want You! (Online) – How to Recruit and Retain Volunteers and Activists Using Social Media

o In this interactive workshop, participants will learn about the latest trends when it comes to nonprofits using social media, particularly when it comes to using these free tools to find new volunteers and activists. Whether you’re curious about getting your organization on Facebook or ready to maximize Twitter to reach a new generation, you’ll leave this workshop with ideas and a strategy to begin to recruit people for your cause.

There was valuable discussion about how individual activists have a responsibility to organize themselves and have a strategic plan before they take on the responsibility of leading others.  The entire conference was rewarding.  It was like a small UN of cross cultural unity building.  I heard four languages spoken while I was there and there was a Spanish interpretation of my workshop.

The TIRRC Convention was like a symphony of ideas and passion and organization, each instrument building and bring new texture to the progressive goals. It was a pleasure to participate and I hope to continue to be helpful.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFnwg0fgGIY&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00&border=1]

Action Plan:

The Dream Act (H.R. 1751) The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act was introduced in March of 2009. The bill would provide qualified undocumented immigrant students access to higher education and the opportunity to earn conditional permanent residency.  Yearly about 65,000 Us-raised students who call the United States their home face barriers to higher education, can not work legally in the U.S. and fear being sent back to a county they no longer call home.  It’s time we gave all our children a chance to succeed by providing a path to legalization for undocumented children who had no choice in coming to this country.

Contact your U.S. Representative Today and ask for them to support H.R. 1751

In Nashville?  TIRRC will be delivering a symbolic holiday tree to Rep. Jim Cooper  to ask again for his support of The Cream Act.  Thursday afternoon December 17, 2009  For more information, please contact (615) 294-2203