A Map of Human Dignity - By Frank Bruni

[DonViejo]

By FRANK BRUNI

Seneca Falls, Selma, Stonewall. The alliteration of that litany made it seem obvious and inevitable, a bit of poetry just there for the taking. Just waiting to happen.

But it has waited a long time. And President Obama’s use of it in his speech on Monday — his grouping of those three places and moments in one grand and musical sentence — was bold and beautiful and something to hear. It spoke volumes about the progress that gay Americans have made over the four years between his first inauguration and this one, his second. It also spoke volumes about the progress that continues to elude us.

“We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths — that all of us are created equal — is the star that guides us still, just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls and Selma and Stonewall,” the president said, taking a rapt country on a riveting trip to key theaters in the struggle for liberty and justice for all.

Seneca Falls is a New York town where, in 1848, the women’s suffrage movement gathered momentum. Selma is an Alabama city where, in 1965, marchers amassed, blood was shed and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood his ground against the unconscionable oppression of black Americans.

And Stonewall? This was the surprise inclusion, separating Obama’s oratory and presidency from his predecessors’ diction and deeds. It alludes to a gay bar in Manhattan that, in 1969, was raided by police, who subjected patrons to a bullying they knew too well. After the raid came riots, and after the riots came a more determined quest by L.G.B.T. Americans for the dignity they had long been denied.

-snip-


Direct link (to avoid pay-wall):
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/22/opinion/bruni-a-map-of-human-dignity.html

[Bluenorthwest]

1. A lovely line indeed. And just recently on DU there was one of those 'how dare you equate

Stonewall to Selma' threads in which posters proclaimed with great conviction that anything gay could not possibly be about human progress...
"the Stonewall Riots doesn't fit your bold visionary progressive argument.)" Note the grin at the end.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022084689

I hope that poster finds some elucidation in the words of our President yesterday.