A Map of Human Dignity - By Frank Bruni
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 Obamas 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 womens 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 Obamas 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.
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Direct link (to avoid pay-wall):
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/22/opinion/bruni-a-map-of-human-dignity.html