Sunday, November 20, 2011
[1866 - Howard University is founded by The First Congregational Society of Washington, DC]
[1889 - Edwin Powell Hubble, astronomer, born in Marshfield, Missouri]
[1900 - Chester Gould, cartoonist, born in Pawnee, Oklahoma]
[1907 - Fran Allison, host of Kukla, Fran and Ollie, actress, born in La Porte, Iowa]
[1908 - Alistair Cooke, writer, Emmy award-winning narrator, born in Salford, Lancashire, England]
[1925 - June Christy (Shirley Luster), singer, born in Springfield, Illinois]
[1925 - Robert F. (Francis) Kennedy, Attorney General, Senator, presidential candidate, born in Brookline, Massachusetts]
[1943 - Navy, Marine, and Army forces land on Tarawa under Vice Admiral Spruance]
I came to Chicago, Jim.
To Mead House at the U. of C.
Somehow friends did we become.
You were Black, beautiful, and gay.
All these things were new to me.
They still are.
Things that I shall never be.
Together with our band we rushed fraternity.
Laconic Lenny, slow-talking Ed, You, me.
And Johnny who one day a doctor would be.
They did not know that you were gay,
You could not conceal that you were Black.
Nor would you.
You wore your blackness so proudly.
The members pulled us white guys aside to say
They wanted all of us, but could not take you.
The Greek letters were spread across the South
The bigots would not yield to let you in.
The process was called the blackball.
What petty irony.
I believed in their sincerity.
No difference should this have made to me,
And yet it did; I wanted so badly to be accepted.
You said, "Go with them, I have often been rejected."
I agonized, then I rationalized.
You never even sighed.
I went my way.
I had to turn from someone, didn't I?
I failed you, but instantly you forgave me.
Gave me permission to be mean-spirited.
So I went my way, Jim, with regret.
While you remained black, blue, and gay.
But never again could forget you.
We went our ways.
Seldom again did you I see.
It was meant to be that way, I said.
I unsuccessfully told myself it was best.
Always knowing it was rationalization.
The cruelest form of self-deception.
We made our choices separately.
We were trapped
By A Big White Lie.
But here is what you did for me.
You helped me stand straighter, face failure.
To fight to seize some better part of me.
To find a me that would not bend so easily
To racist, xenophobic society.
I vowed to change.
Never again turn from a friend.
William's Whimsical Words:
Never again.
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