Bridges have been on my mind today. I don’t know why. Or maybe I’m not supposed to know why. But I have been thinking about bridges a lot today.
Last week I graduated from the Delta Leadership Institute. I am now a Delta Innovator (I think that’s what’s on my certificate). This institute is sponsored by the Delta Regional Authority and the state governments of 8 states that touch the Mississippi Delta. Yes, for those of you who don’t know, Kentucky does touch the Mississippi Delta. I was fortunate to have been selected to represent Kentucky at DLI and I knew and know that it was/is life changing. It’s just been so hard to articulate that. Anyone of the 48 graduates will tell you that we have come away from every session with our heads ready to explode. So much has been crammed into the last 10 months we’ll probably all need a year to wrap our heads around it. One of the main reasons I wanted to participate was that each session was held in a Delta state, showcasing what has been a challenge to that area and how some of those challenges have been overcome. Who am I kidding, I wanted to do it because I got to go places, by myself, and stay in nice hotels. The TV remote would be all mine.
We started out in Potosi, Missouri at a YMCA camp that did not have any internet or phones in the rooms. We then went to Memphis, TN with a side trip into Mississippi. If you’ve never been to Clarksdale, Mississippi you need to plan a trip. It’s worth it. When we went to New Orleans I thought I had died and moved to NOLA. I love that city. But we were able to see the very, very good (like the set of CSI: New Orleans) and the very, very bad (like some of the destitution still evident after Katrina). We went to Selma, Alabama, Jonesboro, Arkansas and graduated in Paducah, Kentucky, with a day spent in southern Illinois. Do not judge that I stayed at the hotel in Paducah. There were days we got started at 7:30. I didn’t want to be late.
So, you can see that we had a diverse itinerary. I didn’t know what diversity was.
The first day up in Potosi I walked into the meeting room and decided I had made a huge mistake. Most of the fellows (yes, we were considered fellows), were young, like my kids’ age young. It was about 50/50 male/female. And it was about 50/50 people of color/white. As I met people in the room I found that a lot of them worked for government organizations, there were many who worked for universities (the program was taught in conjunction with the University of Alabama, the University of Louisiana at Monroe and the University of Arkansas at Jonesboro), and then there were a few who worked for local organizations or in private industry as entrepreneurs. I felt like a fish out of water. It had been a very long time since I was in such a diverse group. To be honest I was very concerned that I really didn’t belong with these people and they would discover this soon enough and kick me out of the program. I guess what really concerned me was that nobody thought I was funny. No one laughed at my jokes. Thank goodness that changed.
Our session at Memphis took us to the Civil Rights Museum. If you have never been, throw the kids in the car and head that way as soon as you can. Since I was raised in Louisville during the 1970’s I clearly remember the effects of forced bussing and what it did to that city. I think in a lot of ways they are still fighting that fight. But as a high school student I clearly remember the fear in a lot of people’s mind about how any of that was going to work. And, since my father worked for a burglar alarm company, I remember lots of nights that he got called in to go reset an alarm where there had been riots and looting. It was years later that I found out that he carried a gun with him when he did that. He didn’t share a lot of what he saw but we knew that things were different in his job. But, when we went through the Civil Rights Museum I quickly realized that we all had memories of that time in our history and most of it was challenging. This is a place that I started talking with some of my classmates who didn’t look a thing like me, didn’t have many of the same experiences that I had, but did have memories or had heard stories from their families about what that time was like. And this museum is so well put together that you have to remind yourself that we are past so much of the hate and bigotry that was so commonplace then. And then you question whether or not we are past the hate and bigotry. But one thing that I did discover during a lecture we had at a BBQ restaurant that was worth eating at, is that diversity has a lot of faces. It’s not just race. It’s religion, economics, class, education; it can go on and on. And I had to lower my head in shame because I came to realize that I have issues with diverse groups up and down that spectrum. And I began wondering what I could do about it.
Last week at graduation we had an opportunity to reflect on all of the sessions. One of the questions was “which session was the most meaningful to you”. Most every group answered “Selma”. And that’s where the bridge comes in. Selma, Alabama is considered to be the birthplace of the civil rights movement. I will tell you this, I had no clue on that day that I would be impacted by that bridge, and that story, the way that I was. I got up on that bridge with my classmates. Someone arranged for the traffic to be stopped. We stood in the middle of that bridge, as thousands have done since that time in 1965, and smiled sweetly for the camera. What that bridge symbolizes is harder to pin down. The thing that got me most came from the museum at the foot of the bridge. It’s really just a small area packed full of pictures of what happened. And what it all boiled down to was that there were people who wanted to register to vote. In 1964 it was made known that everyone in the USA who was eligible to vote, would be allowed to register and to vote. There were many areas of the south where those wanting to register were turned away. So, the pictures depicted in the museum were of the struggles of those wanting to register to vote. That’s it. That’s all it was. And those pictures told 1000 stories. But the picture that really got to me was of a button that the white sheriff wore that simply said “Never.” It implied that as long as he was the sheriff of that county that he would never allow black people the right to register to vote. I’m a sucker for buttons. I think that’s what attracted me to that photograph. I thought “wow, cool button”. I honestly thought it was for the marchers implying that they would never give up. How embarrassing to realize that it was the sheriff stating that he would never give them an opportunity to register or to vote. And to think that was the opinion of most white people in Selma and across the south. The Edmund Pettus Bridge brings back an awful lot of emotions that I didn’t even know that I had.
I’ve had a few conversations along this journey with our city mayor’s assistant. Petra Crutchfield is a person of color. She’s from Germany. Her mother was German and her father was a US Service man. She has lived here for many years, her accent is definitely western Kentuckian. As I was visiting her today we got to talking about how un-diverse our community is. She mentioned to me that she has started going to some NAACP meetings as they are trying to restart a chapter in our town. I told her that I would like to get involved with any events that they plan, and maybe she and I could work on a truly diverse event. I mentioned to her when I lived in Louisville that we would have heritage weekends. She really liked that idea. I did mention to her that she would be in charge of making the German potato salad. Then I told her about the bridge in Selma. I told her that she needed to go, that we all needed to go. It seems strange that something as ordinary as a bridge could spark that kind of thought and/or discussion.
After such a full day I made up my mind to go get in the bathtub and soak awhile. I live for my bathtub. It is one of my favorite places in my house. And it doubles as a library. I could lie in the bathtub for hours and read chapter upon chapter of whatever book I am immersed in. Ha! Immersed, get it? Anyway, I am reading the book Capital Gaines right now by Chip Gaines. Honestly, I have heard about him and his wife through the years but I have never watched his show “Fixer Upper” or read anything about him or by him. I knew that there was a lot of discussion when they made up their mind to be done with their show but since I had never watched it I just went my merry way. I was at a store recently and they had his book 50% off so I thought I would get a copy of it. I bought one for my daughter as well as she has been talking about him and his wife quite a bit recently and I thought she would enjoy the book. It ended up being on the top of my bathroom library so when I finished the last book I dove right into this one. And I will tell you, I could have read it in one sitting. I could have but I didn’t because I would have been a wrinkled mess. Oh my goodness, this man is hilarious. And he makes an awful lot of sense. And he’s an entrepreneur which is right up my alley. And he has like 7 jobs and doesn’t apologize for it. For those of you who don’t know me, I have about 7 jobs too and always feel like I have to explain myself and/or apologize for it all. I like the idea that he just shrugs his shoulders when people comment about him wearing a lot of different hats.
So tonight I’m soaking in the tub and looking to see what words of wisdom Chip has for me and I get to the chapter called “Team of Rivals” and Chip starts talking about the Waco suspension bridge and how he and his team are working on a Bridge Building Summit to bridge the diversity gap and I’m thinking “oh, my goodness, this man has got to go to Selma! He needs to see Selma and the bridge, and that museum and the churches and talk with those little ladies who snuck up to the bridge on the day of the march after their parents told them not to and how they are the “foot soldiers” of the civil rights movement. Honestly, everyone in our country needs to go to Selma and cross that bridge, and go to that museum and the churches and talk with those little ladies who snuck up to the bridge on the day of the march after their parents told them not to and how they are the “foot soldiers” of the civil rights movement. And they all need to see that picture of the button that says “Never.” And realize that it’s right, NEVER can we allow what happened in Selma and throughout the south to overtake our country again.
So, Chip, if you’re still working on your summit, let me know. I don’t know that I have a lot to offer but I definitely think our country needs this right about now.