Friday, June 26, 2015

Pride and Pain, Loss and Love

A Bookcharmer live update from San Francisco.

The Bookcharmer finds herself in one of her most cherished locations, San Francisco, for the glorious occassion of the American Library Association Annual Conference.  The City is overrun with librarians--public, academic, reference, managers, technologists, and our professional services vendors--companies large and small that proffer databases, books, furnishings, and best of all, the authors we will swoon over and applaud enthusiastically.  It would be a great time to be in SF no matter the week-end, but this is also Pride week-end, and today SCOTUS has announced:

"No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice and family," Kennedy wrote. "In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than they once were."

The City was already preparing for Pride week-end celebrations, flags flying, parade routes being set up, special issues of city guides on newsstands.  But the joy, relief, and elation of today's announcement is truly transcendent--the entire city is smiling, social media is lighting up with rainbows and images of happy couples.  It is an incredible time to be here.

I have not forgotten though, that tears are being shed for what occurred on the other side of the country, shed every day since the horrible shooting at Mother Emanuel church in Charleston, shed today when State Senator and Pastor Clemente Pinckney was eulogized by President Barack Obama.

The President sang Amazing Grace http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/26/politics/obama-charleston-eulogy-pastor/

We all have been lost, may we all be found.  We have been blind, but now let us see.

Buoyed by today's SCOTUS decision and the legacy of of all those who worked so hard and gave so much for it to happen, let us all continue to speak up for real freedom:  freedom to love, freedom to worship, the freedom to be in community and in peace.

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