Written By Lightning

I like movies.

Maybe I was not clear.

?I really like movies.

Such a passion, obsession, actually, had a genesis with a five year old boy, sitting in an overstuffed red chair in a chilled cinema in July, his mouth greasy with popcorn, transfixed with the wonders that Hollywood offered.

This passion, over time, would become a matter of academic pursuit.?Understanding the intricacies of Klaus Kinski or the subtleties of Werner Herzog had little value, I found, in my career advancement, but, often, provided a balm to the complexities of the profession that I had chosen.

I am an advancement officer.?

It has always been more than ‘a profession’ – it is my passion.

Several years ago, I was fortunate to serve in a senior capacity, raising funds to build the national World War One Memorial in our nation’s capital.

It was, for me, all consuming.

During the campaign, while I was visiting several estate sales, I bought a painting of Woodrow Wilson and placed it in my office.

Inspiration cheaply purchased.

I was at a reception shortly after I purchased the painting and a colleague, who knew my love of cinema, came to me and said to me, ‘watch Birth of a Nation.’

I was aware of the film, but as my expertise was in other areas, such awareness was limited.

I rented it.

I watched it.

For those of you who have never seen it – here is the long and short of it – rather – the short of it – it is an unabashed glorification of the Ku Klux Klan.

Unabashed.

Woodrow Wilson – when it was released – had a private viewing of the film in the White House.

“History written by lightening,” he said.

Wilson’s painting came from my wall and now rests, I trust, in a landfill.

In 1926, 30,000 Klansmen, in full regalia, marched down Pennsylvania Avenue to the acclaim of a cheering crowd.

30,000.

Unbelievable, right?

Thank God, those days are past, right?

In?2022, a former president broke bread with a documented white supremacist incel and feigns ignorance.

Feigns ignorance.

“Don’t ever be political,” a colleague told me once.?“You will alienate your donors.”

It is time to be political.

It is time, for those of us who work for racial equity and justice to speak plainly to our donors.

The work that we do – the balance that we try to inspire – is fragile.

Don’t believe me.?

That story is not written, as Wilson said, ‘in lightening.’

Just go to the Legacy Museum in Montgomery.

Stop by the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis.

Take a minute and walk over the Pettus Bridge in Selma.

This story is written in the marrow of deep sacrifice.

To my colleagues in this line of work.?

Speak.

Loudly.