Jan. 22, 2021 (Friday)
The lead, or opening, from this morning’s Denver Post of a story on local reactions to our new vice president:
Cleo Parker Robinson recalls the conversations around the kitchen table when she was a young Black girl in Denver during the Jim Crow era.
They talked about all kinds of things, like homework and bullying in school, and “heavy topics” like cross burnings, cops following her Black father around, how her family could buy a house in Denver only if her white mother purchased it.
Early on, she was trained in nonviolence. And at the age of 10, she almost died because a segregated hospital in Dallas wouldn’t admit her for treatment for a kidney condition.
“I’ve seen so much change. I see transformation all the time,” the 72-year-old founder of the 50-year-old Cleo Parker Robinson Dance studio said. “And every time I see transformation, I celebrate it, and I make it loud and clear that I’ve seen an experience that is possible.”
A couple things:
The start of a piece of writing is so important to successful communication. Readers make up their minds in mere seconds about whether they will continue reading or not, and if they choose “not” there is nothing we can do later in the piece to win them back, get them to respond, or simply to understand. I recommend spending extra time getting those first few sentences or paragraphs right.
I have lived through a fair amount of history. It is good to be reminded of all the times, just in my lifetime, where the country seemed in shambles, when it didn’t seem we could get along.
Rioting and near-constant protests (not the same thing) are jarring, but only 50 years ago (or so), I saw an old building on the University of Iowa campus burned down as part of a protest. I saw (and smelled) tear gas on the campus. I watched as coffins were brought back to America from far away, every night on the news.
2. Not trying to minimize anything, but studying history can sometimes allow us to breathe a bit and see larger trends.
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