Invited and Included

“The life of a nation is secure only while
the nation is honest, truthful and virtuous.”
Frederick Douglas

I’ve never known what it feels like
to be excluded.  My roots are white,
middle-class from a time when that was
sufficient to be invited and included.

I’ve never known what it feels like
to be homeless.  Our little white-
frame house was far from elite,
but it was home in a neighborhood
where people assumed life was good.

Poverty?  No.  Paychecks were small
and we lived basically month to month
but everybody worked and got paid
on Friday.  I’ve never known the
despair of poverty.

When I look back, I realize how
privileged I was, though I didn’t
know it.  I lived in comfort, ate
well, knew love, and I was
invited and included.  It all
seemed so real for a
10-yuear-old.

Sometimes a line from a Willie
Nelson song floats through my
mind:  “I wish I didn’t know now
what I didn’t know then.”

But, that would be immoral,
I think.

“At the beginning of the World Series of 1947,
 I experienced a completely new emotion when
the national anthem was played.  This time, I thought,
it is being played for me, as much as for anyone else.
This is organized major league baseball, and I am
standing here with all the others, and everything
that takes place includes me.”
Jackie Robinson