Equal Rights

Today was a rather great day in history. In 1919 the US Congress approved the 19th Amendment to the Constitution which guaranteed suffrage to women. Furthermore, on June 4th in 1957, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered the speech Power of Nonviolence and I share this quote:

"The Greek language uses three words for love. It talks about eros. Eros is a sort of aesthetic love....But when we speak of loving those who oppose us we’re not talking about eros. The Greek language talks about philia and this is a sort of reciprocal love between personal friends....The Greek language comes out with another word and it is agape. Agape is understanding, creative, redemptive good will for all men. Biblical theologians would say it is the love of God working in the minds of men. It is an overflowing love which seeks nothing in return. And when you come to love on this level you begin to love men not because they are likeable, not because they do things that attract us, but because God loves them and here we love the person who does the evil deed while hating the deed that the person does. It is the type of love that stands at the center of the movement that we are trying to carry on in the Southland—agape."

My father's last few weeks were spent at the wonderful Agape House hospice in Bermuda, so this resonates with me a lot. Every December my family and I go to the candlelight ceremony to essentially celebrate Christmas with others who have lost love ones there. Please support Agape House by donating to Friends of Hospice, a registered Bermuda charity. They really are angels in human form.

Now if Bermuda would only add two words and a comma ("and sexuality,") to the Human Rights Act prevention of discrimination section, and everyone around the world would have the right to marry regardless of their sexuality - well the world will be a better place.

I would also celebrate the fact that in 1973 a patent for the ATM was granted to its creators, however I have a pitiful amount of cash in my account and would rather bury my head in the sand about it. So instead I partook in a cash-free activity, a 2 hour bike ride along the beach towards Manhattan Beach with my friend Josh Harraway, who is auditioning for the part of Tupac in the new film (wish him luck!) - he's very talented and looks remarkably like Shakur. Here's Pac's Thugz Mansion (I think about my dad being up there with everyone he talks about):



The evening I spent with Sand in the Air's director Teresa Dowell-Vest (her blog is here), stage manager Thomas "House" Houchens and my fellow thespian Anya Warburg and her boyfriend Chris. It was a little reunion before I head to Bermuda and it was so wonderful to spend time with them now that the play is over. We went to Casa in downtown in LA, which I highly recommend both in terms of price and quality. Goodbye Sand in the Air....

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