The Right Moment

I discovered a few years ago that a number of people had objected to the preferential treatment given to whites on city buses prior to the advent of the modern Civil Rights Movement. Several had refused to sit in the back or refused to give up their seat. But then Rosa Parks did it, and that got a lot of people’s attention, got a lot of people thinking. As a result, we honor Rosa Parks and remember her.

The ancient Greeks had two words for time. “Chronos” was the mundane, ordinary word, and our word “chronology” is derived from it. “Kairos”, on the other hand, was a special moment in time, the right moment. Rosa Parks hit upon the right moment. But would she have if those who went before her, the ones that history has largely ignored and forgotten, had not made their stand? Didn’t they help create that special moment?

Obviously there has only been a few special moments in the history of our movement. Stonewall was a very special moment. But before that came the mostly forgotten Black Cat Tavern riot.

In the last few years we’ve seen glitter bombs, kiss-ins, demonstrations, counter demonstrations and marches. Out of all of those, maybe we’ll remember Constance McMillen for refusing to accept no as an answer when she asked to take her girlfriend to prom. Maybe we’ll remember Lt. Dan Choi chaining himself to the fence in front of the White House to protest DADT. McMillen and Choi are certainly worth remembering. But I think it’s important to keep in mind that even though there is an element of spontaneity in these events, they didn’t occur in a vacuum. There was a crescendo before the cacophony.
I think people are often too quick to be critical of those who fail to strike the right note at the right time. None of us really knows what is going to make headlines no matter how levelheaded we are or how carefully we plan our protest. And we often fail to pay due respect to all the stories on the back pages that lead to the really big ones that get all the attention.