(The following is a transcript of the speech I delivered Tuesday in Frederick, Maryland at a Candlelight Vigil for Pulse Victims in Orlando.)
President Obama, in his “Second Inaugural Address,” said: “We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths — that all of us are created equal — is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall.” In that speech, we heard our nation’s highest elected official “name-check the watershed moments” of the women’s rights movement, the civil rights movement, and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights movement.
The stories we choose to tell about these movements matter because we have a strong, interconnected history of social justice activism in America. This history is best told as an expanding circle of who is fully included — a story of increasingly coming to see that every human being has inherent worth and dignity.
On Sunday at 2 a.m., a man tried to tell a different story: a story of terror, hate, and exclusion. But the truth is that we embolden future acts of division if we allow such attacks to keep us apart or to scapegoat our Muslim neighbors, most of whom want peace, freedom, and liberty for all in this land as much as any of us.
We also tell an important story with the choices we make each moment of our lives. And your presence here this evening— standing in solidarity with one another across our differences— contributes to a story of hope, compassion, and beloved community even in the midst of deep sorrow.
Your presence here is a powerful witness for love in response to hate. And in the coming days and weeks, may we all continue to stand on the side of love.
As we carry the memories in our hearts of all those who have died or were injured, know that whatever you have experienced in this time and place—whatever has touched you deeply: some moment of comfort or peace, of hope or love — that goes with you into the world. We are different for having spent this time together.
The nightmare of Orlando may continue to haunt us, but the dream of Stonewall — the dream of equality for all people regardless of who you are or who you love — that dream lives on.
The Rev. Dr. Carl Gregg is a trained spiritual director, a D.Min. graduate of San Francisco Theological Seminary, and the minister of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Frederick, Maryland. Follow him on Facebook (facebook.com/carlgregg) and Twitter (@carlgregg).
Learn more about Unitarian Universalism: http://www.uua.org/beliefs/principles
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