![](\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-kkULx7aEeKY\/Tf3zwyLvKvI\/AAAAAAAAD4E\/xj8gUKuvBJc\/s1600\/Providence+Pride+2011.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/div>\nYesterday members and friends of the First Unitarian Church marched in the annual Providence Gay Pride<\/a> parade. My feet are killing me. And I\u2019m still basking in the glow of how the community responds to a church that as we marched flew two banners: The first read \u201cFirst Unitarian Church of Providence.\u201d And right behind it \u201cStanding on the Side of Love.\u201d We also featured for the third time a float, okay a pickup truck stuffed with kids and others for whom the walk was a bit too much. Shoulda sat with them\u2026<\/p>\n This morning I find myself thinking back to remarks made by a friend who finds the whole thing a bit silly. At least he couldn\u2019t bring himself to quite say he thought his particular foci in the area of social justice was more important. I think he misses something very important. Maybe even a couple of things\u2026<\/p>\n In some circles today is called Juneteenth<\/a>. It marks the day in 1865 when the slaves in Galveston, Texas, learn of they had been \u201cfreed\u201d more than two years earlier. This is also the anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964<\/a>, voted following an eighty-three day filibuster and, of course, right at a hundred years after one would have thought that matter settled.<\/p>\n Civil rights are complex things involving changes in law and in our human hearts. <\/p>\n