I performed a wedding this past weekend in Northern Virginia. The bride is the daughter of close friends and she and other wedding guests spent much of their childhood in and around my house playing with my son and other neighborhood kids. The groom is a graduate of Longwood University and most of his attendants were former fraternity brothers who have remained close friends over the decade since their graduation. A rowdy and friendly bunch of guys. The bride's parents spared no expense and it was a joyful and lavish occaision. Most of these kids came from prosperous families and have done well themselves. The bride and groom were in their early thirties and have done well since college, the same for most of the guests.
Among the honored guests was one celebrity of some note...a young black man who was a high school classmate of the bride. Patrick County where many of the bride's guests grew up is a unique place. Populatiion, about 17,000, it sits in the mountain chain that crosses the Virginia-NorthCarolina border. Stuart, the county seat(named for Patrick's most famous citizen, the late general J.E.B. Stuart), just soared above 1,000 in population due to a recent annexation. There is no country club, no movie theatre, no Macdonalds...they did finally get a Walmart about five years ago. In the forty years that I have lived in the vacinity, the county has produced one Governor of Virginia(Jerry Balliles) , one Attorney General(Mary Sue Terry) , a Justice of the Court of Appeals(Steve Agee)..Lt. Governor J.Seargent Reynolds was burried there per instructions in his will following his untimely death and, of course, one of the winningest Race Teams in NASCAR history, the Woods Brothers.
The young man I was speaking of is MacCray Huff. MacCray is one of the stars of a popular, national cable network show..."Chicagolicious". As a senior in high school, Maccray was the President of the Student Government of Patrick County High. He was not a star athelete as you might expect, not a straight A student...Maccray was universily popular among his classmates because he was bright, very witty and a really good guy. He is also gay...he "came out" on a recent episode of the TV show... the news was no surprise to his friends here who took that status for granted. Maccray has become a very successful hair dresser in Chicago and the TV show centers around his salon.
Many of us grew up with bias towards certain groups as a part of our society. In my youth, it was certainly the blacks...I never had a black person in any school class that I was part of from kindergarten through law school. There was a different rule in my house, my Mom rigidly inforced a courtesy and respect for all code in our house, but my friends didn't share our views. Things have changed drasticly in that regard over the last fifty years. I guess that the kids of the current generation have grown up withoiut the rigerous bias of my generation and I think that to be a good thing. The "Good Samaritan" parable has a modern counterpart in the illegal Mexicans of our day. The story of the stoning of the woman who had commited adultery is a reminder to all of us that we all have our own sins. The persistant ministry to the lepers of his day who were isolated and regarded as unclean could speak to the ideal of taking a same atitude toward those with aids today.
It occurs to me that I may have reported more illegal immigrants to immigration authorities than any man in Virginia over the past twenty five years. I did so routinely because it was the law until they finally told me not to call any more. I have certainly passed harsh sentences on many folks. But, I have always tried to temper those judgments with some word of encouragement that redemption is there for us all and that it is not too late to rededicate oneself to a better purpose. With all the problems of our society, I am encouraged by the fair minded approach of the new generation who seem to judge folks on an individual basis rather than placing them in some category of contempt. I truly enjoyed being with all those happy kids this weekend who came from rural Southern Virginia, urban Northern Virginia and from across the country to celebrate together with an appreciation for the good side of each individual and no interest in catagorical discrimination.