Two recent events, startling by both their similarity and difference, make for this week’s “Oh, I See” Moment in the news. Both events show the courage of conviction, the stuff that firsts are made of.

NBA’s Jason Collins Speaks Up

Jason Collins became the first male athlete on a major professional sports team to share publicly that he is gay. The acknowledgment was a life-changer even for this game-changing basketball player.

As he told Sports Illustrated about his decision to come out, ” I felt whole for the first time.”

Four Teens Take Action

At prom time this April in Wilcox County, Georgia, four teens relied on their courage as well. The high school there does not put on a prom. Instead, even after schools were desegregated over 40 years ago, white proms and black proms hosted by parents have been the tradition.

This year, however, Quanesha Wallace, Stephanie Sinnot, Mareshia Rucker, and Keela Bloodworth decided to break through that tradition and put on the first integrated prom, themed “Masquerade Ball in Paris.”

It took courage and great effort by these teens, two who are white and two who are black. Why did they do it? The long-time friends, who attend classes and football games together and who sleep over at each other’s homes, also wanted to build joyful memories of their senior prom together.

In other words, like Jason Collins, they wanted to feel whole. And, because of their courage, life expanded for Jason and these teens.

Tides of Change

The fact that these two events happened in 2013 in the United States of America, however, is where the differences come in.

How is it that Jason Collins, a black athlete, felt fear and limitations not because of his race but because of his sexuality, while in the same month four teens were fighting against segregation, which was outlawed in the schools in 1954?

Oh, I see. The tide of change moves slowly. Sixty years from now, there will be people pushing past new frontiers of acceptance while (hopefully many fewer) members of the gay community still feel fearful of acknowledging their identity or even encounter unfair treatment.

But change that lifts the limits on individuals’ happiness and self-respect will come. The way to speed it up is for more people to show courage of conviction, speaking out and taking action to pave the road for the people who follow them. While it is sometimes the hardest thing to do, surely the most important is to

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

$\"Sky$

Reveal the courage of conviction, and push the limits to the sky.
\u00a9 Hemera<\/p><\/div>\n

Jason Collins and Wilcox County Teens Push the Limits<\/h2>\n
Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage. <\/em>\u00a0—Ana\u00efs Nin<\/p>\n
Two recent events, startling by both their similarity and difference, make for this week’s “Oh, I See” Moment\u00a0<\/strong>in the news.\u00a0<\/strong>Both events show the courage of conviction, the stuff that firsts are made of.<\/p>\n

NBA’s Jason Collins Speaks Up<\/h4>\n
Jason Collins became the first male athlete on a major professional sports team to share publicly that he is gay. \u00a0The acknowledgment was a life-changer even for this game-changing basketball player.<\/p>\n
$\"Road$
Jason Collins is moving forward.
\u00a9 iStockphoto<\/p><\/div>\n
As he told Sports Illustrated<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>about his decision to\u00a0come out, ” I felt whole for the first time.”<\/p>\n
Four Teens Take Action<\/h4>\n
At prom time this April in Wilcox County, Georgia, four teens relied on their courage as well. The high school there does not put on a prom. Instead, even after schools were desegregated over 40 years ago,\u00a0white proms and black proms hosted by parents have been the tradition.<\/p>\n
This year, however, Quanesha Wallace,\u00a0Stephanie Sinnot,\u00a0Mareshia Rucker, and Keela Bloodworth decided to break through that tradition and put on the first integrated prom<\/a>, themed “Masquerade Ball in Paris.”<\/p>\n
It took courage and great effort by these teens, two who are white and two who are black. Why did they do it? The\u00a0long-time friends, who attend classes and football games together and who sleep over at each other’s homes, also wanted to build joyful memories of their senior prom together.<\/p>\n
In other words, like Jason Collins, they wanted to feel whole. And, because of their courage, life expanded for Jason and these teens.<\/p>\n
$\"2013$
A modern year, yet the tide of change is still incomplete.
\u00a9 iStockphoto<\/p><\/div>\n
Tides of Change<\/strong><\/h4>\n
The fact that these two events happened in\u00a02013 in the United States of America, however, is where the differences come in.<\/p>\n
How is it that Jason Collins, a black athlete, felt fear and limitations not because of his race but because of his sexuality, while in the same month four teens were fighting against segregation, which was outlawed in the schools in 1954?<\/p>\n
Oh, I see.\u00a0<\/strong>The tide of change moves slowly. Sixty years from now, there will be people\u00a0pushing past new frontiers of acceptance while (hopefully many fewer) members of the gay community still feel fearful of acknowledging their identity or even encounter unfair treatment.<\/p>\n
But change that lifts the limits on individuals’ happiness and self-respect will come. The way to speed it up is for more people to show courage of conviction, speaking out and taking action to pave the road for the people who follow them. While it is sometimes the hardest thing to do, surely the most important is to<\/p>\n
$\"Typography$
It takes courage to start.
\u00a9 iStockphoto<\/p><\/div>\n
Comment<\/a>\u00a0on this post below, or inspire insight with your own\u00a0OIC Moment<\/strong>\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":null,"protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8132,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[248,125],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-makingadifference-life","category-stereotypes-culture"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8122"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40574,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8122\/revisions\/40574"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}