Have you ever considered joining the NAACP?

Last night I joined the NAACP.

I have been thinking about it for awhile, but just never did, until now. I am compelled to admit that for such a long time I didn't join for the simple fact that I am not black. In my mind, it felt kind of cut off to me, as silly as that may sound in reality.

Maybe it was because yesterday was President's day and I was thinking about the state of our nation, or maybe it was becuase it's Black History Month and I have been thinking about what it means to celebrate Black History.

Maybe it had something to do with watching the film Bobby first thing in the morning yesterday (which is only a slighter better than mediocre film, in my opinion) and thinking about the senseless trauma people in our nation have endured over the years of it's existence. The most moving part of the entire film was the replay of Robert Kennedy's beautiful speech, On Mindless Menace of Violence, which can be heard at this website.

Maybe it was because I am still putting together my service on Desmond Tutu and the United Nations Convention on The Rights of the Child for next Sunday, but whatever the final reason, I bit the bullet and finally logged onto the NAACP website last night and joined.

I really am glad that I did.

The road to equality is a long one in this country [world], and I believe that even a little bit of armchair activism, like simply adding yourself to a list of members, can help us get where we need to be.

I am looking forward to reading upcoming issues of the NAACP magazine The Crisis, and also looking forward to getting a better grasp on some basic facts that will come to me as a part of my membership, such as this report on African Americans: The State of Disparity. I think this membership will be mutually beneficial, as I think I still have a whole lot to learn here.

***side note*** I had heard that the NAACP got some criticism from GLBT rights activists after giving one of their Image Awards to some celebrities that were known to have made derogatory statements regarding people who are GLBT. This concerned me, so I did some research, and was pleased to see that despite the controversy of those awards, the NAACP has really begun to step forward and align itself with the civil rights struggles of of the GLBT Community and Marriage Equality issues. The president of the NAACP, Julian Bond, is giving his direct support to Marriage Equality in Florida, where an initiative to ban same sex marriage will be voted on in November.