Do Ask – Do Tell: Opportunities Abound

This past week Steve Jobs died. People talked endlessly and impressively about the impact his life made on billions of lives all over the world. They called him the DaVinci/Einstein of our time. I enjoy considering the power that the Internet and Social Media have to connect us all immediately and immensely. Now, a few simple sentences from any one person can be heard around the world. I thank Steve Jobs and all of us for the creativity, impact and opportunity to connect, respect and change one another’s world with our thoughts and words.

It may seem a strange leap to now talk about something totally different, yet still connected. This October is the 10th anniversary of the death of Matthew Shepard. Matthew Shepard was a gay man who was beaten, tied to a fence and left to die alone in an empty field. So – what’s the connection here? I asked myself – would Steve Jobs have been able to be who he was and do what he did – if he had been gay? Would he have made it through middle school and high school – let alone develop the inner strength he had telling him he could do, say or be anything no matter WHAT anyone else thought, said or did to him? I don’t think he would have lived to experience the opportunity to touch the minds and hearts of the entire world!

I think of the military’s “Don’t Ask – Don’t Tell” policy that kept thousands of men and women from the opportunity to share who they are with any of us even though they offered their lives in the service of all of us. Once this Salem witch hunt concept literally died I started to consider all of us creating a policy of opportunity called: Do Ask – Do Tell! This policy of living allows us all to help gay youth and adults speak of who they are, what they feel, what they need and more importantly what they THINK! I look forward to a world where a gay teen, instead of being overwhelmed, alone and considering suicide, will have the opportunity to make and share the next scientific discovery that changes the world. Perhaps a gay teen might feel the freedom to write a poem because their unburdened mind was allowed to open and easily share their heart with anyone. If we can all expand the wonderful Internet project of “It Gets Better” to “It’s Our Job to Make it Better” – I think Steve Jobs might smile from the beyond, knowing that we, like he, helped one another be creative by giving one another the opportunity to connect and share who we are in any given moment instantly, universally and respect-FULLy.

I hope you enjoy one poem (below), shared on this social media to express more of what I mean, who I am, and what I think. It’s my attempt to not only say “it get’s better” – but to take the opportunity to MAKE it get better.

Stories of “Coming Out?"

I’m not strong enough to be a Matthew Shepard
I’ve barely the strength to be me.
I’d rather be a Shepard-of-Matthew’s
than see another nailed to a tree.

I’m tired of the burdens we give and we receive
by hiding-in or coming-out
It sets us up to grieve.

What gives us the right to judge? – division makes me cringe!
It’s not me who’s coming-out -- It’s you I’m letting in.

If we go back to rules we learned in kindergarten,
We’d all be free of sin.
We’d spend all day looking --- and laughing
and inviting each other IN.