The Movie, "Pride" and Other Lofty Thoughts

Okay, so I am a fair-weather Giants Fan.  So sue me.  This was taken at a game in September with the Padres that I attended with my brother, Don, just as they were sliding in to win the pennant and go on to the World Series. I love ATT park. It is a beautiful thing in a lovely location. But on to other matters:

So in the 90's some time, I was a member of the Idaho Society for Clinical Social Work.  The national organization with which the local group was affiliated had decided to venture into an experiment by aligning itself with Unions.  The idea was to become a professional guild and throw our lot in with unions in the hopes of expanding our influence and, in the bargain, gain some benefits for members.  Well, the experiment didn't work out, mostly because the benefit part didn't pan out as well as expected.  It was a big disappointment to me when the national group broke ties with the union.  Back then I thought of it as having the potential for great things, as it could have consolidated the profession of social work's influence nationally on issues of social justice. I went to a lot of local union meetings and attended a national meeting.  Anyway the film, "Pride" brought all that back for me.  The movie is the true story of an organization of gays and lesbians  in England who decided to support a Welsh group of striking miners in the mid 1980's.  The story showed how these disparate groups of people with seemingly nothing in common joined together for a common cause.  It's a beautiful story and I highly recommend that you see the movie.  Because it depicts how people didn't miss their chance to join together to get something done.  I don't see that happening today very often. But I dream of a world in which gay rights groups join together with women's groups who join together with people of color and unions and spiritual progressives and groups dedicated to ending hunger and on and on and on.  We have so much more in common than what our differences might be. We could truly change the planet.  Or at least greatly increase our collective compassion and caring for one another, which maybe means the same thing.