The week that was

In this morning’s Boston Globe is full page, bordered in orangey-red, is an open letter from the Chicago’s Blackhawks’ president and CEO and the chairman of its parent corporation. The letter thanks the Boston Bruins for an outstanding playoff series and goes on to thank the city for its hospitality. Extraordinary. I don’t remember ever seeing a letter like that before. And it capped a week in which every day the news was extraordinary.

Looking back over the week I’m picturing a collage of images: The joy over the Supreme Court’s decision on marriage equality, greeted with exuberant embraces...the somber face of Congressman John Lewis hearing about the court’s evisceration of the Voting Rights Act...the end-of-session rush to enact legislation, including the Senate’s immigration reform bill and the House’s majority leadership’s promise to reign it in...the Texas legislature’s attempt to close almost all the state’s clinics providing legal abortions....the pink-sneakered filibuster of that attempt by state senator Wendy Davis. I picture a photograph that left me in tears, of President Obama framed by what’s known as the Door of No Return in Senegal, from which the shackled slaves were led to waiting ships. I’m thinking of an e-mail I got from my cousin in Rio about the protests taking place there, sparked first by a rise in public transit fares and then growing to demand better schools and hospitals and an end to corruption in government.

The Blackhawks letter in the Globe said in part, “As impressed as we were by the strength, talent, and competitive spirit of the Boston Bruins on the ice, we were deeply touched by what happened off the ice. Rarely have we experienced the hospitality you afforded us throughout the playoff series between two incredibly gifted teams...(W)e tip our hat to your city’s big heart and gracious spirit. You lead by example and have set the bar very high for others to follow.” 

And then I thought about how so many significant moments--the ones I witnessed and those I know nothing about--come about because someone decided to do something.