In honor Black History month and Valentine’s Day, I am reflecting on what a married friend recently shared with me in confidence. She said her next love would have to be a man who participated in the US Civil Rights Movement during the 1960’s. She mused about divorcing her husband – the father of her only child – a man who is artistic, unique and a genius mathematically – and finding a truer, deeper love. The qualities her husband possesses provided her the love she needed in her late 20’s; but years later, my friend, who came to the US as a young girl, finds it’s not the basis of the lasting love she is in need of to take her through the years. Today, she needs a love that will excite her to her very core and have deep and true meaning, like the love provided by a man who has risked his reputiation, livelihood and very life for the justice of his people and others.

What she means is what does today’s male activist risk by going out and occupying Wall Street? Yes, the cause is noble, and we at SuzyKnew! support it. But, most likely the man is occupying Wall Street because he lost is job and/or house and has nothing more to risk. And, if he does have a job, in all probability he will not lose it or his life because of his activism. The Civil Rights Leaders of the 1960s put everything on the line to change soceity. Because of them, Blacks, other minorities and whites from working class and ethnic backgrounds have more rights and freedom. For my friend, only a man who could do that could provide real, true love to a woman that would touch her very core… forever.

But, Civil Rights Leaders are now in their late 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s, slowly dying out. Maybe she will be moved by a man who participated in the Arab Spring! These men put their reputations and lives on the line… maybe they can provide a true, deep love, too!