DC Reflections

Saying goodbye to a suit lined with great memories

It's probably pretty silly for me to get choked up about saying goodbye to a suit but I'm feeling pangs of loss as I prepare to bid farewell to a navy blue jacket and pants I've worn for years. It's heading out the door tomorrow.

Although my waist now exceeds the bounds of the suit a decade after I bought it, I've grown in ways that go well beyond my 34-inch belt line. The suit first helped me land a great new job when I chose to change careers -- exiting journalism to serve the Georgia office of the Trust for Public Land as its new public affairs manager. That job gave me the opportunity to help save beautiful places across the state ... from the Chattahoochee River that runs through Atlanta to swamplands in south Georgia teeming with wildlife.

I was wearing the same suit a few years later when I got lucky enough to be hired by Jackson Spalding, a PR firm in Atlanta that taught me more about my new profession in six months than I've learned in any stretch of my second career. It's a good thing I got that call, too. Wearing the navy blues a few weeks earlier, I had abruptly ended an interview for a job with a huge international firm because I realized I really wanted an offer from the local firm across the street. That time in my life gave me the chance to work on the most important thing I've ever done in my professional career -- play a role in a huge team effort to help free a wrongly convicted young man from prison. I wore the suit inside the Georgia Supreme Court the day it heard the case and I happened to be in a meeting wearing the same clothes when word came that the court ruled in the man's favor. 

The suit wasn't all work and no play, though. I left work and went out dates and sparked relationships with some great women wearing that suit. I remember them fondly and am grateful for the times we shared.

The tie I usually wear with my lucky blues goes back even further. It was the first grown man's tie I bought when I finished globe trotting after college and became managing editor of Mundo Hispanico, a bilingual newspaper in Atlanta that made such an impact on the community that the Atlanta History Center recently hosted an exhibit about its role in the community. My articles and photographs were featured in several places and I nearly cried as I connected with the Chris Lancette of 15 years ago.

I also chose that suit when I made a trip to Washington, D.C., to interview for my current job with The Wilderness Society. I was sick as a dog at the time and sweating profusely. I closed my eyes before walking over to the office and asked my lungs to give me a break and my suit to cover up the perspiration. Both cooperated, I made it through the afternoon, and got out the door before the non-stop coughing returned and the suit crumpled into a heap of wrinkles.

The Wilderness Society gave me the chance to achieve my dream of living in D.C. Nearly three years have passed since I arrived and the decision to move here remains one of the best I've ever made. I even have a new girlfriend. I wore that suit at the Baltimore ceremony where she became an American citizen. We snapped a few photos and then jumped in to summer clothes so we could take in an Orioles games.

I have other dress clothes, of course, but that navy blue suit always brought me luck. It's too small now, though, and the "buy one, get two free" sale at Jos. A Bank was too good to pass up.

The suit will not disappear, however. 

I've recently become aware of the great work performed by Saint Elizabeths Hospital in the District. Taking a tour of the brand new facility last weekend, I saw that it had a thrift store that helps patients obtain additional clothes. The psychiatric patients there are working hard to get their lives on track, and many have gone on to great success over the years. I suspect someone there could use a break. 

I pray that the man who wears the suit next finds the same great fortune it brought to me.

Looking to make friends, have fun? Join meetup.com

I've used the Internet for all kinds of things -- from improving my health to making small loans to worthy entrepreneurs in developing nations. And there's certainly no way I could have won my fantasy football league championship without the Web.

One of my all-time favorite sites, though, is Meetup.com. If you're looking to make new friends and have more fun in Washington D.C. -- or about any other place in the country -- this is a fantastic way to do it. The beauty of Meetup.com is that it's a site aimed at doing what more sites should do: increasing human interaction and deepening our involvement in the non-cyber world. The concept is simple: go to the home page, plug in a geographical area or interest and, presto, it gives you links to a bazillion different clubs in your area that focus on a specif subject. In a big city like ours, there's likely a group for about everything you can imagine -- from afghan-making to zoology. You sign up for notices from any group you find interesting and then attend events organized by volunteers. If by some freak of nature there is no group in the District organized around your interest, you can start one.

What kinds of people attend Meetup.com events? Everybody.

Young, middle-aged and old. Black, white, Hispanic, Asian and people of every other race and origin. White collar. Blue collar. Rocket scientists. Writers. Weekend-warrior athletes. People trying to get in shape. 

What do people do? Everything. There are 2,526 groups in the D.C. area as I write. Sit and drink beer or hike and watch birds. Learn a foreign language or how to salsa dance. Play scrabble, rescue dogs, and root for the Nationals. Grow your business. Save the Chesapeake Bay.

A few of my favorites will give you an additional sense of the range of possibilities. If you join 'em, tell them I sent you.

• DC Volunteers -- sign up to do good in a day. It's volunteer work for busy people who may not have time to commit to ongoing efforts but want to make a difference. If you were going to sign up for just one Meetup.com group, start with this one.
• VeloDCity -- a biking group that goes on frequent rides of different lengths. I'm a pretty fit biker but thanks to the selfless efforts of the organizer, Gregg, I've increased my skill level, learned new routes without having to worry about getting lost (we leave no one behind), and met people interested in exploring other great rides.
• DC PR Flacks -- a group of public relations professionals. I'm a communications director for a nonprofit by day so I try not to keep thinking about work when I leave the office, which explains why I haven't attended an event yet, but networking with people in my profession is always helpful.
• Washington DC Blogger Meetup -- I love writing and very much enjoy learning new things about the blogosphere. I attended its last event, met people with far more experience blogging than myself and walked away with great tips and new friends. The insight gleaned there has prompted me to start a blog about watching TV. Actually, I'm missing Lopez Tonight on TBS right now. Time to head to the living room -- and maybe start a George Lopez show MeetUp group.

Tom Hanks got it wrong

Tom Hanks got it wrong. Forget baseball: There's no crying in ... history luncheons.

The last thing I expected on the final day of the Organization of Historians annual meeting in D.C. was to well up over a chicken something at the Dupont Circle Hilton. That was before Allida Black stepped to the podium to talk about her life's mission of heading The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project at George Washington University. Roosevelt dedicated her life to the fight for democracy and human rights and the project named for her continues that legacy by developing young minds. Black already had me in the palm of her hands while making Roosevelt's case that democracy may fade or grow based on the job we do educating students. 

Then the self-described "gleeful agnostic" read Roosevelt's war-time prayer.

Dear Lord, Lest I continue my complacent way, help me to remember that somewhere, somehow out there a man died for me today. As long as there be war, I must then ask and answer am I worth dying for?

A tear sprang from my right eye and I gasped for air.

I've never heard a more beautiful answer for why we should study history and appreciate what our predecessors have done for us. Truth be told, I didn't know anything about Eleanor Roosevelt before today as she's well outside my expertise -- the American Revolution. I certainly didn't know that Roosevelt lead the effort to create the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that set the standard for what all human beings are entitled to. Black, though, helped me make connections.

"You can not talk about the Declaration of Human Rights without talking about the Declaration of Independence," she said, every sentence of her remarks filled with intellect and compassion. I can easily imagine how fired up students get when she teaches them how to examine the facts of history "critically but with respect."

I wasn't the only one affected by Black's words.

"I felt a strong connection to what she was saying," said Lauren Vanderpluym, a young teacher at Walter Payton College Prep in Chicago. "Eleanor is one of my heroes. Hearing some of Allida's stories about her successes through the Eleanor project is empowering."

After the luncheon, I thanked Black for her remarks. I tapped my heart and told her it was the most inspiring luncheon I have attended in my career. 

The next time my friends ask me why studying history is so important to me, I'll direct them to Eleanor Roosevelt and Allida Black.

Read More From The OAH Meeting:

Part 1: Historians descend on D.C.

Part 2: Historian heroes in D.C.

Historian heroes in D.C.

Add West Springfield High School (Virginia) history teacher James Percoco to my list of America's unsung heroes. On day three of the Organization of American Historians' annual meeting, I learned about the work he has put in for nearly 20 years teaching an applied history course.  Students start by hitting the books and then head into the field to gain hands-on experience -- often learning to tell the story of an important place through the perspective of someone who was there.

"We create student historians and they tell the story about that person," Percoco said.

To date, his students have contributed more than 30,000 man-hours to historic sites, museums and history agencies in Northern Virginia and Washington D.C. They've also been inspired to pursue a wide variety of history related careers in areas including curatorial work, museum studies and teaching. 

I love initiatives that provide multiple benefits in one nice package. Percoco's labor of love helps students strive for greater academic success, gives them a chance to bring history to life and opens doors to rewarding career opportunities.

Percoco, though, is just one of an iphone full of unsung heroes I've met so far this week. To name just a few:

• Patsy Fletcher, an independent historian in the District, works with communities in the Northeast and Anacostia River areas to help them preserve their history. Her company, THREAD (Training, Historical Research and Economic Development) has helped numerous neighborhoods do everything from interpret sites to produce neighborhood histories that prevent their contributions from being lost to the pages of time.
• Lee White, executive director of the National Coalition for History, left his legal career to advocate for history. Working with some 60 national and local organizations across the country, he fights for causes including much-deserved funding for the National Park Service and National Archives and Records Administration, greater transparency in government, and stronger support for history education.
• Senior Editor Elizabeth Sherburn Demers works with Potomac Books to give sometimes overlooked authors a chance to tell powerful stories. A copy of Following the Drum: The Women at Valley Forge drew me to Potomac's booth in the exhibitor area. I've written about Following the Drum before. Many people don't realize the role women have played in every war in our history and I wish every American patriot would buy a copy of that book. Buy two, actually, and give one to a friend.

I've got a reporter's notebook full of the contributions other heroes are making. I hope to win the lottery soon so I have time to write about them all. And there's still one day left at the OAH meeting.

Read More:

OAH Part 1: Historians descend on D.C.

OAH Part 3: Tom Hanks got it wrong

Historians descend on D.C.

Hold on to your quills -- the Organization of American Historians descended on Washington D.C. today for its annual four-day meeting. The event is aimed at professional historians but open to anyone who would like to learn more about an exceptionally wide variety of subjects. 

I'm using three vacation days to attend the meeting. After just one day, I'm already glad I did. A couple of quick highlights from sessions I attended:

• Eola Dance, sporting an always spiffy National Park Service ranger uniform, teamed with Heather Huyck of the College of William and Mary to talk about the service learning program work they're doing to connect student in Richmond, Virginia with the life of Maggie Lena Walker. Walker, who lived from 1864 to 1934, was the first African American woman to charter a bank. She also helped launch a store and a newspaper. She also dedicated her life to fighting against racial discrimination. Students are not just exploring the Maggie Walker National Historic Site, they're investigating it. They're walking the grounds, sifting through original documents about Walker's life, writing guides to the site, and more. 
• Catherine Turton, also from the National Park Service, provided a look at the limited effort many of America's historic sites make to tell inclusive stories representing the full range of voices a site represents. She also pointed to a number that are getting it right, particularly as it relates to including women. Topping the list? The Otis House Museum in Boston, The Hermitage in Nashville, Tennessee, and Arizona's Sharlot Hall Museum.  
• Professors Jonathan Den Hartog of Northwestern College, Michael Lee of Messiah College and Bentley University's Chris Beneke lead a discussion about "(Re)Interpreting the Bible in Early American Culture. The session looked at the way that the view of the Bible changed from the Colonial era through the Revolution and into the 1790s. Presenters noted that some people began to view the Bible more objectively, while ol' Thomas Paine took a literary beating after the publication of The Age of Reason.

Read More:

OAH Part 2: Historian heroes in D.C.

OAH Part 3: Tom Hanks got it wrong

The silent beauty of baseball: Deaf team wins first game

I wish I had been there to see it -- a deaf baseball team from Gallaudet University in northeast Washington D.C., winning its first game on Friday. Beating Stevenson University 5-3 for its first Capital Athletic Conference victory in 13 years, the team of mostly underclassmen showed you don't have to be able to hear to pull off the improbable on a baseball diamond. The Bison showed guts, tenacity and perseverance. 

"It has been a learning process for these guys," Coach Curtis Pride told the Washington Post of a team filled with players still new to highly competitive baseball. "I have seen guys make significant improvement since Day One, and they're starting to understand what it takes to win a ballgame. In other words, they are starting to play like real baseball players."

They are also making clear what I've appreciated for a very long time -- the silent beauty of baseball. 

I'm a former youth baseball coach with a thousand stories about the impact that playing the game can make on boys and young men. I know that beauty starts on the diamond. That's where under-skilled players can work hard and get better, building a confidence and sense of self-worth that follows them when they step over the chalk and back into their daily lives. 

My favorite baseball memory of all time is about a young outfielder who approached me after practice one day, told me he recognized he was not very good, and asked if I would be willing to put in extra time with him to help him improve to be at least "average." I was stunned by the 11-year-old's candor. We spent tons of time working together and he got better. He even went on to make a game-saving catch against the best hitter in our league.

I'm sure Coach Pride gets to see moments just like that in his thankless work at Gallaudet University. I would have loved to have seen the looks on his and his players' faces when they recorded the final out on Friday. 

I hope they get to experience a lot more sunny days like that.

I hope they see all the athletic and life skills they're developing by daring to compete against vastly more experienced foes. I hope they observe the unmistakable beauty of watching their team turn a 6-4-3 double play, nail a runner attempting to steal a base, and execute a sacrifice bunt.

I also hope they appreciate that they're coming together as a team and beginning to operate like a finely tuned machine -- even if they can't hear the engine running.