Faces of Families in Alabama

Dear Mr. Holmes,


I do not know you. You have made it clear to the world with your recent comments, that you don't know anyone like me. Without even knowing my name, recently, you have hurt me. You have discouraged the progress I thought we were making as a society. You have stirred in me the feelings that I have dreaded since we adopted our beautiful little boy. Fears that people would make him feel like somehow different colors made us less of a family, worries that rather than celebrating our differences, some people would belittle us.

All of those feelings have rushed over me in the last couple of weeks, and I truly have been saddened. I knew that at some point you were going to apologize. I thought after the meeting yesterday, with so many pictures of some of our state's most beautiful families displayed, you would apologize. But you didn't. I wasn't sure it was possible to make things worse, but you did.

So I need to share with you my truth. I am not colorblind. I see color. But I am not scared of color. I think color is beautiful.


I am sorry that you are living in the past. I am sorry that your views of people like me are based on people's actions that lived generations before me. I am sorry you have not seen my sweet 85 year old granddaddy hug and kiss my little boy. I am sorry that you have not seen communities of people support and even aid in our decision to become a biracial family. I am sorry that you haven't seen the bond between our biological little girl and our adopted son. I am thankful, that unlike you, the people I am surrounded by embrace everyone.

I am glad my little boy isn't old enough to understand the things you said. I am glad he doesn't see me and his daddy as the "white people" that you do not mind regularly trying to discredit. And I pray that by the time he is old enough to understand, that the voices around him shouting love and acceptance will drown out any whispers of hate, like the ones you have shared recently.

I am praying for you, and people like you. I am praying that your heart and your eyes be opened. I am praying that you will realize that the people on the steps of the state house yesterday weren't "a small group, taking a position". They were real families, representing many more families in our state. They weren't taking a position, they were showing you about families formed by love and choice. They were there to prove, that color really doesn't matter.

And I know you will never give anyone a dime of the 100k you promised, but I am fairly sure that you will never make an empty promise like that at the expense of others again. And that is a victory in itself.