Using Blackout Tuesday to Spread Positivity

Over the past week, I have had friends and listeners ask me how I go on the air and smile as if none of this civil unrest is going on in our country right now. Why don't I talk about it more on the radio and on the platform that I have been given?

Don't get me wrong, it's been extremely difficult to see everything on social media and not get enraged. The last time it was this difficult to crack the mic was when I lost my friend in the Orlando club shooting.

I remember that day as if it were yesterday. I couldn't even breathe, let alone turn on the microphone and do a radio show. At the time I was the only one locally working at the radio station. Even my boss was on vacation. I called him and told him just how hurt and angry I was and how I just wanted to go down there. You go through all the emotions when it comes to losing someone to senseless prejudice.

You could audibly hear the pain in my voice on the radio that day. As I held back tears to smile through uninterrupted music, I begin to realize that radio wasn't just my job. It was my platform and what I decided to do with it was mine at that moment. Yes, I should allow myself to feel the feelings I'm feeling but I have a choice on how the outcome of this narrative plays out. I can take control and share the love. So I stopped the music, I talked from the heart, and I let it all out, in a room by myself with thousands of people listening in their cars, probably alone, and probably trying to handle emotions on how they feel about what's going on in our world.

At that moment I gave them permission to cry and be angry with me, and for months I got messages, cards and hugs everywhere I went. It was something I wasn't expecting, but people connected and it was a bond we all still continue to share. I won't forget it and I know they won't, either.

To bring that experience to what's going on today in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, yes, I'm angry that we have all allowed this prejudice to continue. We all take the blame in what's happening now. I applaud those that courageously took to the streets and peacefully protested here on the SouthCoast.

I'm going to continue to spread hope and love through my platform because while being gay or being a different color or ethnicity isn't a choice, being positive and being a light in a very dark place is.

I hope you choose to be a light.