I’m a prosecutor. The ugliest stains on the mean streets go across my desk. Like an ER doc or garbage collector, you learn a certain professional detachment so you can do your job.
So I was surprised yesterday when I found myself fighting back tears at the story of Victor Rivers, the son of Cuban immigrants at the Choices awards luncheon.
He recounted his father beating him, his siblings and his mother. He told us how, as a young boy, he presented himself at the local police station and took all of his clothes off to show them that, on the parts of his body no one could see, he was covered with cuts, welts and bruises.
My father beats all of us, he told the police. Please come and arrest him before he kills us.
They told him that, if he wanted to sign a complaint, they would go and talk with his father. But they couldn’t arrest him – it was “a private family matter.”
When he was old enough, he ran away and became a gang member. He said the beating he took as initiation into the gang was nothing to him after his childhood.
Now in his 50s, Rivers – you might recognize him as a character actor in numerous movies – still betrays flashes of rage when he tells his story. And yet, his story is a story of hope, because other people – he calls them his “angels” – intervened in his life.
“This is a story about how I was saved by love at a time when most people considered me beyond rescue,” he says in his book, A Private Family Matter.
Four couples took him in through his last years in high school. He became captain of his football team, went on to college where he was again elected captain by his teammates and graduated with a degree in criminology. Today, he tells his story across the country, speaking out for those trapped in pits of family violence.
Rivers’ grit is bracing and his story riveting -- but the thing that brought water to my eyes was how those “angels” changed his world.
The world is saved one person at a time. Dramatic change doesn’t come from presidents or programs but people, acting with courage and compassion. Today, look for your opportunity to be somebody’s angel, and bring change to the patch of the world where you are.
To learn more about Choices:
http://www.victorrivers.com/book.htm
1 comments:
I couldn't figure out why he looked so familiar...and then I realized that it's because he's starring as "Jack Reese", a retired cop who plays the father of one of the show's two leads..."Dani Reese" (Sarah Shahi) on NBC's "Life" (Friday nights at 10). The guy's a very solid actor. Tough guy with a nice sensitive side underneath. That's quite a story. And I agree completely with the main point. It's one at a time. And, I would add...even though it sounds tempting...it's generally not the government who's going to step in and make that kind of difference in our lives. Rather, it's up to each of us.
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