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<< Front page Commentary November 7, 2003
 
A tribute to Rachel Beverly

To the Editors:

While working for The Oberlin Review, I met Rachel Beverly three times, and those were the only three times, but it took only one to understand all of the praise that her friends and family shared for her Wednesday night in Warner Concert Hall.

I met with Rachel in the Spring of 2001 and the Fall of 2002 to examine how the Review could better serve all members of the community, with a focus on the Review’s power to reinforce or create disenfranchisement of peoples within the community. In her first meeting with the Review staff, Rachel listened and took more than five pages of notes. When I met with her again, she was ready with practical and realistic ideas which did not create sides to given issues. One result of her time and advice is an application-based hiring process for all Review staff positions, intended to encourage more than just friends of staff members to work for the Review. Her professionalism, wisdom and creativity were greatly appreciated.

There is more to this though; for my personal admiration of Rachel is not based on a brief encounter with dogmatic professionalism, but on a brief encounter with a transcendent emotion of genuine concern and love. I felt this even though I was not a friend of hers, and I do not even know if she would know my name today. The celebration of her life did not make me regret not knowing Rachel better, but joyous in realizing that Rachel was loved by so many because of the love that she gave. It makes me want to love more, learn more from others, smile more with others, all others. For me, Wednesday night in Warner Concert Hall was a celebration of Rachel’s life, but also of all of the lives that she celebrated every day. I thank those who organized it and extend sympathy to those who knew Rachel far, far better than I know.

I do not know the written missions of the Multicultural Resource Center, the Edmonia Lewis Center for Women and Transgender People or many other organizations that Rachel Beverly was a part of, but I believe that if the presence of love felt from Rachel remains the core of unwritten missions, than they are absolutely priceless to Oberlin College and the world which it serves.

–Tom Shortliffe
College senior