Steve Gleason Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony January 15, 2020

Well done good and faithful servant, Matthew 25.  I thank God for each and every day. Extra thanks for this day.  It was special.  Mike and I have never experienced anything like it.  God is good and so was this day.  There is really no way to describe our experience in a blog post.  I will give it a try.  Emotional, inspirational, phenomenal, surreal!!!  

The medal was handled with white gloves!!!! 

      

I didn't take these pictures.  I assume they were taken before the ceremony in a different room.  This is the commissioner of NFL Football, Roger Goodell.

These are all the speakers at the ceremony.

Now to our journey.   We took an Uber to the Capital Building.  We had seen the building from a distance but not this close up. Again the size of the building was overwhelming.  We walked around the corner and we were greeted by security guards.  They pointed us in the right direction.  We did have to go through security.  No security issues this time.

We all gathered in a long hall waiting to be ushered into the Statuary Hall.  We don't get dressed up often so we needed a picture for sure.

Time to move into the Statuary Hall.  

Wow!  I spent some time just looking around.  The room was stunning.  The statues here are statues of others who have received the Congressional Gold Medal.  George Washington, Rosa Parks, and more.

There was an air of reverence and respect in the room.

I took a video when we first arrived.  

Blair, posing at the podium!

Mike, Kyle and friend.  I know the friend's name but I have no idea how to spell it.  It is different.

There were very few recognizable faces in the room.

We are in the next two pictures on the right side, second row.

After the arrival of the dignitaries and Steve the flags were presented.

I would have loved to record the National Anthem being sung.  It was so distinguished and exceptional.  A picture was all I felt comfortable doing.  Everyone was totally engaged, listening and singing the National Anthem.  

The opening prayer.

These are the different individuals that spoke about Steve.  

Bill Cassidy is a senator from Louisiana.  He is the person that started the ball rolling to award Steve the medal.

Ben Schneider of Lord Huron sang, "Ends of the Earth." He has been to the Gleason's home to sing for them.

This was the speech that was emotional for me.  Drew Brees knows Steve personally and his speech showed that.  When he spoke about learning that Steve was diagnosed with ALS it flashed me back to the same thing.

Our seats were great but not great for picture taking.  Steve is about to receive the Congressional Gold Medal. 

As soon as I started to take a picture of this moment Rivers moved Steve's eye technology device so pictures could be taken straight ahead. 

Unfortunately, that move covered Steve's face from our view!

I did take this picture from someone else or from some other place on the Internet.

It's Steve's turn to talk!

I had the same issue with Steve's speech.  Can't see Steve's face but we heard him and it was remarkable.  

Steve Gleason’s Acceptance Speech:

Hi there everyone.

Thank you Speaker Pelosi, Leaders McConnell, Schumer, and MacCarthy, Senators Cassidy and Murray, Representatives Richmond and Scalise, and all members of Congress

Also,  thank you for coming to DC, and speaking today Drew.

Just so everyone knows, today is Drew’s birthday. So, Drew, let me wish you a very Capitol,  Happy birthday brother.

This award, from the elected officials who represent the people of the United States of America, is a sublime honor for me. But, I feel that, more importantly, I feel that this honor represents some joy, encouragement, and even triumph, for the tens of thousands of extraordinary families currently enduring life with ALS, the millions of extraordinary people in this country living with disabilities or other illness, and more broadly, all of you ordinary humans, who experience adversity, tragedy, or anguish.

No one is immune from anguish, tragedy, or adversity. Not even elected officials, NFL players, or even the most holy Saints

I suppose I don’t see my story is a football story, or even an ALS story, but rather, a human, story.

The truth is that we all experience pain in our lives. But, I  believe that the problems we face, are our opportunity, and define our purpose.

I believe that adversity is our opportunity, because we will all face pain and tragedy. But, it’s clear to me that beyond the human capacity of imagination, our greatest strength, as a species, has been, our ability to bravely share our weaknesses and vulnerabilities with each other.

Doing that, we’re able to understand the issue and collaborate with each other, to solve problems, and overcome any obstacle.

While sharing one’s weaknesses may not be common practice for people, especially for politicians in an election year, wink wink..

Sharing my weaknesses was entirely critical, for me to play eight years in the NFL, and it has been unquestionably critical to my survival and purpose for the past nine years, living with a disease as dreadful as ALS. I am grateful to the, literally thousands of people who have directly uplifted me, both emotionally and physically in my 42 years. Most importantly, I’m grateful to my parents, for instilling in me many of the values I’ve used to be successful.  And, of course, my wife Michel. This is not the life we imagined, and it hasn’t been easy, but through communication and compassion, we’re living an awesome life.

In addition to understanding that,  I had to share my weaknesses, to survive and succeed, I’m fortunate to have a motivation and a reason to live. Our son Rivers, and our daughter, Gray. They give me purpose, the purpose of a lifetime.

Some of you may disagree, but I believe there has been no greater time in history, to be a human. At the same time, I don’t think anyone here, or anyone watching will disagree that, we as a country, and more appropriately, we as a global species, face enormous challenges in the coming decades of the 21st century. Challenges like exploring and colonizing other planets, or thoughtfully solving climate change, or positively harnessing, the seemingly miraculous power of artificial intelligence, so people’s disabilities are turned into super abilities.

These challenges provide us with an exponential opportunity, as Americans, and, as humans.

Because if we can share our weaknesses with each other, and compassionately collaborate to solve problems, our human potential is boundless. If we can work to understand and solve each other’s problems, and each other’s pain, compassionately,  then, truly, all things are possible.

Thank you again, to the people of the United States of America, a nation I’m so proud to live in, for this unbelievable honor.

Well, there you have it. I know the work of Team Gleason and Steve is not done. I can only imagine what is to come. Time will tell us.

                                               Steve and Team Gleason

                            Well done good and faithful servant, Matthew 25

Security Issues, Arlington Cemetery and the White House

After we went to Ford's Theatre we decided to go to Arlington Cemetery.  It wasn't close so we had to take the metro.  No walking.  The changing of the guard was happening at 4 PM.  No problem we had plenty of time.  Little did we know we would have security issues when we arrived at the security gate once we got there.  A Gleason adventure!  Mike's license was expired.  He got it renewed Saturday before we left. He was told to use his old license and the paperwork for the renewal when he traveled.  He wasn't given a new license, that would be mailed.  No problem, we are set and we were.  The Spokane airport said he could use the expired one and they didn't need the new paper one.  That was not the case at Arlington.  Keri went through security no problem.  She was behind these videos.  Me next.  I showed them my passport and my items were on the belt on their way to the other side.  Mike gave the security person both his expired license and the renewal paperwork and there was a sudden halt to everything.  I asked if I could go through and there was no response.  The attendant at the gate went and got the police.  The police went and got someone else. There was a conference going on and phone calls were being made. We had no idea what was happening.  A nice official man said there was a problem because the license number on Mike's expired license didn't match the renewal paper.  Are you really Mike Gleason? It was explained to Mike and me that they had to run a check on him and Mike explained that he was Mike Gleason and this is what he got from the licensing department. The official man said he understood that but they still needed to check him out.  That conversation was repeated a couple of times.  I was listening to all of this and one more time asked if I was cleared to go through.  Do you want to wait for your husband?  I'll go through now.  I need to talk to Keri. 

At this point I had gone through security and explained to Keri what was going on.  Mike handled it just fine.  He just didn't understand why he had to go through all this.  It made sense to me because of teaching on the Air Force Base.  They have to be very careful. An official person came to talk to Keri and me and told us that the airport in D.C. would not accept the temporary.  They were much stricter in Washington D.C. than in Spokane.  That wasn't true.  Mike got through the airport just fine with what he had on our way home. This same official person also said that they see so many different weird things that they had to check Mike out.  I have to say Keri and I found some humor in this situation at the same time we figured everything would be fine.

Turns out Mike was released and allowed to come though security about 15 minutes later.  Mike Gleason is the real Mike Gleason.  Just letting everyone know.  He has been officially checked.  We thought that the licensing department made a mistake.  Mike called the licensing department later and they told him everyone is getting new license numbers and his temporary was right. Never, ever a dull moment!!!!  

Now back to the trip on the metro.  Not sure we would have figured out how to use the metro without Keri. Buying the tickets was a bit challenging.  Mike and Keri did some map reading and off we went on the blue line.  Keri coached us the whole way.  Who knows where we would have ended up without her! Pretty sure it wouldn't have been Arlington Cemetery. 

 We made it!

The first thing that we noticed was the amount of tombstones in the cemetery.  The white tombstones just went on and on and on.  Over 400,000 of them. You can see them way in the distance and everywhere you turned.

If you look beyond the tombstones in the picture you will see horses.  The horses were pulling a casket.  They were having a burial service in the cemetery.  The brochure we got says there are 27-30 services each week.  That is a lot!

Now we had to hustle to the changing of the guard!  Keri arrived first, then me, then Mike!

Click on the video to watch the changing of the guards.

21 steps across the black strip.  The soldiers stop for 21 seconds and then take 21 more steps to the other side. The guard is changed every 30 minutes in the summer, every hour in the winter and when the cemetery is closed the guard is changed every 2 hours.  The tomb has been guarded every minute since 1937.

We watched for awhile and Keri and I had to use the restroom around the corner.  We went by the Tomb Guard Quarters.  There was a security man standing near this and I kept walking to the restroom.  I was using the wrong door for the restroom repeatedly trying to open it.  The man did not speak at all but came to me and pointed to the correct door.  Silence even when you aren't right by the tomb.  Respect.

This is the amphitheater by the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  

 Another view of the amphitheater!

 Next stop was the Kennedy's graves.

Only Keri, Mike and I know what this picture is about.  It is going to stay that way. 

Next stop was the White House. You can't go all the way to D.C. without seeing the house of the president.  

We were just getting ready to leave and head to the hotel where Steve was staying and the lights came on the White House.  Beautiful.  Nothing is done halfway in our nations capital.

Security you can see and I am sure there were plenty of security people we couldn't see all over D.C. We got to see quite a bit on this one tourist day.  We logged over 8 miles walking.  I feel very fortunate and blessed that we could come and see our nations capital. God is good!  So, so much more to see but it's time to get a good night sleep because tomorrow is the day we came for.