I wonder if Adam Schiff remembers me.

I’m not particularly memorable the way he is. But we go way back together. We used to stand together against the wall, giving up our seats, as we all watched the Martin Luther King videos in the morning before going upstairs at the Jackie Robinson Center in Pasadena or down the hall at the other locations for the main ceremony and the presentation of awards and the interminable speeches.

We would chat in comfortable proximity and it felt like friends with common purpose.

He may remember when we shared the stage. Officials and politicians and civic leaders were on auditorium left. I was on the right with the student winners and the other judges. We shared the microphone.

He sat with all the leaders who flocked to the event, the Mayor, the School Superintendent, the President of the School Board. And from the government, Judy Chu, and Anthony Portantino, and Chris Holden, and Tyron Hampton, and himself. Portantino was timed out of office, Shirley and I encouraged him to run for higher office, and he did, and won. Everyone made speeches about Martin Luther King and they were all good speeches.

We called up students who won awards in the contests, speech and art, and they crossed the stage to the leaders and politicians who gave out the awards, and the shaking of hands, and photos. The three students who won for the best essay at Elementary, Middle School, and High School, each read their essay as a speech and we all clapped because they were so good.

Adam Schiff may remember me if he was able to stay for the whole program and I sang solo the old songs, Deep River, where an old woman came up to me with tears in her eyes because I brought back her childhood. And at another year’s celebration I sang Old Man River with Paul Robeson’s doctored lyrics because the original words weren’t progressive enough, and an older man came up to me and said, “I closed my eyes and thought it was Paul Robeson,” and I thanked him but said, “Not even close.”

I’ve followed Adam Schiff’s career as best I could, and the media has helped. He’s had a lot of media face time, government hearings, many interviews, and every time I see him my estimation rises with his national stature, always eloquent, always on point, fearless, more and more visible as a true leader in the upper inner group we need to rule the country right again. I admire him. I support him. I’m relieved that he’s here for us.

I almost would revere him if I revered anyone in the real world on this planet. Every time I see him on television, I say, “Yes!”

I wonder if he remembers me.