Eugene weekly., July 05, 2007, Page 18, Image 18

How are you participating in making the
U.S. a better place to live?
After the last presidential election I gave
up on politics, at least on any belief in nation-
al politics. Now I am trying to keep my focus
and energy local. I am a CASA (Court
Appointed Special Advocate) volunteer,
looking out for kids in the foster care system.
I’m also on the board of Sparkplug Dance,
which delivers top-notch dance programs for
kids with and without disabilities all over
town. My job, at Lord Leebrick, is a terrific
place to contribute to community. We bring
people together, both artists and audiences, to
experience theater that means something and
stories that provoke conversation.
ANGELA HENDERSON
If you had an unlimited supply of money
and/or time to tackle one problem, what
would it be, and what would you do?
I would design curricula for young people
at varying levels of education (sixth grade,
ninth grade, 12th grade, college) to help them
develop the tools they need to actively partic-
ipate in our representative democracy.
Children in the U.S. are taught that our gov-
ernment is “by the people and for the people,”
but they are not taught the skills necessary to
enable them to affect change at the local, state,
national and international level. I want the
young people of the United States to know
that the events in our country’s history of
which we are most proud — the framing of
the Constitution, the abolition of slavery, the
ratification of the 19th Amendment giving
women the right to vote, the advent of the
eight-hour workday, the successes of the civil
rights movement, the passage of environmen-
tal laws — didn’t just happen. Each of those
tremendous changes occurred because thou-
sands of ordinary people spent thousands of
hours over the course of many years organiz-
ing to create that change. I want every kid and
adult in America to know that whoever they
are, they have the capacity and the duty to
make this country live up to its highest ideals.
Angela Henderson is the managing
director of the Lord Leebrick Theatre Company.
About her background, she explains:
My early childhood was spent in northern
Idaho. I grew up in a log cabin that my parents
built out in the woods. We had electricity, but
no plumbing, and for most of the time no tele-
phone. That means we had an outhouse and
created back porch showers when the weath-
er was good enough, and we had a CB radio
for emergencies. When I moved to a suburban
California town, it was a huge transition,
learning to use a dishwasher and wearing
shoes so my feet didn’t burn on the asphalt. I
have a deep appreciation for what my parents
were attempting, growing our food and living
simply, and I also appreciate the opportunities
I had in California. I can’t imagine I’d be
working in theater if I had stayed in Idaho,
and theater has been a major force in my life.
at first, there was a surprising amount of artis-
tic freedom. In the arts we are always trying
to come up with new and creative ways to
explain, or argue, the benefits of the arts. We
have studies that show that youth participat-
ing in the arts will have better SAT scores and
that the arts contribute to economic develop-
ment in a variety of ways. It is much more
difficult to describe the ways in which the
arts fulfill something deeper, something
about connecting with people. While the
Federal Theater Project was scrapped
because of politics, it was one example of the
American government not needing to be con-
vinced that the arts have value.
What makes you hopeful about the coun-
try right now?
It is certainly easier to recall the awful
things happening on the national and interna-
tional scene than to identify what makes me
hopeful. That said, this week I was inspired
by walking to the theater to see small groups
of teenagers, huddled together in every cor-
ner completely focused on Shakespeare,
learning their lines for the summer camp pro-
duction of The Tempest. I am hopeful when I
see groups of people working together, espe-
cially in the arts and especially young people.
They are getting to know each other and rely-
ing on each other, despite whatever differ-
ences may exist. The act of creating together,
collaborating, is a transformative experience
that creates a lasting bond.
If you had an unlimited supply of money
and/or time to tackle one problem, what
would it be, and what would you do?
At the top of a long list of things that I
would change with an unlimited supply of
money and time is the American educational
system. We have failed to create an active and
engaged citizenry in our current system. In
some places we are not even providing a basic
education or a safe place to go to school.
(Some might wonder if those in power want
an educational system that inspires good citi-
zens.) I truly believe if the average person
understands the system and how to work for
change, the rest of the things on my list would
be resolved. Oh, and my educational system
would include tons of theater, dance, visual art
and music in the curriculum as a way of
exploring the history and cultures of the world.
Yvonne Braun is an assistant pro-
fessor in the UO’s Department of Sociology.
Braun grew up in New York and has been
interested in social and environmental justice
since her late teens. She does research on
communities impacted by a series of dams
in Lesotho, Southern Africa, and her volun-
teer work in N.Y., California and India has
included working with children and adults
with special needs, hospice work with low
income and homeless population, support
groups and education on sexual violence and
movements to protect low income housing.
Tell me one or two things (people, histori-
cal movements or documents, etc.) that
you admire in or about the United States.
COOL DOCUMENT LINKS
Read ‘em in the original! (Or in transcript form.)
It’s always good to know what these things actually say.
The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution,
the Bill of Rights and other amendments (including our faves:
the 13th, 14th, 15th and 19th) are all available in the National Archives at
www.archives.gov/national-archives-experience/charters/charters.html
Some others we like:
The Gettysburg Address (1863)
www.loc.gov/exhibits/gadd/images/Gettysburg-2.jpg
The Port Huron Statement (1962)
www.tomhayden.com/porthuron.htm
Tell me one or two things (people, histori-
cal movements or documents, etc.) that
you admire in or about the United States.
A time in history that gets me excited is
the time of the New Deal, specifically the arts
programs like the Federal Theater Project. It
seems like a dream that the government put
artists to work to stimulate the economy, and,
18
JULY 5, 2007
The Civil Rights Act (1964)
usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/laws/majorlaw/civilr19.htm
The Voting Rights Act (1965)
www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=100&page=transcript
Title IX of the U.S. Education Amendments of 1972
www.usdoj.gov/crt/cor/coord/titleixstat.htm
Fannie Lou Hamer, Mose Wright, Martin
Luther King, Jr., Howard Zinn, Amy
Goodman, Juan Gonzales, Cindy Sheehan,
Michael Ratner, Mumia Abu-Jamal. These
are all Americans that I admire greatly for
their ability and courage to speak their truth in
the face of some very difficult circumstances,
often with great personal costs. But they
believe or believed in working towards some-
thing larger than themselves, towards building
a better and more humane society. They
remind me of the potential in each of us.
What makes you hopeful about the coun-
try right now?
In the last year the climate in this country
feels like it has shifted a bit and in a good
way to me. More people seem to be recog-
nizing the dangers of criminalizing dissent
and the threats on civil liberties from the cur-
rent administration. I see more collective
action across issues, more open discussion
about the war and empire, and a general
sense of rising hopefulness about our ability
to change the course of this country.
YVONNE BRAUN
How are you participating in making the
U.S. a better place to live?
Right now I feel I contribute most through
teaching. At the UO, I teach sociology classes
on social issues and social movements, gender
and developing areas. In all of these I try to
encourage critical thinking in my students and
to internationalize their sociological imagina-
tions, pushing them to see ourselves as part of
a much larger global community. Much like
the local communities in which we live, this
global community is stratified in particular
ways with often staggering inequalities. While
we explore our participation and embedded-
ness in these global/local relationships, I try to
have us as individuals recognize our own abil-
ity to develop a vision for ourselves and our
communities and society, to be conscious of
alternatives, to create change or work towards
saving parts of our communities in danger of
being lost. This spring term, students in one
class “created” 10 social movement organiza-
tions around issues they felt passionate about
and designed incredibly creative and realistic
tactics and strategies to meet these goals —
their energy, ideas, and enthusiasm make this a
better place to live for me.
If you had an unlimited supply of money
and/or time to tackle one problem, what
would it be and what would you do?
Just one?! At this moment, I would focus
on addressing domestic and sexual violence
in our community and society. I think we
need more education, awareness, and leg-
islative action as well as more funding to
adequately address the depth and invisibility
of these issues of violence that permeate our
families, community and larger society.
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