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Thank you to all who are honoring me in the name of Esther and
Carl Robinson, whom I greatly respect and admire for their actions
on behalf of the common good. I deeply appreciate the recognition
which you are giving me tonight. But I have to quote my friend
Louise Erickson. When WILPF (Women’s International League
for Peace and Freedom) presented her with a Life Membership in
this organization of which she had been such a loyal, hard working
member for many years she said, “Why should I be rewarded
for doing what is important to me with the people I love the Best.”
That really says it all for me too.
I feel very privileged. I have loving and supportive family and
friends, a great house with a good, hybrid car, adequate health
insurance, Social Security and Retirement income on which I can
live comfortably, no debt. When I sit in my beautiful garden,
smelling the flowers and listening to the birds, I think of the
billions of people around the world who are dying for lack of
food and water, fleeing refugees who have no permanent place to
stay, people at the mercy of unbelievable violence, torture, oppression,
and war, war war!
And I know that the world has such abundance that every single
person could be able to live the way I do.
About 10 years ago Pat Wolk and I did a series of interviews and
photographs of 20 Fresno Women committed to change. We asked them
why they were willing to risk in order to bring about changes
and why they thought other people were not willing to do so. The
word “greed” was mentioned. Here’s what Ernestine
Leas said: “I believe that everyone is entitled to food and
shelter and education and medical care just because they’re
breathing, and that we ought to find some kind of an economic
system where these things would be available to everyone. I would
hope that we could begin to feel that none of us needs to amass
great fortunes and want to have more and more, that we would get
more pleasure out of seeing everyone having the good life. But
I think that’s one way the United States has gone wrong.
We’ve got mass culture that says you’re supposed to
work as hard as you can to get absolutely as much as you possibly
can, and you’re supposed to protect it from everyone else.
The conniving that’s done in that area is to get ahead of
the next person, especially the have-nots.”
Marcia McLane put it this way, “I have been so blessed during
my lifetime, that I need to share this. It is fulfilling. Most
of the things that I have done, there was a need. I guess I’m
the kind of person who responds to crises. I never thought of
them as risks. I guess part of it is I’m not so attached
to things. There are some things that I would feel bad if they
were ever taken from me, maybe family pictures. But I don’t
have any gold candlesticks. I have a lot of silver, but these
things were given to me. If other people need them more than I
do they should have them. Maybe other people don’t do things
they could do because really they’re guarding their personal
possessions.
I joined WILPF 53 years ago, when I was pregnant with my first
child. I remember nursing him, later feeding him in his high chair,
feeling total responsibility for the life and survival of this
helpless human being. And at times tears streamed down my face
when I thought how awful it would be to not have enough food for
this child, knowing that many mothers around the world were faced
with this horrible reality. I felt an incredible bond with mothers
all over the world whose circumstances prevent them from nurturing
and protecting their children. I still feel this strong bond,
and that is one thing that has kept me in WILPF, which is an international
organization, with sections on each continent, in 38 countries,
and I have met women in many of these sections who struggle in
the same way that I do for peace and justice.
I have no great philosophical or spiritual wisdom to impart, so
I just wanted you to know the simple basis for my values and actions.
And I’d like to end with a poem.But first I’d like to
recognize some special people. My children, Evo and Juliana, Jemmy,
Cordia, Masha and Isaiah. My cousin Nina Youkelson who came from
San Francisco to be here tonight. Two friends from Minnesota,
where all my children were born, who happened to visit us at his
time, David and Barbara Tilsen. I also want to thank Jack Osterhaus
for presenting me with this beautiful corsage, and again, each
and every one of you who is here with me tonight. Special thanks,
of course, to the committee who chose me for this award, and who
helped expedite the event. David Roy has been the main force behind
the planning and carrying out of this wonderful evening’s
program, publicity, mailings, all that good stuff. I appreciate
all the work he did and have really enjoyed getting to know him.
And now the poem: “The World is a Beautiful
Place’” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
The world is a beautiful place
to be born into
if you don’t mind happiness
not always being
so very much fun
if you don’t mind a touch of hell
now and then
just when everything is fine
because even in heaven
they don’t sing
all the time
The world is a beautiful place
to be born into
if you don’t mind some people dying
all the time
or maybe only starving
some of the time
which isn’t half bad
if it isn’t you
Oh the world is a beautiful place
to be born into
if you don’t much mind
a few dead minds
in the higher places
or a bomb or two
now and then
in your upturned faces
or such other improprieties
as our Name Brand society
is prey to
with its men of distinction
and its men of extinction
and its priests
and other patrolmen
and its various segregations
and congressional investigations
and other constipations
that our fool flesh
is heir to
Yes the world is the best place of all
for a lot of such things as
making the fun scene
and making the love scene
and making the sad scene
and singing low songs and having inspirations
and walking around
looking at everything
and smelling lowers
and goosing statues
and even thinking
and kissing people and
making babies and wearing pants
and waving hats and
dancing
and going swimming in rivers
on picnics
in the middle of the summer
and just generally
‘living it up’
Yes
but then right in the middle of it
comes the smiling
mortician
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