| Augsburg Now |
 |
| Augsburg College > Augsburg Now |
|
|
|
||||
|
|
A
conversation with Sarah Weddington Now Online exclusive interview TH: Good
morning, Ms. Weddington. It is such an honor to speak with you this morning.
My first question to you is, what do you think are some of the most important
issues facing college students today?
I think of life as a series of course corrections. What I mean by that is if you had [asked me where I was going to be] when I was a senior in college, I would have said I was going to teach English and speech to eighth-graders. I was going to make eighth-graders love Beowulf—and I tried and then decided I should go to graduate school—and of course I ended up going to law school. And in those very early years if you had [asked me what I was going to do], I would have said I was going to practice law in some little Texas town—but I couldn't get a job. No matter how good I was or how smart I was, it was just before women were accepted, and so I ended up doing Roe vs. Wade and running for the legislature. If you had said to me when I was in the legislature: "What are you going to do?" I would have stayed right here. Except I had [received] a call from someone in Washington who had gone to work for Jimmy Carter, who asked me if I wanted to come to Washington and work for Carter—so I ended up doing that. So I think that life is a series of course corrections, and what helps us make it through all those transitions are leadership skills. It is why I am so focused on helping young people in college develop leadership skills; I think that it is the perfect place to start. I don't think you always know in college what issues you want to be a leader about, but I think college is the perfect place to explore, both through campus activities and through classes, the kinds of things you think should be different than they are—that is where leadership really begins—iwhen you say this isn't the way it ought to be; I want to change this. TH: I spent two years performing National Service with AmeriCorps. It was during these two years that I discovered what gives me passion and when I returned to school I returned to study something that I enjoyed studying. I had learned a little more about who I was. SW: What you're doing in terms of leadership, in terms of putting this series together, writing, and working with people, that to me is ... well you have to have the classes and grades to graduate, but in terms of life skills, those leadership experiences on the college campus will be as much a rocket boost for your future as other things. TH: I want to ask you about the concept of vocation, that is, the idea that I am going to school "to get a job," as opposed to learn a vocation. You touched on those issues as far as leaning leadership skills and those types of things. How wold you define your vocation? SW: I think my life's work has been creating positive change. I have been thinking—if someone were going to visualize my work, what would it be? And I think a sculptor would do it in a series of steps leading up to an open door or open window because the whole purpose of what I have been doing is trying to open doors or opening windows so other people can make their own decision about what they wanted to be. When I was growing up people would say "women don't, women can't, women shouldn't," and every time someone said that to me I thought: "You watch, we're going to change that." Arun Gandhi once said, "I feel like a bird born in too small a cage." I think people can identify with that for a variety of reasons, and I think it is about pushing back barriers which keep people from being able to see themselves in the rightist possible realm. TH: The right to choice battle you were involved in—well, are still involved in—in the late 60s and early 70s ... what would you say is today's equalivent, or would you even say there is an equavilant as far as issues? SW: [When] I look back at that time I saw abortion, and the right to make one's own choices, as being the center of a wheel—spokes being educational choices, family finances, family size, when to keep working and when to quite, and a whole series of issues that related to women. But if they could not determine the number and spacing of children then none of those other things seemed like very real choices. I still see that, today, being true. We are still working on issues that relate rape to a different set of those issues. Now it is more understood that rape is non-consentual contact and date rape is more of the issue I hear my students talking about—which is a more sophisticated issue than the ones we dealt with 30 years ago—but it is still an issue of rape. Or the issues of domestic violence; again I think we are at a more sophisticated level in dealing with them then we were 30 years ago, but we are still talking about domestic violence. I think in terms of choice we are talking at a more sophisticated level about what the issues are and how to deal with them, but we are still talking about who ought to make that decision. There are a lot of people who will tell you that the government has the right to tell you what your choice will be and I am one of those people saying no, it is not the government's decision, it is the woman's decision. So I think the level of discussion is more sophisticated now. The core issues are often very much the same. Now I do think there are some issues that are settled. One of the things we worked on was whether of not women could play full-court basketball, and if you suggested to young women athletes today that they were only capable of running half court they would laugh you off the court. If it had not been for Title 9 and all of the force .. we forced college campuses to make different athletic opportunities available to women. I guess because I think that the choice issue is the center of that spoke and anytime it is under attack—surely it is with the current Bush administration—then I have to say that I think that is a central issue. I think it is harder to get young people to see it. College students today have many more demands on their time. School is much more demanding, they are smarter than I think I and my [collegiate peers] were. So many of [today's students] are working and they have lots of hours committed. A lot of them are doing internships or volunteer activities on campus. So I think good students today, like the students at Augsburg—and they are good students—there is a lot asked of them. In some ways I think it is harder for them to become clinically involved or activists because they have so many other demands ... and they know that if there was an ... unplanned pregnancy, there are options for them. There were no options [back then], and so the pressure to change was much greater 30 years ago than it is today. But the issue is certainly just as important. TH: Apathy is something that seems to have invaded today's collegiate environment. What advice would you give to the student who feels passionately about an issue, but does not speak up because they feel they will not be heard or just ignored? SW: I think sometimes students are discouraged that not everyone on campus shares their interest, and what I have learned over the years is no, and they never will. Wther you are on campus, working, have issues in a community, not everyone is ever going to care. What's important is for the number who do care to be trained, to learn, and to grow. If somebody said to me, how did you learn to be a leader? The truth is I kind of started in mundane ways. I was always president of the Methodist youth fellowship. I way the president of the future homemakers of America of Canyon High School. I was the secretary of the student body in college. I was the secretary of my law class. I did an internship in the state legislature. But what I was really learning were the skills of leadership, so when I found something I really wanted to be involved in, I had learned how to communicate, how to set goals, how to motivate others to action. I had learned the things I needed to have in impact on very important issues; that is how I really ended up running for the legislature—because I had been a typist for the Texas legislature between college and law school. I watched them and thought, I can do that and hopefully better. So the first thing I suggest is to practice leadership. Find ways to begin to learn the skills of leadership. Second, in terms of issues, I suggest you tie into groups who care about the issues you care about. The Web is a resource you all have that we certainly didn't—where you can tie into all kinds of groups. You don't have to find the people who share your concerns simply on the Augsburg campus. You can reach people internationally through the Web. Third is to begin to talk to others about why things ought to be changed and how to do it. TH: What do you think are some of the skills an effective leader should possess? SW: I think it is two things. Leadership is a willingness to leave your thumbprint, and not to know everything when you start about how you're going to do it. I certainly did not know, but just that you are willing to try and leave your thumbprint. The second is communication skills—and certainly in the lecture I will be trying to demonstrate good communication skills. Today communication is partly one-on-one communication, it is partly being able to write, and now I think it has a lot to do with PowerPoint and how to present information in a media-based manner. TH: You were generous enough to share with me the fact you had been diagnosed with breast cancer this past April. Can you tell me how it impacted your life, well, not so much your life, but your world? I am sure it was a shock to you. SW: Oh yeah. Especially because my sister died from breast cancer and we are the only two girls in our family. First, I think you respond to cancer or health challenges the same way you live your life. So of course my first response was, okay, I have to learn about this. I have to go read books and I have to look up stuff on the Internet and I have to figure out what I am dealing with. Second, I'm in charge. I need the skills of a surgeon, I can't do that. I need the skills of an oncologist but I am the one in charge and I am not going to go to a doctor and say tell me what to do. It is more like tell me what you recommend and why, but in the long run I am the one who has to make those decisions. Third, as long as I have cancer, I am glad it's a woman's—well, there are some men with breast cancer, but overall it is generally a women's disease—because all my life I have worked on women's issues. So here's a new one. Not one that I ever thought I would be leading about, but that is what I mean when I say life gives you issues. So that is why I am beginning to talk about it more, talk about the importance of self exams, to support local community organizations that reach out to women of poverty in particular, and try to help get them information and support. It is what I call my "let's do something about it" self, and I certainly can't do the research—other scientists will have to do that—but I can certainly help focus public attention to it. TH: I wanted to tell you that I just finished reading your book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was an educational journey for me as a man and helped me to understand what some of the women in my life have gone through. I know that it has made me a more empathetic individual when it comes to women's issues. SW: Well Thomas, there is nothing sweeter you can say to someone who has written a book than "I read your book." I now want to write another book. I am starting to look at some of the work I did with the Carter administration, some of the other women's issues, leadership issues, and hopefully get to a point of starting to write about that. TH: What can we expect from you visit to campus? SW: I was recently introduced on a college campus as being historic, and part of what I bring is a story of history. It is a true story, but it is a story of how things have changed. There is that old saying that says you can't dip your toe in the water of the same river twice, because the river is flowing and changing and I don't want students of today to dip their toe in the same river. They're going to be downstream from me. I certainly want to give them the best of what I have learned and the best of what I have experienced, and say to them [that] we are going to be depending on you. You have so many aspects and skills and there are so many issues that need your talent. I will be trying to give people the best of what I know, to be available to answer any questions, and to emphasize how important I think they are to the future. TH: You mentioned the future. What does the future hold for Sarah Weddington? SW: I think it is a couple of things. I will continue to teach here at the University of Texas. I have been on leave this past year but will return in September. Second it will be more writing, and I have to figure out how I will carve out time to do that. And then I think it is trying to provide support for people who care about issues and social concerns. TH: Thank
you so much for your time; I look forward to meeting you in the fall. —Thomas Howard ’02 is a senior in social work and is the major events chair for the Augsburg Student Activities Council, co-commissioner of Queer and Straight in Unity, and a McNair Scholar.
|
|||
| Copyright 2007.
Augsburg College all rights reserved. |
