LeVar Burton - reading and space exploration? Make it so!

Mr. Rogers and Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge of the Starship Enterprise were great friends. Who knew?

LeVar Burton’s speech at the Rollins College Alfond Sports Center on November 5^th, 2015 was filled with such tales. He was a guest of the Winter Park Institute, a local organization dedicated to providing a forum to luminaries who can stimulate creative thinking among college communities.

Of Star Trek and The Reading Rainbow fame, Burton spoke about his friend Fred Rogers, his mother’s influence, his advocacy towards literacy, and his first children’s book, The Rhino Who Swallowed the Storm, which he would later read to the crowd.

In the sea of eager attendees wearing Star Trek and Reading Rainbow shirts, was also Burton’s father, whom he emotionally said was attending one of his speeches for the first time.

In fact, Burton was emotional a few different times during his presentation. As he took the stage, he was visibly moved by the heartfelt introduction given by Dr. John Sinclair, the John M. Tiedtke Professor of Music at Rollins College. “As far as introductions go, that was pretty good!” Burton said with tears in his eyes.

Burton is undoubtedly a very passionate man, with equally passionate fans who filled the Alfond gym: people of all ages, excited to meet one of their idols.

Barbara Chandler, a volunteer at the Hannibal Square Heritage Center, was there because of Roots. Eileen Davitt, on the other hand, was a huge Star Trek fan. Eileen’s nephew, Michael, now 17 years old, had grown up watching The Reading Rainbow.  Whatever the reason for them being there, Burton certainly had a captive audience.

“My mother didn’t just read to me; she read in front of me.”  He started. “My mother recognized I would inherit a world that would often times be hostile, simply because of the color of my skin.”  Burton said his mom knew the best tool she could give him was an education.  “Erma Jean had expectations on me, and when I failed to meet those, I faced the thing I feared the most: disappointing her,” he continued.

Even if Erma Jean’s expectations for her son were high, she was probably not disappointed.

At the age of 13 Burton left home to attend Seminary, but, as the audience obviously knew, he would end up on a completely different path. “I left Seminary in 1974 to study theater. If I couldn’t be a man of the cloth, I can make it as an actor!”

While at the University of Southern California, where he studied Theater, Burton became familiar with Alex Haley’s works. Later, when ABC was producing a TV series about Haley’s acclaimed book Roots: The Saga of an American Family, Burton would come to fill the role of Kunta Kinte.

“One day on set Alex came to me and said how important this must be for me, and he said ‘I know you can’t afford it, but it’s important that your mom be here.’ Alex sent for Erma Jean, so she could feel a part of this process.”

Touched by Haley’s generosity, Burton said to the audience “Alex is an amazingly humble human being…Gene on the other hand…”

He was speaking, of course, of Gene Roddenberry, the writer, and creator of Star Trek. Burton quickly explained, amongst laughter, that he simply meant Roddenberry was a visionary, and was bold in his ideas!

“I watched a lot of Star Trek. I saw myself in Lt. Uhura. Gene’s vision was one that said there is an infinite variety of life,” said Burton. For a black child growing up in the 60s, during the height of the Civil Rights movement, to see himself represented on TV was “hugely important!”

According to Pop Culture website Vulture, Star Trek is still one of the most powerful fandoms in the world today, with an estimated 5.5 million Facebook followers, five spinoff TV series, and 11 feature films.

Even though he was enjoying tremendous success with Star Trek: The Next Generation in the 80s, Burton still felt compelled to pursue the passion his mother Erma Jean had instilled in him. Burton became the host and executive producer of the long-running PBS television show The Reading Rainbow in 1983.

With a philosophy of serving others, something he learned from both his mother and his beloved friend Fred Rogers, Burton wanted to help children find the same passion in reading he had.

“When I met Fred Rogers I was so excited! I’m going to find out how this man is really like, because nobody can be that nice. Of course, as you all know, Fred was that nice. I learned the value of being your authentic self, especially around children.” He recalls of meeting his friend.

Even with all of his involvement with reading, Burton had never penned his own book. His debut, The Rhino Who Swallowed a Storm, came in 2014.

Burton got the idea for Rhino after the events of the 2012 Colorado movie theater shooting. He was so shocked by such a deliberate, senseless act, that he found himself thinking “What would Fred say about this world?”

 In fact, in the days to follow he didn’t see anyone step up to address this new reality with the children, as he firmly believed his friend would have done. “So I decided to take a shot at it,” Burton said.

The Rhino Who Swallowed the Storm was born out of a necessity to help children cope with grief and the violent world around them.

The audience sat in awe of Burton, reading his touching story and acting all the voices and emotions of his characters.

When he was done, the room erupted in vigorous applause. Comments could be heard throughout the crowd: “He’s amazing,” “I loved it,” among other accolades.

From seminary to acting; from Star Trek to The Reading Rainbow, Burton showed not only his flexibility but his gentle spirit, and dedication to that in which he believes. Captain Picard would have been proud.

 

Give Peace a Chance - Brian Rusch, Executive Director of the Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation, wants "Peace Makers" to spread the word!

“Can’t we all get along?” First heard in 1992, the words uttered by Rodney King during the LA Riots seem to have transitioned from historical significance into the ranks of misquoted pop culture trivia.

The fact is, Mr. King’s words were poignant then, and should still be poignant now. Whether it’s an issue of police brutality, mass shootings, immigration, or governmental abuse of power, the fact is, society as a whole has hardly learned how to get along and live in peaceful existence.

In the United States alone, in 2012, there were over 1 million violent crimes recorded, the leading culprit being aggravated assault, but murder and rape make a respectable appearance. There's clearly a problem.

The Global Peace Film Festival, a Winter Park, Florida non-profit organization, aims at bringing awareness to peace issues not only in the United States, but around the world, to audiences that can take action and make a difference in the matter. As part of their initiatives, they also present educational panels with individuals who are active in their communities and can speak from experience on the issue of peace.

One such panel, whose subject was aptly entitled “What is Peace?” took place on Thursday, October 1^st, at Rollins College SunTrust Auditorium. The invited panelists consisted of Andrea Eliscu, president of Medical Maketing Inc., Dr. Yasmeen Quadri, professor and Education Coordinator at Valencia Community College, and Brian Rusch, Executive Director of the Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation in the United States.

“The Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation helps promote peace by teaching young people to take inspiration from Tutu and other peace leaders, and then put it into practice” said Rusch, who was appointed director on June 24^th, 2015, and is excited to use his previous experience to make an impact, particularly with the Foundation’s Peace3 program.

Ironically, Rusch did not set out to make his career in the activism business; he started out in the Entertainment industry, “dressing up Rock stars.” However, after his grandfather died he was compelled to do more with his life. He contacted Project Happiness, a non-profit whose mission is to empower people with the resources to create greater happiness within themselves and the world.

Through his connection with Project Happiness, Rusch was given the opportunity to work on a film project with the Dalai Lama. This eventually led to his current work with Reverend Tutu, with whom Rusch has “a deep connection.” Project Happiness’ mission is very similar to Peace3’s: the concept that in order to achieve peace without, one must first achieve it within. Essentially, people at peace with themselves make peace with the world.

During the panel, Moderator Chris Williams asked Rusch what Tutu’s prescription for inner peace was, and how one could spread it. “For Tutu, it’s prayer, for me, it’s meditation. It’s different for everyone.” First, the key is discovering what each one’s personal concoction is; then, the Foundation’s role is to bring the message to peace Luminaries like Deepak Chopra, Glenn Beck, and even Kerry Washington, so that people will be inclined to listen.

So what happens when someone has listened and decides to act? That was the question audience member Kathy Hettinger asked the experts. Kathy had felt in her attempts to stand up for injustice in the name of peace, she was being held back by the local police force.  “What gives?” Kathy asked. Brian’s response was sobering. He asked her to entertain the notion that law is not the same as justice. Protesting is important because one has to stand up for what is right. And he reminded the audience that when Reverend Tutu stood up to Apartheid, that was the law! “If there’s a reason to protest, get out there!”

Rusch has his work cut out for him. According to the foundation's website, the goal of Peace3 is to recruit one million peace makers by 2020. How will they do it? Rusch conceded that is a tall order, but believes that “through a combination of digital assets and campus tours” the organization can achieve this. “Focus on what’s important for the community. In Orlando, it’s race. In California, it’s more faith based.”

It’s an optimistic view, but then again, that may be exactly what is needed: optimism.

The issue, many times, is making peace and activism appealing to people. Michelle Ngo, who was in attendance and has done some activism work in India, wanted to know how Rusch planned to make activism and peace “sexy.” While this elicited a chuckle from the audience, it was a fair question. How does Brian plan to make peace as attractive as the more dramatic news stories out there?

“Kerry Washington!” joked Rusch. Ok...fair point there, but the true answer is that he recognizes this has to be a packaging issue. It’s understanding that everyone has the capacity to be a broadcaster and that they take this opportunity. “Facebook is huge! What I am trying to do is get awareness out there.”

Turns out, perhaps achieving peace is a simple matter of changing one’s attitude. Rusch touched on the concept of “Ubuntu,” which is an ancient African word meaning humanity to others, or, as he put it, “I am because we are.” If everyone understood empathy, and that all people are part of the same whole, conflicts and wars would be a thing of the past.

Ubuntu teaches that the “we” is much stronger than the “I.” “Everyone needs to do this together! The key is to not have division between people.” There’s too much focus on the “they,” but it’s much more than that,” said Rusch.

As a nation, we certainly have a long way to go, but with people like Brian Rusch looking to inspire the new generations, perhaps the world has a chance at peace after all.

Leymah Gbowee: A woman's mission to inspire activism

Activism doesn’t have to be a scary and intimidating word. Sometimes, it’s as easy as getting off the couch and speaking up when you don’t agree with something.

That is what Leymah Gbowee believes in, and if you’re going to listen to anyone on the matter, Gbowee is quite possibly your best choice. A Nobel Peace Laureate, recognized in 2011 for her activism work in Liberia, Madame Gbowee knows from experience what it means to stand up for what you believe in, even if it means putting your life on the line. On September 16th, 2015, in an event presented by the Winter Park Institute, she was gracious enough to speak to an eager audience at Rollins College Alfond Sports Center.

After a quick introduction by Rollins President Grant Cornwell, she is ready to take the microphone and inspire the crowd. As she approached the stage to tell the filled room about her journey, what you saw a normal, unassuming woman who carried herself in a calm, yet almost regal manner. Dressed in a typical African dress and head wrap – with blue shoes to match – Ms. Gbowee’s strength was not necessarily obvious to the eye, but simply strongly felt in her demeanor.  

“Imagine you’re 17. One minute you’re a child and the next you’re an adult – through no fault of your own.” This is how she opens her story. In war ravished Liberia, Gbowee had to grow up fast. She saw everything she treasured be taken away at a young age, but the beauty of her story comes not from death and loss, but from what she saw beyond it. She saw an opportunity to rise above and change that which she knew was wrong.

 

Later in life, after enrolling in a social work program in Liberia, she met a group of women from Sierra Leone who would change her life. Having a hard time understanding why these women were so happy, despite having been mutilated and repeatedly raped, she was told by one of them “Women are the ones who will change the community!” From then on Leymah Gbowee made it her life’s mission to empower women and encourage activism to affect change where needed. In her Women in Peace-building Network chapter in Liberia, she saw her original 20 members quickly turn into 900 in just 9 months.

Not many people would maintain a fighting spirit after seeing so much adversity in life, but Gbowee and the Liberian women didn’t have much more to lose, so why not fight for what they could gain? It wasn’t easy, but it was worth it, and she believes everyone has the duty to do the same.

 

Activism is who she is, and she is unapologetically fierce about it. When asked by an audience member what advice she had for the women in Venezuela fighting for democracy, Madame Gbowee showed her no-nonsense approach to the issue. Without hesitation she said “there have to be sacrificial lambs.”

This thought process is exactly what she wanted the audience to take away: activism is not easy, and it’s not quick, and cannot be accomplished through apathy. To the women in Venezuela, and any other country going through a political crisis, she humorously said if everyone is "waiting for Mandela to resurrect and save their countries, that’s not going to work."

 

When another audience member asked how deep a factor fear had been for her, Gbowee admitted to not being fearless, but simply not letting fear stop her. In her quest to encourage activism, she explains that your life does not need to be at risk. All human beings have the ability to be activists, whether it is helping a woman with a stroller up the subway stairs, or giving a flip-flop to man whose shoe just broke.

“Activism for change means stepping into spaces, creating hope for those who’ve lost it. It’s giving back to humanity what humanity has given you,” she says. In her head-to-toe blue outfit, and her unassuming, and many times witty demeanor, Leymah Gbowee demands attention and commands action. She may come across as a nice auntie - a term she herself used -, but she packs a punch. She has done the impossible, and is not afraid to ask you to do the same!

My Prized Possession

Materialism – the cornerstone of the American society! What we have, what we’d like to have, and how much of it we do have (and is it shinier than your neighbor’s?)! The fact is we all own material things, no matter what our culture. It doesn’t even matter how much money we have; most people hang on to items they consider important. Perhaps it was something someone saved for years to be able to afford, or it could be objects passed down to you by a loved one. My prized possession falls under this last category. I typically don’t make emotional connections to material things, but my treasured item was given to me by my mother, and it was something that was so important to her I feel I owe it the same regard. It’s a set of tea cups from Japan, gifted to her as a wedding present. They helped my mother during a crucial time in her life, later they facilitated a special bond between my mother and me, but their most important role is the one they played when my father passed away. Ultimately, they are much more than just a possession.

At the beginning of their life together, my parents didn’t have much. My mom was a teacher, while my father was working full time and going to school to finish his degree. Very shortly after they were married my dad’s job required a move to another state, and my mom had to leave everything she knew behind. She was also pregnant with my brother. Going from a place where one is surrounded by family to another where you know no one can be daunting. Their new apartment was also much smaller, so they downsized. A lot of their wedding gifts stayed behind, but my mom insisted on taking the cups. They were small enough, and, what I’m certain she didn’t tell my dad, they also gave her a sense of the familiar. The tea set had not just simply been purchased for them, but had been owned by a loving aunt who passed it down to them. This was her connection to family.

Ironically, no one in my family since my grandmother has had a habit of drinking tea. Even if we did, I doubt those cups would have made their way out of the hermetically sealed cabinet where they resided to be tainted by a hot substance…I’m sure the little Geisha at the bottom of the cup would feel quite affronted by such a crass act. The point is, they were too beautiful to be used for anything other than longing admiration. Long after my parents moved back to Rio, and when I was little, I would ask my mom if I could see the cups. She would make a big pageant of it, holding each one with such a light touch you’d think they were ethereal. I was fascinated by them and thought they were the loveliest cups in the entire world. It was clear my mom was proud of them and glad to display them to such an adoring audience. It was “our thing.”

Many years after those sessions of adoration sessions, my father passed away from a completely unexpected disease. I had long been living abroad in the United States and it was very hard for me to fathom life without my father. Furthermore, it was hard to imagine my mom alone in Brazil without my father. I went back home to help, and one day my mom called me to her room and handed me the tea cups. She said they had been there for the good and the bad, and they always served as a life-line when she needed one, so they were my life-line now. The tea cups were there when my parents were struggling to build a life together away from what they knew. They were there in my childhood, and now they were here in my hands – those cups I had been forbidden to touch as I was certain to break them – helping me mend my connection to my family. It was an incredibly touching moment and one I’ll never forget.

So the tea cups are my most prized possession because they are so much more than just tea cups – they mean family to me; they represent togetherness. An item that my mom held on to for a great portion of her life and that got her through some tough times, she saw fit to bestow upon me when she felt I needed a connection to family. That tea set was my mother’s prized possession when she was in a strange place. It was a link that bonded us together in my childhood, and at the end of my father’s life, it was one of the most important things she could have given me other than her love. Those cups represent her strength, and as silly as it may sound, they give me that same strength. Maybe they would fetch a pretty penny on Antiques Road Show…but I don’t care, because to me, they’re priceless!

The proud Geisha and the tea set: