
{"id":7121,"date":"2009-09-18T07:58:39","date_gmt":"2009-09-18T15:58:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=7121"},"modified":"2009-09-18T07:58:39","modified_gmt":"2009-09-18T15:58:39","slug":"a-time-for-grace-kindness-and-resilience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2009\/09\/18\/a-time-for-grace-kindness-and-resilience\/","title":{"rendered":"A time for grace, kindness and resilience"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Vicky Dickson<br \/>\nColumnist<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still basking in the afterglow of the N.C. Literary Festival. What an opportunity it was, to be in the same room with a celebrity like John Grisham, listen to literary lions Allan Gurganus and Elizabeth Spencer, learn about the blues from Bill Ferris and Cuba from Lars Schoultz, and be introduced to up-and-coming prodigies like Wells Tower. With apologies to Tar Heel fans, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll take a literary festival over a Final Four tournament every time. <!--more--><\/p>\n<p> I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m also still reflecting on Anna Deavere Smith\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tour de force, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Finding Grace and Kindness in a Winner-Take-All Society\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and Elizabeth Edwards\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 candid interview about her book Resilience: Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of Facing Life\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Adversities.<\/p>\n<p>Though varied in content, the two events were similar in that they were both intended to be more than entertainment. Smith employed her amazing acting skills to evoke the Rev. Peter Gomes, Ann Richards and a girl who lost her family to the 1993 Rwandan genocide, in an effort to inspire the cultivation of grace and kindness in her audience. Edwards wrote her book, and spoke about it, as a way of helping others develop the kind of resilience that has gotten her through her life\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s many trials.<\/p>\n<p>I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m further reflecting on the opportunity to follow Smith\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s and Edwards\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 inspiration in responding to another event that took place over the weekend, the Tea Party Protest march on Washington. Though it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tempting to dismiss this kind of protest as right-wing craziness, if those of us who care passionately about health care reform don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t speak up, we run the risk of letting the nay-sayers dominate the news. If we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t point out the inconsistencies in this group\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lack of concern over the deficits caused by the Bush tax cuts and war in Iraq, and their apparent wish to save only the Terry Shiavos and those unborn babies fortunate enough to have excellent health insurance, we let them frame the debate- and potentially sway the millions of Americans who haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t made up their minds about health reform.<\/p>\n<p>We need to share our stories of watching a close friend suffer the death of her uninsured 60-year-old sister two months after a lung cancer diagnosis. Or a long-term employee being quoted an individual rate of $3,200 a month from Blue Cross. Of waiting 12 hours for an elderly, demented parent to get treatment in an emergency room, and of making the decision to sign that parent out against medical advice when he faced the prospect of spending all night on a gurney in the corridor. When the commentators insist that emergency rooms ensure that no American is really without access to health care, we need to point out how much that sounds like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Let them eat cake.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>I believe many Americans are undecided about health care reform because they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t appreciate the extent of the unnecessary pain and suffering caused by our current system. I also believe they are compassionate enough to be revolted by the 18,000 American deaths that are estimated to be caused every year by a lack of health insurance. <\/p>\n<p>Health reform will not be either or inexpensive. Achieving it will surely require grace, kindness and, most of all, resilience on the part of Americans who realize the crucial role it will play in our nation\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s future. Elizabeth Edwards and Anna Deavere Smith came to the N.C. Literary Festival to inspire those qualities in us. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s up to us to take up the torch.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vicky Dickson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s writings on literature and local authors appear each month in <em>MILL<\/em> \u00e2\u20ac\u201d <em>The Carrboro Citizen<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s monthly arts magazine.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Vicky Dickson Columnist I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still basking in the afterglow of the N.C. Literary Festival. What an opportunity it was, to be in the same room with a celebrity like John Grisham, listen to literary lions Allan Gurganus and Elizabeth Spencer, learn about the blues from Bill Ferris and Cuba from Lars Schoultz, and be&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7121"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7132,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7121\/revisions\/7132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}