ROLE MODELS
(1:43:18)Hieu: ….Dr. Lykes….this is one question, but 2 points: whose is or are work or life really your role model? And who is behind you for you to do all of this?
Brinton: ha…ha…ha……hum……(very low voice..)…who inspires …me…….?????
(smiling)
(Both were laughing…giggling………)
Hieu: You can’t just………say....yeah…I want to do this…or I want to do that…….
Brinton: NO…I have A LOT of role models in my life. I mean Julian??? The one help to resonate African, a Native American who worked in my family …certainly a role model for me and my childhood. Um….A WOMAN name Lilian Smith, she‘s white woman, who wrote a lot about …..chosing anti racist woman in the South. And she’s written books, number of books that I read as a young adult and reread from time to time about that experience, about that growing up in the South, and about how racism get install in you as a child implicitly and ….. while you’re being taught, love your neighbor as your self. And how kids are acculturated into racism even parents having …to try. If parents inactively involve to confront racism, so…..she ..,in some ways…. And then the NUN, who helped ….she was certainly in my fantasy life…not in my real life. I was telling you I went to school…that was taught by nun …They started in France and then there was a nun…(not clear her name---phipllip….???)… who was one of the first nun to bring …the order to this country and…as a child I wanted …..her life….and that was sort of inspiring suppose in some ways. And I WAS inspired by a professor I had in college. I like….
Hieu: Now I understand…why your life so rich of knowledge….you are so lucky to have many role models…..because some people they don’t even have ONE……..
(1:45:30)Brinton: YEAH……I WAS ALSO INSPIRED BY ….um….you know ….I am inspired ……I am deeply inspired by…..some of the women that I worked with in Guatemala and the (Talaman Chahu????) I just profoundly impressed …..you know….another person who ….um…I don’t usually …sort of…pick people who kind of ……I never ….I don’t usually think of people as heroes…but Nelson Mandala who I mentioned as president of South Africa, and he’s extraordinary human being in what I think it fascinate me about him …a human being….is that he was able to walk out of prison and have been in the prison from many… many years. And having be a part of revolutionary moment and process and then be able to …um…to forgive ….which I think it’s remarkable… human… gift. One that I don’t really feel bless by…to forgive the people who tortured him and people who prisoned him. ..
Hieu: Yeah..that’s very hard….
(1:46:40)Brinton: um….so I guess I …yeah…think that …Nelsin Bardo….Salvador social psychologist I worked with …that was killed in 1989, …Neir…Narmas???…Guatemala anthropologist who was killed in Guatemala in 1990….those …people whose lives…..I mean I am bless enough to know these people and to work with them…in some ways, and …I carry them with me…in some ways….that keep me moving ….forward.
Hieu: You’re kind of read my ….next question…because …..when you feel down or the moment…..going through difficulties, so who do you think of so that to get back the power to ……get over that?
Brinton: Uh..huh…uh…huh….I tend to think of these people…..and I also (p)….this a little phrase like: there’s a…um...Well, there’s another woman who was my spiritual director for a while….woman name Micky Mckeith??…who was a Catholic nun, who that I went to school and I used to do …retreat with her...as an adult…..she died a number of years ago. She‘s someone that I think about sometime when I am down …..she had quite a remarkable life, or I think about like…..it’s a Catholic Dutch…???? ….….his name was …Henry Mallen??? .and he wrote the book call “the wounded healer”, in which he talked a lot about …um….i think that we are all in one way wounded …and we all suffer….some of it more or some of it less. And we call into a relationship where we are fortunately enough to be able to be part of… healing our self and healing other people…NOT in some permanent, not in some whole sense… but to call each other into …WHOLENESS or.in some ways into relationship, into looking for which. I ALSO …you know I think …..more likely to get angry than I am to get depress, and anger mobilizes me ….to ACTION…
Hieu:..ha….ha…ha….
Brinton:…because I do believe that we can change things. Um….I sometimes find it….…..you know I think it‘s very frustrating historical moment to be alive today is tough. Um…but I am inspired by young people. For example: I am ASOLUTELY inspired by the use of the WEB, and the way in which people of your generation have creatively engage the internet to call us in to ACTION…and all kind of ways. I am PROFOUNDLY… mobilize by young people in India, who are teenagers and who have to work to help support their family, special organizing Union demanding that youth be able to WORK and GO to school. I am ABSOLUTELLY mobilize by people how are engaging in protest the trafficking human being …which is one of terrific aspect in….byproduct of …..These are not movements I am personally a part of, but I read about them, and I learn about …. I learn about them. Um…so….I think that there are some credibly inspiring social movements ….they’re tiny, they are not big, global yet….but there…it hope for all of us….if we don’t know each other or something……