Benefit for the Texas Women's Chamber of Commerce ... a roast of Liz Carpenter featuring Helen Thomas and Sarah Weddington (who can be dimly seen beyond the balloons). Photo by Michael Sidoric. Click image for larger size.

January 3, 2006

2006 is starting as we stand on a precipice regarding the U.S. Supreme Court.  The results of the Alito hearings and the following Senate vote are likely to decide the future of reproductive rights.  I hate that O’Connor feels she must leave, but people in D.C. have told me that her husband has Alzheimer’s to such a degree that her departure in order to care for him is inevitable. You may have heard the quip that “We honor Rosa Parks because she refused to give up her seat for a man; if only Sandra Day O’Connor would do the same.” That’s sadly unrealistic.

The menacing content of the news in 2005 both as to reproductive rights and civil liberties subtracted from the enjoyment of other activities.  However, looking back there were many moments that I remember fondly. And looking ahead, the mid-term elections and the outcome of current questions being raised about ethical lapses by some close to the administration may turn out to be positive developments.

Generally speaking, the year started and ended with wonderful international travel experiences.  Venice for my February birthday was not just “cool” but cold – freezing cold.  Mardi Gras was that week and the ever-so-fabulous Il Ballo del Doge (“The Ball of the Doge” – or in theory the ball in honor of the ruler of Venice) was scheduled on my birthday.  Friends journeyed with me via water taxi to arrive at the venue, a sumptuous villa on the Grand Canal lit entirely by candlelight.  (Anyone willing to buy a ticket could attend, so I didn’t even have to arrange a crowd.)  All guests were masked and in period costume with lots of feathers. The most “exciting” moment was when a woman standing at the next table bent over to read the menu and list of activities and accidentally tipped the tallest feathers in her hat into candle flames, producing fire, lots of water-tossing activity and that awful smell that accompanies burned feathers.  Austin’s current motto is “Keep Austin Weird”; about half the guests at the ball truly put Austin to shame in terms of weird, which made “guest gazing” my favorite activity. My students knew that I was going to Mardi Gras.  When I returned they asked, “How was Rio?”  I had to explain that I had gone where people add, not shed, clothing.

I’d heard about the problems caused by high water in the canals like flooding, but I didn’t realize that low water levels create different but very important problems.  The Venice canals were getting lower and lower during the days we were there.  I learned that if the wind is blowing from the North it usually produces freezing conditions but pushes the water OUT of the canals.  It didn’t rain while we were there and we didn’t have to use rain boots, etc., even once.  But low water in the canals makes it difficult for fireboats (no trucks there) and the boats that serve as ambulances and hearses to move around. It also means workers moving around Venice by boat, as especially construction workers and their supplies and tools do, are delayed or prevented from working.

Teaching continues to be a joy.  Basically I teach seniors at the University of Texas – Austin with 3.5 or above averages or who have established leadership credentials.  The students are truly excellent and engaged.  This spring I’ll be teaching “Leadership in America” and in the fall “Gender-Based Discrimination” (a pre-law class). 

Special events and speeches were once again plentiful.  Houston Planned Parenthood presented me their most prestigious honor at its annual gala, as did the Berkeley School of Public Health. The big political victory of the year with which I was involved was the defeat of the California referendum to make access to abortion for teens more difficult; I was in San Diego to help raise money for the statewide Action Fund to defeat that measure. 

In Cleveland I was the inaugural speaker for a women’s leadership center at The Glenn Institute at Ohio State.  Visiting with John Glenn and his wife was a treat. At 80+ he is still the ramrod straight Marine and had interesting stories to tell about his trips into space.  For example, when he took his first space trip travel there was so new that NASA worried that the different atmospheric pressure would cause eyeballs to flatten resulting in blindness for a space traveler. There was an eye chart posted on the instrument panel for Glenn to read periodically to the NASA control personnel during the trip to see if he was losing his sight.

Speaking to MPI (Meeting Planners International) meant a trip to San Diego.  NPELRA was in Fort Lauderdale. Seattle was where I did a speech for the American Constitution Society and several universities. Other university speech sites included Denver, CO; Northfield, MN; Ann Arbor, Saginaw, and Allendale, MI; New Britain, CT.; Claremont and Ontario, CA.; Oxford, Miss.; Platteville, WI; and Wellesley, MA. Of course I participated in a long list of additional events related to maintaining reproductive choice.

Other speeches generally can be categorized as benefits for groups fighting cancer, law-related, or leadership-related. Tucson is the site of Friends of Sunstone, a center dedicated to serving cancer survivors, along with their families and friends. I spent an evening speaking for them. I also did an event for the Komen Foundation in Austin.

The highlight of the law-related events was meeting and getting a photo with Cecilia “Cissy” Suyat Marshall, the widow of Justice Thurgood Marshall who voted for Roe v. Wade, at the American Bar Association annual convention in Chicago. Other law-related events included speaking for several law firms, to the ABA Family Law Section, the San Antonio Bar Association, the Texas Chapter of the National Association of Women Judges and a variety of law schools.

Leadership was the focus of my participation in the IWoman Conference in Indianapolis, Momentum in Birmingham, the Women’s Campaign Fund in NY City, the Stennis Center for Public Service regional meeting in San Antonio, Power Pipeline in Dallas, Leadership California in San Francisco, and Leadership America in D.C. Participating in a Roast of Liz Carpenter to benefit the Women’s Chamber of Commerce meant working with columnist Helen Thomas, whom I knew in D.C. and who had lots of biting comments to share. 

The 2005- 2006 holiday parties were fun.  Two special events were at the Austin home of Liz Carpenter, one that circled around guests Lady Bird Johnson and Linda Johnson Robb and the other which featured Bobbie Nelson at the piano.  Bobbie is Willie Nelson’s sister who plays piano for his band when they are on tour and does extensive song writing.

My goal for 2006 is to spend more time in Austin.  I’ve talked about a book of memoirs focusing on leadership, and it’s time to complete that goal.