05/05/04 00:00 | 568 W Salt Lake City
We didn't know what to expect upon our arrival in the People's Republic of Utah. The state, America's very own theocracy and a bastion of right wing politics (as well as being home to the best powder skiing in the U.S. — but I digress) is not where we expect to draw the kind of crowds we've had elsewhere. We were right — SLC turns out the biggest crowd we've seen in days. A huge line is still waiting patiently at the door at the beautiful Gardner Hall at the University of Utah when organizers announce that the 700-seat hall is full. A man comes over to us as we are signing books to say, “You know, when Sebastiao Selgado came, they just let everybody in and people stood in the aisles. We're going to be very disappointed if we can't see you!” So Amy went inside and politely suggested that the ushers just let everybody in. We offered to have people crowd around us on stage. To their credit and our relief, the ushers just threw open the doors, everybody scrunched together inside, and over 1,000 people packed into the concert hall.Our event was a fundraiser for KRCL, the local community radio station that airs Democracy Now! Just before the event, a woman approached us. “Hi Amy, I don't know if you remember, but we were arrested together in Washington, D.C.” It was the great writer Terry Tempest Williams, who had come to the event with her niece.
The Utah audience was energized. One woman told us that even though it's a conservative state, it's small enough that you can make a difference on issues that you care about. She told us, “Even if they don't always listen to me, I speak my mind to the people in power here.”
April 30, BOSTON
Tonight was a remarkable evening. The Boston Women's Fund was honoring Amy with an award, together with Native American activist Winona LaDuke and Rep. Barbara Lee. Three uniquely amazing women. Each woman spoke about people who inspired them. Rep. Barbara Lee recalled how Shirley Chisolm, the African American woman who ran for president in 1972, inspired her. Chisolm urged Lee, a single mother of two sons who was disillusioned by electoral politics, to get involved. Lee ended up running Chisolm's campaign in northern California. Amy lauded Lee's courageous, lonely vote against authorizing President Bush to go to war after 9/11.
Amy then talked about her (our) mother, Dorothy Goodman, as her inspiration. She recalled a time in seventh grade when she got in trouble in her home economics class. That was the class where a sign on the wall that said, “If you are not a lady, you are nothing.” Amy announced that she wasn't interested in becoming a lady. She wanted to take shop, instead, just like her brothers. No dice, said the school. Amy described how our mom got on the phone with the home ec teacher and firmly explained that the problem wasn't with Amy, it was with a class that encouraged girls to think no further than being a good housekeeper and wife. “I learned that day that my mother was behind me me unconditionally. And what a difference that has made.” Mom was in the audience that night. “I was so touched,” she told us.