Dr. Mae C. Jemison delivers message of personal and national responsibility
By TINA ARNOPOLE DRISKILL

On January 25, 2003 Dr. Mae C. Jemison, who boarded the space shuttle Endeavor on September 12, 1992 as the first woman of color to go into space, inspired members of the Modesto area community with a strong message of personal and national responsibility during the city’s Ninth Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration at Modesto Junior College.

A few days later on February 1, the Endeavor’s sister space shuttle orbiter, Columbia, the first and oldest of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) space shuttle program, broke up in the sky above Texas during its descent to Cape Kennedy, Florida.

Despite this tragic event, Dr. Jemison’s message during her Modesto talk , ”Space exploration and human achievement must be willing to move ahead,” would support the continuation of manned space flight.

Feeling she did not want “to value herself for qualities before (her) space flight (or) for those she will grow into,” Dr. Jemison chose to move ahead, when she made the difficult decision to resign from NASA in March 1993.

Dr. Jemison’s work with NASA is just one of a lengthy list of dynamic accomplishments. This multi-talented woman has a wide range of experience as a chemical engineer, scientist, physician, teacher, and astronaut. In addition to her science and technology background, she also has extensive experience with African and African-American studies, is trained in dance and choreography and has studied Russian, Japanese and Swahili.

Prior to joining NASA in 1987, she worked as a general practitioner. She also spent 2 1/2 years as an Area Peace Corps Medical Officer for Sierra Leone and Liberia in West Africa.

As a member of the space program, she served as Science Mission Specialist ( a NASA first) on the STS-47 Space lab J flight, a US/Japan joint mission conducting experiments in life sciences and material sciences and was co-investigator in the Bone Cell Research experiment.

She cautions all of us against “dwelling upon one cool accomplishment,” and through her words and actions she encourages all of us “to learn and not stagnate.”

“It is vital to keep my humanity and my right to participate in life and help others,” she emphasizes. In this pursuit she has founded The Jemison Group, Inc. in Houston, Texas to research, develop and implement advanced technologies suited to the social, political, cultural and economic context of the individual, especially for the developing world. Current projects include: Alpha, a satellite based telecommunication system to improve health care in West Africa, and The Earth We Share, an international experiential science camp for students ages 12 through 16.

The focus of her work is to help children and adults understand that science and engineering research have a very important impact upon our everyday lives. She believes “science is misunderstood both within the field and by the general public,” and goes on to suggest that in order “to be a good citizen in this technical world, we need to be science literate,” regardless of gender, ethnicity or social position.

“I think, I wonder, I understand’ are at the heart of science,” she says, and “solutions come from understanding.”

While “the advances in physical and technical sciences are breathtaking,” she says, “the understanding of social sciences is pitifully lacking.” She notes a hierarchy which elevates the most abstract technical and physical sciences above the social sciences, and cautions we “can’t divorce any level of science from the others, since the observer does affect the observation and understanding of the outcome.”

She emphasizes the NASA program was not just about space flight, but about doing the work to learn how to support humans in space. She goes on to point out that satellites are in outer space either to help us learn and communicate with each other or to assess the military power of others.

She continues by questioning the vast amount of money spent on military weapons in light of the huge disparity worldwide between rich and poor on a planet with enough for all. In relation to a potential war with Iraq she emphasized during her January visit, “First of all, there is none yet. It is not a fait accompli. It comes down to where are we using our resources.”

When asked about working for peace amid concerns about war with Iraq, she pointed out that the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. “didn’t talk about peace”, but realized “ideas are potential energy that must be put into action.”

Although recognizing children are the future, she holds adults responsible for making the important decisions. She calls for a participatory democracy which demands we all pay attention to what we do today, keeping in mind our decisions affect future outcomes.

“Choices are made through action and inaction,” she observes. We in the United States of America live in “the most prosperous country in the history of the world, and it is time for us to look at how we are impacting the world around us and chose what kind of “legacy we want to pass on.” We have all the resources to insure our citizens “the basic needs of love, safety and happiness.”

“All of us have a role to play,” she says, and we need to hold our government and business leaders especially responsible. “Responsibilities come with business,” she says, but all too often “people in business are protected from owning their responsibilities.

When these leaders ask “how to balance the needs of the environment with the needs of business,” they are asking the wrong question, she says. We need to be asking whether “we do things that advance the world.”

She is concerned that society is failing in terms of public education, because not enough tax money is being used to provide educational resources and train qualified teachers. She added, “girls do better in math and science through high school” and may intend to go into those fields in college, but “drop out because of the way professors receive them,” or are “more concerned about parental expectations” for females.

Raised by parents who helped her to maintain her self-confidence, she saw herself as an astronaut at an early age. She warns youths , “Never let a kiss fool you or a fool kiss you,” explaining we all need to be careful about how the information or perceptions of others affects our lives. She emphasizes further that we need not be stopped by the limitations of others.

“Time is truly an irreplaceable commodity,” she offers. “Time is limited, but there are unlimited things we can do with time. There are 86,400 seconds in a day and each is precious.” The best work we can do to celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. is to use our time “to open our hearts and eyes”… and “show the best we have to offer in this world.”

If a young person asks, “Who am I to be brilliant and fabulous?,” she challenges them with, “Who are you not to be?

Parents workshop at Modesto Jr. College features renowned author

A free workshop for parents will be presented Saturday, March 29 by Alfie Kohn from 9 a.m. to noon, in the Modesto Junior College Auditorium. Sponsors are the college Child Development Dept., and Stanislaus County Children and Families Prop. 10 Commission. Free tickets are required.

Kohn is an outspoken critic of education's use of grades and test scores, competition and other related social theory on human behavior.

Just to read the titles of the numerous books by Kohn will pique your interest. For instance: Punished by Rewards: The trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes (1993). His 1990 book, The Brighter Side of Human Nature: Altruism and Empathy in Everyday Life argues that it is as "natural" for humans to help as to hurt. He provides alternative ideas for controlling students' behavior, described in his 1996 book Beyond Discipline: From compliance to Community.

ACTION: For information, call 575-6309. Reserve tickets at 575-6300.

Peace Fellowship in DC for college graduate

The Herbert Scoville Jr. Peace Fellowship provides college graduates the opportunity to work in Washington, DC, with a public-interest organization focusing on arms control and international security issues. The fellowship, offered twice yearly lasts from six to nine months and provides a stipend, health insurance, and travel costs to Washington. The Scoville Fellowship does not award grant or scholarship money to students.

Scoville Fellows may undertake a variety of activities, including research, writing, and organizing in support of the goals of their host organization and may attend coalition meetings, policy briefings, and Congressional hearings. They have written fact sheets, letters to the editor, opeds, magazine articles, briefing books and reports; organized talks and conferences, and been interviewed as experts by the media. Many former Scoville Fellows are hired either by their host organization or another group dealing with arms control or peace issues following their fellowships. U.S. citizens and foreign nationals residing in the United States are eligible to apply.

Visit www.scoville.org. Herbert Scoville Jr. Peace Fellowship, 110 Maryland Ave. NE, #409, Washington DC 20002; (202) 543-4100.

Davis-Putter Scholarship Fund for student activists

The Davis-Putter Scholarship Fund has applications for student activists who are building the progressive movement and will be enrolled in school during the 2003-04 academic.

Since 1961, the Davis-Putter Scholarship Fund has provided need-based grants to student activists who are able to do academic work at the college level and are involved in building the movement for social and economic justice.

Davis-Putter grantees are both graduate and undergraduate students who are enrolled in an accredited school for the time period covered by their grant. US citizenship is not a consideration but applicants must live in the United States and plan to enroll an accredited US program in order to qualify. There is a strong preference for grantees who plan to stay in the United States and build the progressive movement here.

Early recipients fought for civil rights, against McCarthyism, and for peace in Vietnam. More recently, grantees have been active in the struggle against racism, sexism, homophobia, and other forms of oppression; building the movement for economic justice; and creating peace through international, anti-imperialist solidarity.

The maximum grant is $6,000 and may be considerably smaller depending on the applicant's circumstances and funding available. All of the funds come from individual donors. Grants are for one year although students may re-apply for subsequent years.

Applications and the supporting documents - transcripts, a personal statement, two letters of recommendation, a photograph, financial aid reports - must be postmarked by April 1. Decisions are announced in July.

Requests for applications must be received by Friday, March 21, 2003 and should not be sent by carriers requiring a signature. To get an application packet, send a self-addressed stamped #10 envelope to Davis-Putter Scholarship Fund, P.O. Box 7307, New York, NY 10116-7307; davisputter@hotmail.com