Name-Dropping

As I now lead the life of a virtual recluse, I don't get out much anymore. While staying put certainly has lessened my anxiety over social situations, I have missed out on meeting some names. In the past 2 years, I had the opportunities to meet Cindy Sheehan, Cynthia McKinney, Alexander Cockburn and Angela Davis, but passed each time because it would have meant leaving my cocoon and traveling north to the big cities of Western Washington.

However, back in my former life, I did have the opportunity to meet some noted names. I tended to be very uncomfortable in many of these situations, but I always managed to muddle through it...somehow.

When I was in junior high school, my family traveled to Washington D.C. for a family vacation. One day while walking around the Capitol Building, our family bumped into a former Vice President, one Hubert Humphrey, the senior senator from Minnesota. I don't remember much of anything about the conversation, but my parents came away very impressed with the man.

At some point in my life -- it escapes me as to precisely when -- I got to meet John "Jack Danforth who served as US Senator for the State of Missouri and later as US Ambassador to the United Nations. Actually, I'm related to this conservative Republican. My late mother was his 3rd or 4th cousin once or twice removed.

However, my best opportunity to meet famous people occurred in the 1990s when I was an activist and leader of several progressive groups. The first one of my heroes I had the opportunity to meet was Ralph Nader. While I still like him as a public icon, I was less than impressed with him in person. He seemed very egotistical and used to people catering to his every whim.

Nader served as the Green Party's presidential candidate in 1996 and 2000. He made several appearances in Oregon during this time. It just amazed me how he could send an audience into a frenzy, yet be such a cold fish in person.

However, his running mate for both campaigns, environmental and Native rights activist Winona LaDuke was not a cold fish in the least. She could whip up a crowd just as much as Nader, but behind the scenes, she exuded warmth, sincerity and kindness. I had the opportunity on three different occasions to spend some quality time with her. I got to meet her husband, one child and even her mother. All I can say is that she is really cool lady.

Another cool lady I had the opportunity to meet was Sister Helen Prejean, author of the book Dead Man Walking. (Susan Sarandon portrayed Prejean in the movie of the same name.) Prejean, an ardent opponent of the death penalty, was in Salem, OR to give a speech on the subject at Willamette University.

I was tabling at the event for one of the sponsoring groups. As the event was sold out and there were hundreds of people milling about after the speech, it just got to be too much for me. I ended up going down the hall to sit on a bench away from the milling hoard. As I'm sitting there munching on a bagel, someone sat down next to me. When I looked to see who it was, I almost dropped my bagel. It was the guest of honor, Helen Prejean.

She had been keeping to a nonstop schedule and admitted being a bit tired. So, Helen, me and a close friend, Donna, sat and talked quietly for around 20 minutes. I had a copy of Prejean's book and she graciously autographed it to my wife (who wasn't able to meet her idol that night because of the flu).

I also got to meet Noam Chomsky in a similar sort of way. Chomsky, another one of my heroes, has written such books as Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media and Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance. He gave a speech at Oregon State University and later there was a private confab at the area's one ritzy country club.

To be quite candid, I was greatly underwhelmed by his speech. Maybe I had been expecting too much, but it sounded like too many previous speeches. Afterwords I and a few others had received special invitations to meet Chomsky at the country club affair. Good thing we didn't have to pay for it because it cost far more than I could dream of paying -- several hundred dollars per person!

My comrades and I were a bit annoyed that this champion of the people would even agree to participate in this really exclusive and snobbish affair. However, once I got to meet him -- and actually got to talk to him for over 15 minutes -- I found out that he almost pulled out of the contract when he learned of this after party thing. He only agreed to it ON THE CONDITION that the money raised be given to charity! His stature rose even further in my eyes.

I had always imagined that Chomsky would be a rather dry fellow, but he turned out to be quite a funny man. He kept my friends and I cracked up while we had our 15 minute talk on politics.

However, of all the named people I've had the opportunity to spend some time with, the one who I got to spend almost 2 hours with was none other than academy award winner Michael Moore. He came to Salem to give a speech and hold a book signing for one of his many books (I don't remember which one.)

After the event he and his entourage along with a bunch of my comrades descended on a now-defunct coffeehouse in downtown Salem for dinner. We sat around the table laughing and talking like old friends. My wife & I sat next to his wife who is just as much an activist as he is. And let me tell ya, the Michael Moore you see on camera is the real Michael Moore. He doesn't put on any airs. He's just a good 'ol boy who has made it big and sometimes is amazed at his own popularity.

So, there's the short list of my brushes with the quasi-rich and/or famous. While each of these meetings is a special memory, most of my special memories involve ordinary people like you and me. In the end, whether a person is a known quantity or not, we each put our pants on in the same way.