January 31, 2010: The Meaning of Matthew Shepard - The Mood of America, An Interview with Adam Gopnik - The Schumann Letters

The Meaning of Matthew Shepard

Shortly before five in the morning of Oct. 8, 1998, Judy Shepard was awakened by a phone call at her home in Dahran, Saudi Arabia where her husband was working. The call was not from her son Matthew back in Laramie, Wyoming who had trouble getting the time zones right. It was from an emergency room doctor in Laramie who said her son had been severely injured. In fact, Matthew had been beaten,savagely by two young men, tortured, tied to a fence in the bitter cold and left to die. Five days after the attack, Matthew Shepard died without regaining consciousness.

Though they didn't know it at the time, his parents would learn to their horror that their son was beaten to death because he was homosexual. His death, the subsequent media uproar and the trial of the two killer reverberated around the world.

A play, The Laramie Project, has become one of the most produced plays anywhere. Matthew Shepard came to stand as a martyr for anyone who has ever been harassed or assaulted for being gay. Judy Shepard is Mathew's mother. After his death, she and her husband Dennis began the Matthew Shepard Foundation dedicated to his legacy and the cause of social justice and equality for gay people. She has just published a memoir, a
heart-rending account called, The Meaning of Matthew, and Judy Shepard joined Michael Enright in our Toronto Studio.

Music

Song: Von Fremden Landern Und Menschen, Kinderscenen Op.15 No.1
Artist: Robert Schumann
Album: Festival International de Musique de Chambre d'Ottawa


Mail Pack #1

At the end of Hour One we took a look at your mail about last week's piece about Reluctant Readers.

You can write to us about anything you hear on the program. Our email address is thesundayedition@cbc.ca. You can also write us a letter at The Sunday Edition, Box 500, Terminal A, Toronto Ontario M5W 1E6.


Music

Song: Kinderszenen, Op.15
Artist: Peter Togni Trio
Album: Shimmeree


Listen to Hour One:

 


Music

Song: Some Other Blues
Artist: Joe Sealy & Paul Novotny
Album: Double Entendre


The Mood of America - An Interview with Adam Gopnik

When Barack Obama delivered his first State of the Union Address to Congress on Wednesday night, the mood of America was far different from that when he delivered his inauguration address in January of 2009.

There was a sense when he assumed office that things had changed in America and this despite the fact that at the time the USA was mired in an economic downturn being described as the worst since the Great Depression, the automobile industry seemed doomed, the country was fighting two wars and the anger and bitterness of the Bush years still lingered at the heart of the body politic.

Twelve months later many of the bald facts seemed the same. The economy is still deeply troubled, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continue, health care remains a vague dream for millions and the anger and division that had marked American politics for much of the decade was as virulent as ever. The salient difference is that somehow, Barack Obama no longer seems the miraculous agent of change he once did.

His approval ratings are dropping, his agenda seems stalled, and the hope he once seemed to embody seems dashed. What has gone so horribly wrong? What happened to the incredible expectation and anticipation that Americans and the world seemed imbued with both on Election Night in 2008 and Inauguration Day 2009?

Taking the pulse of a nation, gauging its mood is as much about intuition, contemplation and observation as it is about the arcane science of polling and opinion sampling. Sometimes you need a thinker and a wordsmith more than you need a statistician.

Adam Gopnik has been a staff writer at The New Yorker for almost a quarter century during which time he has explored the magic and mystery of the relationship between art and religion, the nature of life in exile, the joys of parenting, the fascination of fiction and ultimately what it means to be human, what it means to dream. He was the 11th recipient of Westport Public Library's Booked for the Evening award, which acknowledges the efforts of a writer who embodies the purpose of the library "to nurture the love of learning and to enhance our understanding of the world". Adam Gopnik is no stranger to the Sunday Edition and this week he joined Michael Enright from a New York Studio.


The State of the Union after the State of the Union Address

By all accounts it was a make or break night, a do or die speech. On Wednesday, President Barack Obama fulfilled a constitutional obligation and travelled down Pennsylvania Avenue to address Congress on the State of the Union. Millions of Americans and millions of people around the globe tuned in to see just what Barack Obama would say after a year in office. And it's been a year of truly mixed accomplishments and arresting failures both in terms of domestic priorities and global demands.

And as much as some people tuned into the speech to witness what some referred to as a failed president doomed to a single term...others tuned in to see how the American president, slightly bloodied politically but not particularly bowed, defined the next twelve months.

The reality is that we pay attention to State of the Union Address by American Presidents because what the United States does or doesn't do on a variety of issues has a major impact on the state of the world. When it comes to vitality of the world's economic system, the health of the planet's environment, or the state of peace and war what the U.S. is inclined to do matters, and what stance the U.S. president takes matters greatly.

So how did he do Wednesday Night? How should we judge Barack Obama's first year as President and what should we expect of the next year.

Michael Enright was joined this week by three keen observers of American Politics and America's role in the world. In Berkeley California, Mark Danner, journalist, essayist and professor at the University of California Berkeley. In Washington D.C., Karlyn Bowman, Senior Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and In Bradford England. Our third guest, Paul Rogers, is a professor of peace studies at the University of Bradford and an editor of Open Democracy.

Music

Song: Dusty Miller
Artist: John Showman
Album: Showman

Empty Nest - An Essay by Wendy Morley

For some parents, it's an excruciating lonely time, of reckoning and sadness. The hollow quiet in the house. The echoey bedrooms. All that extra space for boots and jackets in the front hall cupboard. The empty nest. Sometimes it comes all too soon.

But sometimes, it can't come soon enough. From Vancouver, Wendy Morley wrote an essay about dreaming of the day when the fledglings take flight.

Music

Song: TBA
Artist: Bill Coon Trio
Album: Speakeasy


Listen to Hour Two:

 



Music

Song: 3rd Mouvement : Scherzo - Molto Vivace
Artist: Robert Schumann
Album: Robert Schumann: Symphonies 1-4


The Schumann Letters

The great German romantic composer Robert Schumann died in 1856, succumbing at last to the syphilis that had ravaged his body and mind most of his adult life.

The obituary in the Musical Times of September 1856 read: "...the flame which burned in his heart for music had consumed his restlessly creative mind. His works are his monument".

Schumann left behind his beloved wife Clara, his helpmate collaborator and guiding spirit. Theirs was a love affair that burned brightly in thousands of letters between the two, and inspired some of the composer's most exquisite music.

The Schumann Letters is a concert of music and narrative celebrating the great love affair between Robert Schumann and his wife Clara. It is performed by actor Colin Fox, soprano Susan Gilmour Bailey and Michael Kim. We started off this hour by airing a clip of the performance which is currently touring the country.

Actor Colin Fox and soprano Susan Gilmour Bailey joined Michael from our studio in Saskatoon.


Music

Song: Träumerei
Artist: Robert Schumann
Album: The Schumann Letters


Music

Song: Er, der Herrlichste von allen Op.42 No. 2
Artist: Robert Schumann
Album: The Schumann Letters

Music

Song: Die Lotusblume Op. 25
Artist: Robert Schumann
Album: The Schumann Letters


Mail Pack #2

We had time to read some more of your mail.

Two weeks ago we started our new series Media Philes with a panel discussion regarding media coverage of global warming.

You can write to us about anything you hear on the program. Our email address is thesundayedition@cbc.ca. You can also write us a letter at The Sunday Edition, Box 500, Terminal A, Toronto Ontario M5W 1E6.


Music

Song: Gold Diggers of 1935
Artist: Dianne Reeves
Album: Little Moonlight

Dr. Joanne Clarke - Documentary

When Joanne Clarke graduated from medical school, she was 179,000 dollars in debt. In that way, she was like most of her fellow students. But in almost every other, she was different.

She was a student in southern Ontario, who wanted to move north to practice. She yearned to swap the big city for a smaller community. And most unusual of all - her passion was geriatric medicine. In her graduating year, Joanne Clarke was one of only six medical residents in Canada who chose that field. Six. A truly frightening number at a time when dire warnings of the Grey Tsunami and the coming disaster in elder care are sounded daily.

Two years ago, the crisis in geriatric medicine was the subject of Alisa Siegel's documentary, They Are Us. It explored the obstacles to recruitment - lousy pay, lack of prestige, the widespread notion that caring for the elderly is a waste of time. Dr. Clark had heard it all.

Dr. Clark is now the sole geriatrician serving Sudbury and all of north eastern Ontario, an area that covers 400,000 km and is home to more than 80,000 people over the age of 65. She says her new job - being with patients, coordinating a team of medical caregivers, creating policy and consulting with local health facilities - is a dream come true.


Music

Song: Our Little Town
Artist: PJ Perry Trio
Album: PJ Perry Trio


Listen to Hour Three: