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VCIL Director's Address to the Kids on the Block Vermont "Puppets Choice" Award Dinner

The following address was given to the Kids on the Block Vermont "Puppets Choice" Award Dinner on May 9, 2006.

Celebrating Voices of Change and Power

Once in East Africa, on the shores of an ancient lake, I sat alone and suddenly it struck me what community is. It is gathering around a fire and listening to someone tell us a story.
-Bill Moyers

I have been thinking about children and their stories since hearing that I have been given this wonderful Puppet's Choice Award. Children are amazing storytellers and their lives are the stories we are here to honor, tonight and in our daily lives. Children are, as so many have said, our future; but they are here now. Their future, and ours, will be determined in part by how we treat children; but also how we pay attention to the lives of elders and the poor, individuals with disabilities, and other minority groups today. Our future will be determined by how we choose to live our own lives together in this society. Spring is the best time to think of solutions because we are surrounded by creation happening, by the infinite possibilities of life. And puppets are great messengers, as the Board, staff, volunteers and audiences of Kids on the Block know so well.

Stories are the lifeblood of society and they need to be carried forward into the world. Puppets and theater carry some of our earliest myths and social history and also bring the present to life in front of us. They bring out the new voices of possibility and renewal. We get preoccupied and often forget to look, to embrace the gift and the challenge before us. Stories and the arts remind us and bring us back to life. This award and the beauty of a Vermont spring makes me remember the voices of those whose words and actions give me strength or make me smile. Sometimes it is a small moment that moves me forward: My son is a May child and every spring I remember him as a young child telling me, "Mom, do you know how much I love you? I love you as much as a flower that is as big as a house."

I think Richie Graham first suggested my name to his fellow board members at Kids on the Block Vermont. Richie used to work in VCIL's Benefits to Work Program and he helped staff the Youth Leadership Forum. He saw the power and beauty of the kids that were part of these sessions and Richie (who understands fun) also saw how important the lives of these young people are to all of our futures. I experience a fierce joy remembering the words and lives of those I love and those whose lives I admire: those who fought for youth leadership and opportunities and the writers, workers, civil rights activists, artists and dreamers -past and present- whose words inspire me and whose lives honor the gift of this universe. That is the joy I also feel when I am with these young leaders and when I see puppets and other art forms being used for celebration and social change.

Some of you have heard me repeat one of my favorite quotes, that, "the universe is not made of atoms but of stories." We have a rich mother lode to draw on.

Some of my favorite remembered words are from young Vermonters. I remember a young man talking about living with a disability who said, "I need to protect my health so I can change the world". I remember the girl in junior high remembering a snowstorm, getting to school and being told by the janitor to wait till he shoveled off the stairs for everyone else and then he would shovel the ramp for her. She told him, "If you shovel off the ramp, we can all get in."

Many voices and stories come from parents. That's not all they are, or were, of course; but being a parent helped shape their vision and power, gave them a reason to work and fight, helped them remember not just their own but other people's children. There are so many stories I cherish that come from advocates for disability rights, affordable health care, for welfare rights, for fair housing laws, for employment rights and for environmental justice. I remember a father, a community organizer, who said, "All we are trying to do is create a better world for our children."

Some of my most powerful stories come from adults with disabilities and other citizen advocates who have quietly used their lives to make needed change happen. These ordinary people are using their life to move forward a powerful cause and to celebrate and renew human rights and true democracy. I remember one friend, a self advocate and a person with developmental disabilities who shared her life story and spoke up about ending abuse in the lives of children and adults with disabilities. I remember another friend, an advocate for the homeless and for those dealing with psychiatric disabilities, who said to me, "We need to create the invisibe ramps that welcome and make room for others who have been left out and disrespected. We need to design ways of communicating and living together that bring them into to our lives and communities."

Some of the lives and voices that inspire me come from people whose lives reach beyond mine. I am in my fifties and they speak to me about life in their sixties, seventies and eighties. As an example, at an age and in times when many of us try to blend in with the crowd, the radio show host and author Studs Turkel has never been afraid to wear read socks and send his voice out on the airwaves, sharing his spirit and other people's stories. In his book Will The Circle Be Unbroken? Studs passed on the thoughts of someone whose name has been lost but whose words are worth living by, "I would teach the old that death does not come with old age, but with forgettingI would walk when others hold back, I would wake when others sleep, I would listen when others talk and how I would enjoy a good chocolate ice cream."

Here's to spring, and strength, and spirit, wherever we find it. And thank you, Kids on the Block Vermont, for bringing the voices of diversity to the schools and communities throughout our state. And Thanks for the wonderful gift of this award, of this evening. What a gift to share a spring evening with puppets and friends.

Deborah Lisi-Baker May 9, 2006 Kids on the Block Vermont