Suffolk University Alumni Magazine 2008/2009 - (Page 18) the faculty//sCHOLARs TExT//SHERRI MILES IMAGES//KEN MARTIN DistinGuishED VisitinG sCholaRs 2007-2008 BIllyE AvEry “kNOW ThaT yOur health is the most important thing you have,” says health care activist Billye Avery. “It is really one of the only things you own.” Avery, founder and president of the Avery Institute for Social Change and founder of the National Black Women’s health Project, believes that health care is a human right, and for 25 years has advocated for patients’ access to insurance, health records, and equity in the health care system. “Get involved. Learn the issues. Start small,” said Avery. “find a few like-minded people and start with a small group discussion. What do we want to have as a legacy?” she asks. “We want to engage people around change, vision and a better future.” See related story: http://www.suffolk.edu/27317.html STEPHEn BrEyEr “WhaT’S ThE mOST important thing we want to teach students?” asks US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. “democracy.” The participation of citizens in the democratic process, what Breyer calls “active liberty,” is necessary to having a workable government. “We judges cannot insist that Americans participate in that government, but we can make clear that our Constitution depends on it.” Get involved in the community, participate on any level of civic engagement, including politics, school boards and other organizations, he says. “Unless most of you do something like that—participation—the document I work with every day just won’t work.” Breyer has published numerous books on administrative law, economic regulation and the Constitution, including Active Liberty: Interpreting Our Democratic Constitution (2005). See related story: http://www. suffolk.edu/27457.html THE fAyE fAMIly a family Of Senegalese men in crisp yellow tunics and dyed patterned pants sat side-by-side, their drums in arms’ reach and their smiles bright as costumes. representing the faye family of griots, or ‘praise singers,’ from dakar, Senegal, they tuned the line-up of hourglass shaped drums—one still dangling an airline luggage tag—by tightening wooden pegs around the rims. one after another the drums came to life, creating a rhythm for movement and a language for reaching across villages. The drummers—vieux Sing faye, the patriarch and chief griot of dakar; Aziz and Mouhamadou Moustapha faye, sons of vieux; and Malik Ngom, grandson of vieux—presented the geuwel drumming tradition, taught traditional dance moves, and performed at a concert in the C. Walsh Theatre. See related story: http://www.suffolk.edu/29041.html CHArlES frIED “libErTy ExprESSES WhO we are: thinking, judging and choosing individuals. Liberty is that individuality,” says Charles fried, former associate justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. “yet we must somehow draw boundaries. There are things that we need and want government to do, like drawing lines for the betterment of the community.” But does government limit liberty, or put a floor under it? “I don’t think it’s possible to come up with an algorithm for this,” he says. “I know it when I see it—a law which is designed to suppress liberty, and when the purpose of a law is to let a thousand flowers bloom.” fried is the author of eight books, including Modern Liberty and the Limits of Government (2006). See related story: http://www.suffolk.edu/27514.html [18] SUFFOLKARTS+SCIENCES//2008/2009 ALUMNI MAGAzINE http://www.suffolk.edu/27317.html http://suffolk.edu/27457.html http://suffolk.edu/27457.html http://www.suffolk.edu/29041.html http://www.suffolk.edu/27514.html
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