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updated: 9/19/12
BILL MOYERS ON HIS SECOND BIRTH AT U.T. As a boy, Bill Moyers sacked groceries in his hometown of Marshall, Texas, but he went on to become Director of the Peace Corps, LBJ's White House press secretary and chief of staff, the publisher of Newsday, and the erudite writer-producer-interviewer for several of PBS's most popular series, including Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth, Healing and the Mind, and Genesis. People magazine has said that Moyers is "perhaps the most insightful broadcast journalist of our day, an astute interviewer to whom philosophers, novelists, and inarticulate workers have revealed their deepest dreams."
In 1986, The Ex-Students' Association gave Moyers its highest honor, the Distinguished Alumnus Award. And when he delivered UT's 117th commencement address in May 2000, it was the fourth trip back to his alma mater within the year, having participated in an LBJ Library symposium on the '60s, The Daily Texan centennial celebration, and having given the Liz Carpenter Lecture at Hogg Auditorium in February.
….this is the place to which I do return. Someone asked me the other day, "You were here for The Daily Texan celebration, you're here for this, you're giving the commencement in May. Why?" And I said, "Because it's the place of my second birth." I became intellectually awakened here. And it's like the astronauts returning from space; they always head for earth. And for me to return from the atmosphere of a vagrant sojourner, which is what journalism is, you go from place to place, restless, homeless, this is the earth to which I always return. Somehow coming back here, even though it has changed drastically since your time and my time--there were 18,000 students [in Austin] then and two institutions, the University and the state legislature--it's a much different place, and yet, somehow, I get more in touch with what I really am, who I really am, here than anywhere else. That's because I was initially formed here. It's like going back to your birthplace, even though somebody else lives there or even though it may be gone. And the fact is that most of the landmarks of my youth are gone; that happens. But the Tower is still there. The Legislature is still there. The live oaks are still there and there is a very palpable memory here, a living memory of what I felt and experienced. The exhilaration that greeted me whether I was in Ginascol's class on philosophy or Cotner's class on history, or Moore's class on Chaucer or McAllister's class on anthropology or Reddick's class on journalism. I can see them in my head right now. I can hear their voices. How do you explain that? I don't know how you explain that. Some people talk that way about their religious conversions. But I have that still-fresh sense of really coming alive here. Coming back here is to be put back in touch with that."
U.T. Powwow Movies and Images
Austin PowWow movie Austin PowWow Images: Eagle
GOALS: Core Curriculum Goal is “To better prepare students for a changing world by making sure they graduate with the flexible skills they need”
[2A] to be leaders in our communities,”* and better able to deal with
[2A2g] To practice tolerance for diversity for races/ethnic groups (Native-Americans in this case), thereby advancing the goals of the Multicultural Perspectives and Diversity required flag courses [2C].
TODAY'S TOPICS: WHO ARE YOU?
TODAY'S ACTIVITIES:Quiz on Moyers, Core Purpose of U.T., "free" motto; NATIVE AMERICAN REBIRTH
watch: Native American Spirit Animal Vision Quest and Rebirth
read: Bill Moyers' account of his rebirth at U.T.... 66
REVIEW:
1. Totemism and Power Animals…448-451
2. Animal Spea...452-462
3. Spirit Animals....463-468
3. Animal/Spirit Guides.... 469
4. Power Animals: A Few Examples ...470-472
5. Black Elk Speaks....413-447
REVIEW, CONNECT, HAMMER INTO UNITY: your own rebirths or similar experiences
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