TrulyGrace

Wellesley Alumnae Events, Fall 2007

In addition to the workshop that Folly Patterson, '86, presented for the Pittsburgh Wellesley Alumnae group, there have been other recent events with Wellesley alumnae. Namely, tonight my former classmate Kim Dozier received the 2007 Marie Torre award after delivering a lecture. Kim works as a CBS News correspondent in Baghdad. She had survived a car bomb on Memorial Day 2006 that killed her cameraman and soundman, as well as the US Army captain and his Iraqi translator whom they were following.

Marie Torre was a nationally respected broadcast journalist who first gained notoriety in 1959 by going to jail for refusing to reveal her source for a story about Judy Garland in the New York Herald-Tribune. She went on to work for KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh. She won awards for her documentaries. She also appeared on the Mister Rogers show.

Marie Torre's grown children and her grandchildren were present and they showed a well-produced DVD on her life as a journalist and as a family woman/mom/grandmother. Two of her grandchildren had a chance to speak, too.

Pittsburgh councilman Bill Peduto read a city proclamation making November 3, 2007 Marie Torre Lecture Series Day, followed by Carlow University's president, Dr. Mary Hines's introduction of Kim Dozier. The introduction was followed by a video short that reported on the events in Kim's life on Memorial Day 2006. Kim also described for us what had happened that day (cf. to her comments within a year of injury).

Kim Dozier quotable quotes:
She likened US presence to "a bull in a Middle Eastern china shop that now has no idea how to pick up the pieces."

"Whether we like it or not, perception is 90% of reality."

Answering a question from a nurse in the audience: "Doctors put you back together, and nurses heal you...." Corpsmen (physician's assistants) also do a key job in healing. At Bethesda hospital her main patient advocate was a wound nurse.

How long do we view people as "the other"? "If you view your particular path as the [only] one to salvation, then there exists a gap [between you and others with differing views]."

She discussed the Fundamentalism project, which aims to link the three [Abrahamic] faiths.

About her time in hospital, as related to a family question: "I healed double-time....I was never alone. I always had a family member there"

About her feelings, particularly hate: "I really didn't hate...the man who hit us: did he lose his wife or daughter?" What brought him to set off a car bomb?

She has a deep respect for military and diplomatic corps who have spent time there, and taught her more than she already knows about the culture. There is also "an increased sensitivity to culture: One must respect the culture, or one cannot help them."
~~~
Lynne Hayes-Freeland of KDKA-TV News delivered the opening and closing remarks.

I spoke with Gina and her mom before the program, and shared ideas of the Eucharistic sacrament with her mom. A nurse sat next to me, and I spotted Roberta from the museum. I also saw Cecile, whose husband Eric gave us a ride home. After the lecture, I had a chance to meet some of Cecile's friends there, including Sr. Elizabeth McMillan, who, in her 70's has yet to retire.

Labels: career, diocese of Pittsburgh, photography, Pittsburgh, research, TV, Wellesley, work

posted by Grace @ 11/03/2007 10:37:00 AM