Fame & Seneca Falls
O'Brien, Judith Johnson
THE LAST WORD FANE & SENECA FALLS Judith Johnson O'Brien On October 5,2002, the quiet town of Seneca Falls, New York, enjoyed a rare visit from the Secret Service: former First Lady Rosalynn...
...In Seneca Falls, however, I would be in the company of trusted friends and honorable women...
...Housed in a small former bank building on Fall Street, the limited display space is crowded with 195 plaques, each with a portrait of the honoree and a short biography...
...She often quoted Father Zosima's advice in The Brothers Kara-mazov: "Love in practice is a hard and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams...
...Our sole purpose was to celebrate, to now praise famous women...
...Dorothy Day, in her autobiography, speaks of a "long loneliness"- the inner sense of self that she nourished through sacrament and prayer...
...That would have been problematic...
...She was larger than life because she could galvanize others to act, and she still does...
...THE LAST WORD FANE & SENECA FALLS Judith Johnson O'Brien On October 5,2002, the quiet town of Seneca Falls, New York, enjoyed a rare visit from the Secret Service: former First Lady Rosalynn Carter was being inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame [NWHF...
...Alongside the displays of famous women in the converted bank there is a "Book of Lives and Legacies...
...I have never visited those shrines to male prowess, but it would be hard to believe that they could be more modest than the site of female fame at Seneca Falls...
...One striking image is stacked on top of another, in the manner of nineteenth-century picture galleries...
...Dorothy Day was represented by her granddaughter, Martha Hennessy, a woman in middle age who spends her days working with children with learning disabilities...
...These are not famous lives, but nonetheless lives of everyday dedication and devotion...
...Driving west to Seneca Falls along Interstate 90 offers an opportunity for contemplating "fame...
...Being famous is, however, a dubious honor and a significant burden...
...One wonders where the new inductees will be squeezed in...
...The suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton lived there, and was unable to leave her large brood of children...
...Judith Johnson O'Brien, a previous Commonweal contributor, is past board chair of the Catholic Family Center in Rochester, New York...
...Each letter is encased in plastic and placed in a large leather binder...
...Seneca Falls is the home of the NWHF because it was the site of the first women's rights convention in 1848...
...Carter and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg gave short acceptance speeches...
...Dorothy Day often objected to people calling her a "saint," because it then became too easy to dismiss her...
...Hollywood glamour was represented that day with the induction of Lucille Ball...
...The actual induction ceremony was held in the gymnasium of the New York Chiropractic College, and living inductees like Mrs...
...Martha Hennessy was right, "she could galvanize others to act, and she still does...
...For all her "fame"-and her necessary pursuit of public notice-Dorothy was devoted to Saint Therese's vision of the little way, the hidden life before God...
...You pass the Boxing Hall of Fame at Canastota, New York, and the Baseball Hall of Fame at Coop-erstown...
...That accounted for the Secret Service, but I was there for another inductee who would not have commanded, or have wanted, high-level security: Dorothy Day...
...That could be the right citation for each woman honored at Seneca Falls, whether she has a picture on display, or a heartfelt letter in the book of lives...
...I wondered whether I would have loved Lucy as much in person as I did on the screen...
...We are about to unleash overwhelming force against an impoverished nation," Hennessy said...
...After expressing in a soft clear voice the simple gratitude of the family and the Catholic Worker for the honor, Hennessy spoke with fervor on how to properly honor her grandmother...
...The "crisis in the church," particularly the sex scandals, had caused certain icons of virtue to fall from my personal hall of fame...
...With the fee, a letter chronicling the life and accomplishments of the person is sent to the Hall...
...If we really want to honor [Day] we should put her ideals into action...
...For a modest fee, anyone can nominate a significant woman in one's life: mother, teacher, counselor, friend...
...Those admitted posthumously were represented by family members or scholars who had researched the career of the inductee...
...The Catholic Worker and Dorothy's writings and public appearances were a strategy for a prophetic message...
...Dorothy needed to be "famous" in the sense of being a public person, a known advocate, a leader for peace and justice...
...There are the public face to be maintained and the private soul to be nourished...
...I had made the six-hour drive from Vermont to upstate New York for other reasons as well...
...The applause was determined-like a welcoming handshake...
...I believe Dorothy Day would have been most taken with this "Book of Lives and Legacies," and with the stories of these women who loved and persevered in so many plain but exceptional ways...
...Larger than life...
...Would she have objected to "famous" as she did to preemptory sainthood...
...My good friend, and early Catholic Worker, Margaret Driscoll had been promoting Dorothy's admission to the select company for three years, and I was there to share her success...
Vol. 129 • November 2002 • No. 20
