Martin Sheen: Catholic President on Prime Time

Links for Learning

Finding Curriculum Connections for High School Teachers and Students

This month’s Links for Learners will support high school curriculum in:

• Religion—Christian life-styles
• Social Studies—social justice
• History, American and World—political and social leadership

Finding Links for Discussion Group Leaders and Participants

Look for connections for use in programs outside the classroom, such as:

• Parish sacramental preparation programs and CCD classes; young adult discussion programs; seasonal discussion groups; RCIA programs.
• Parents will also find this material useful in initiating discussion around the dinner table, in home study, at family activities or as preparation for parent/teacher meetings.

Understanding Basic Terms in This Month’s Article

Look for these key words and terms as you read the article. Definitions or explanations can be researched from the article itself, or from the resource materials cited throughout the Links for Learners.

Political activism Social/Religious causes

Human drama Soup kitchen

Migrant farmworker United Farm Workers

Our Life Roles

Martin Sheen, profiled in this month's article, originally agreed to play a minor role in the NBC Wednesday night series The West Wing, and indeed did just that for the pilot episode. Sheen plays Josiah (Jed) Bartlet, a Catholic president of the United States. (Before The West Wing, an American president had never been portrayed as a major character in any television series.) After the show's writer and creator, Aaron Sorkin, witnessed Sheen's performance, he and the producers invited him to step up to a starring role in the ensemble cast. Sheen then renegotiated his contract and accepted the bigger role. (See the Los Angeles Times, March 8, 2000, for a profile of Aaron Sorkin.)

Sheen's filmography demonstrates a long history of solid performances. He is a tenacious actor, turning in consistently stronger performances and committing himself to continual improvement. This parallels the way Sheen has played other roles in his personal life. His history as a political activist shows the same level of commitment and growth.

Sheen remains a strong activist in speaking out against injustices. His biography shows that he didn't start out as an outspoken individual. He grew into the role gradually. He tells his St. Anthony Messenger interviewer that until he was past the age of 40, he wasn't prepared to be jailed for his protests. But age and experience deepened his convictions to the point where arrest would not deter him from fighting for justice. He has demonstrated against nuclear weapons proliferation, against mistreatment of strawberry workers, against political terrorism, and in favor of justice for the poor.

Isn't this process of maturation the way we all live out the roles life sends us? Most of us are not thrust immediately and wholly into major roles. We grow into them. A teen elected to his parish council no doubt nurtured his service role by volunteering in a Confirmation program, babysitting for parents at Mass or acting as a lector or a minister of hospitality. A young woman elected as student body president in high school probably first served as a class representative in her younger grades. A member of a student-run college organization in the business school or the theater program started by volunteering in minor roles, demonstrating commitment and dedication.

In all of these situations, it's the way a person commits to and lives out a minor role that prepares him or her for the larger roles that life later offers. In Sheen's case, he brought years of experience as well as his own native talent to the original The West Wing role. He gave the job his best. (Remember the old show business saying, "There are no small roles, only small actors.") Sheen's well-done performance paved the way for a starring role.

Discuss how this relates to your own position in life. Identify the steps, the smaller roles, that you have already taken to bring you to this moment in your life. Look for the maturing trends, the patterns of growth that evidence themselves in your life. For example, you may be a member of your discussion group precisely because you are now mature enough to search for another level of spiritual development. Perhaps by studying the Scriptures in a group setting, you will feel a growing strength to run your own discussion group. As you become more aware of the growth patterns in your life, you will have the confidence to deal with enhanced roles.

Roles in Political Activism

Martin Sheen has protested against the U. S. Army's School of the Americas, in his view the training ground for numerous perpetrators of violence and abuse in Latin America. The School of the Americas has been the center of strong controversy in recent years. (See "Investigate the School of the Americas.") Protesters claim that the United States is training foreign soldiers to be political terrorists in their home countries. Many U.S. bishops have called for the school's closing. The United States government had defended the school as a stalwart against undesirable political and guerilla forces in Latin America.

Examples abound of other individuals who have matured in roles as religious, social and political leaders. Rosa Parks is a true inspiration. One afternoon in December 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Ms. Parks simply refused to move to the back of the bus to make way for a white passenger. She was arrested. She appealed and her case eventually went to the Supreme Court. Her action led to a yearlong boycott of Montgomery buses. For her role, she became known as the mother of the civil-rights movement. Ms. Parks later moved to Detroit, worked for a local congressman and founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development. Her initial small, courageous action led her to larger roles where she has impacted thousands of lives for the better. She "renegotiated" her position in the human drama that was the American South.

In the film, Schindler's List, one individual, a war profiteer, comes to understand the horrors of Nazism and works courageously to protect the 1,000 Polish Jewish workers in his factory. Schindler did not originally assemble a master plan to save Jews from death, with himself in the central role. His awareness grew to the point where he became a determined, if reluctant, hero. He could no longer avoid taking on a larger role.

Cesar Chavez was certainly a dominant figure in political activism, working for social justice for the migrant workers of this country. Chavez did not wake up one morning and write a sweeping script of social reform with himself as the lead character. No, Chavez initially reacted to the many indignities that plagued the poor. As a child, he witnessed injustice firsthand. Later, as a migrant farm worker, he started the National Farm Workers Union. This developed into the present United Farm Workers. Chavez learned much of his tireless leadership and nonviolent tactics from studying St. Francis and Gandhi. Chavez's legacy of fighting for justice now lives on even after his death.

Consider Winston Churchill's leadership of the British people in World War II. During the war, Churchill said in a famous speech, "Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.' " Is it likely that he could have uttered these words, or had enormous strength of leadership, as a neophyte member of the British Parliament? More likely the resolve of his conviction and courage grew over the years through his acceptance and fulfillment of smaller functions. Learn more about Time magazine's Person of the Century at the Churchill Web site.

Victims of abuses and wrongs have in many cases founded organizations that now work for the reform of those abuses and wrongs. Several parents founded Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) in reaction to the 1980 death of a 13-year-old girl at the hands of a drunk driver. The group now boasts 600 chapters nationwide. For similar reasons, young people instituted SADD, once called Students Against Driving Drunk, now broadened in scope and called Students Against Destructive Decisions. This organization lobbies against abuse of alcohol, drugs and other destructive behaviors among today's youth.

Community efforts to clean up neighborhoods are driven by individuals fighting back against violent crime. People concerned about protecting children from violence fought to identify known child molesters to the communities in which they lived. Megan's Law is now a federal law covering all 50 states. The public now has access by state to the addresses of all known sexual predators. (California leads the list with over 82,000 known offenders.) The Klaas Foundation for Kids came to be after the tragic abduction and death of 12-year-old Polly Klaas in 1993. The foundation's Web site offers help and direction in dealing with missing children.

Who are the courageous leaders in your life and community? Identify several individuals who exemplify a consistent and continuing growth in genuine political activism. Talk about what motivates and nourishes them in their roles. You may even invite one leader to speak to your group. Keep it informal, and look for opportunities to talk openly about the person's life journey. Relate the person's journey to your own.

 

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