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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Wendell Berry receives humanities medal from Obama
  • Date: Thu, 03 Mar 2011 11:38:30 -0700


we were privileged to talk with him twice in Santa Fe. good, down to earth
man.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net
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Wendell Berry receives humanities medal from Obama
6:46 PM, Mar. 2, 2011
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20110302/NEWS01/303020109/1064/VELOCITY/Wendell-Berry-receive-humanities-medal-from-Obama

WASHINGTON — Kentucky author Wendell Berry was honored at the White House
Wednesday for his writings and conservation advocacy, receiving the National
Humanities Medal from President Barack Obama.

Berry, 76, a Port Royal novelist, essayist, poet, farmer and activist, shook
hands with Obama, and the two whispered to one another briefly. The president
then draped the red ribbon and medal around Berry’s neck.

“The author of more than 40 books, Mr. Berry has spent his career exploring
our relationship with the land and community,” said the citation that was
read aloud during the White House East Room ceremony, attended by Vice
President Joe Biden, First Lady Michelle Obama and heads of federal arts
agencies.

Berry said later that it was a memorable day.

“Not like any other one I’ve had,” he said in an interview. “To have my work
honored is a satisfaction … because my work has been to so large an extent an
effort to promote good care of the land. And, of course, I’m still actively
in efforts to do that. I’m glad for whatever notice that effort can receive.”

He said the president whispered to him during the ceremony that he admired
his poetry.

“I’ve never had a president say anything to me before,” Berry said, adding
that Obama, in fact, was the first president he has met.

He said he had one more opportunity to talk briefly with Obama during a
picture-taking session with the medal winners.

“I asked if he got paid extra,” Berry said. “He said this was better than
some things he had to do. It was a kind of pleasure.”

He said he also thanked the First Lady for promoting gardening and better
food and food production.

“I thank you for that (White House) garden,” he told her.

Berry is a well-known activist in his home state. Just last month, for
example, he participated in a three-day protest in the state Capitol to
protest strip mining practices.

For decades he has been opposing not only surface mining but also
industrialized agriculture and poor land use.

In his 1977 book “The Unsettling of America,” he wrote: “It is wrong to think
that bodily health is compatible with spiritual confusion or cultural
disorder, or with polluted air and water or impoverished soil.”





  • [Livingontheland] Wendell Berry receives humanities medal from Obama, Tradingpost, 03/03/2011

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