WITH JANE FONDA ***image1*** SFR: So what's your next book going to be about?
JF:
I have no idea.
If they made your book [My Life So Far] into a movie, who would you want to play you?
I have no idea.
Not J Lo?
Certainly not.
You wrote in your book's preface that being a public figure didn't always bring happiness, but it lent a universal appeal to your life. Can you talk more about that?
I have very visibly lived through a number of defining periods of American history and defining cultural changes, and because I've been visible people associate those events and changes with me and, as a result, having lived through those, I can peel back the skin from my own experiences and shed new light on them.
Why do you think our culture is so obsessed with celebrity lifestyle?
My life has been very different than the usual celebrity. I think the media plays that up and I think it's to our detriment as a nation. What's played up is the lowest common denominator, rather than the interesting complicated things. It's what are they wearing, who they're dating, what they're eating. I don't know most of them but I can assure you their realities are more than that. I hope that their lives are more than about that.
So what haven't you done that you want to?
End the war in Iraq. Encourage all women to gain their voice and all men to gain their hearts. End poverty. Save the environment. There's a lot to be done.
Obviously, the Hanoi Jane stuff has been very prominent in your book junket. During the Kerry campaign, when Swift Boat Veterans for Truth launched their campaign, did you see a foreshadowing of your own book campaign?
I thought that I was going to encounter more of it and I didn't. What I encountered everywhere in the country were hundreds and hundreds of people that said, 'You were out there on Vietnam. Where are you now in Iraq? Help us, we need leadership, we want to change things.' As a result I'm going to go on an anti-war tour.
I read somewhere you weren't going to get involved in anti-war activities because you thought you might not be helpful due to the Vietnam stuff.
My tour showed me I was wrong.
So what will you be-
I can't say. It will be national and three months long and it will come to Santa Fe.
Describe your politics today.
Progressive, values based, Christian, feminist.
You contributed to Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign; will you be a contributor if and when she runs for president?
Probably, depends on who the other candidates are.
What was your reaction when Sandra Day O'Connor announced her retirement?
Fear.
What form does your involvement with The Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention take?
I founded it 10 years ago. We're 10 years old. We work statewide and in specific communities in what I call above-the-waist issues, addressing issues like poor parenting, sexual abuse, violence and self-esteem.
What will you be talking about at Garcia Street Books [9:30 am Saturday, July 23. 376 Garcia St.]?
Why I wrote the book. I learn from people. I really believe in the book, I think it's an important book. I like to encourage people to read it. I've gotten hundreds of letters from women and men and veterans saying, 'I felt like you were writing about me.'
How often are you in New Mexico these days and what are your favorite things to do?
Not as much as I'd like. Ride and fish and hike at my ranch.
Your book makes it clear you're a big reader. What are you reading now?
Gospel of Thomas
and
The Dance of the Dissident Daughters
. And I have just finished
Don't Think of an Elephant
and
What's the Matter with Kansas?
, two political books to two more spiritual books.
What bumper sticker would you have on your car?
Well Behaved Women Never Make History or Eve Got a Bum Wrap.
