3 December 2020 Studs Terkel I’ve always felt, in all my books, that there’s a deep decency in the American people and a native intelligence – providing they have the facts, providing they have the information.
3 December 2020 Studs Terkel Religion obviously played a role in this book and the previous book, too.
3 December 2020 Studs Terkel I want, of course, peace, grace, and beauty. How do you do that? You work for it.
3 December 2020 Studs Terkel Nonetheless, do I have respect for people who believe in the hereafter? Of course I do. I might add, perhaps even a touch of envy too, because of the solace.
3 December 2020 Studs Terkel We use the word ‘hope’ perhaps more often than any other word in the vocabulary: ‘I hope it’s a nice day.’ ‘Hopefully, you’re doing well.’ ‘So how are things going along? Pretty good. Going to be good tomorrow? Hope so.’
3 December 2020 Studs Terkel If solace is any sort of succor to someone, that is sufficient. I believe in the faith of people, whatever faith they may have.
3 December 2020 Studs Terkel That’s why I wrote this book: to show how these people can imbue us with hope. I read somewhere that when a person takes part in community action, his health improves. Something happens to him or to her biologically. It’s like a tonic.
