A Word on Words; 3310; Paul Loeb

ellen johnson hello once again welcome to world were a guest is all about low want welcome welcome back right and you talk about the most recent book the impossible a piccolo was impossible will take a lot that's a line from a song and from the military yes our character for you to take a line from the military as i know of prisoners didn't look scientists activists it's a billie holiday song om called crazy he calls me and the phrases that difficult right now impossible take a little while and only after the book came out it actually find the whole store i knew that it was for me also fly by father thomas was from the army engineers and cds during war were too and a surfer so these are the people the dams were not supposed to put the district that i thought was only going to war too billing pontoon bridges duck the physical illnesses courage at its best the vision animates everything that i had my hair hand then it turned out that the actual genesis of the song was at the

songwriter who is himself a little bit of a social activist has started the song before world war two then i couldn't figure out how to finish it was serving in the military saw them saw the phrase on the walls of his parents yes i have this song and that was that was the genesis of southerners a lovely circle well you're a little or a political activist yourself i think this is your sixth world and therefore noticeable record each one of them has approach societal problems and of why there were no clear problems you've dealt with the border policy dealt with the aspirations of this book it seems to me it is a fascinating one first of all you say accurately very early on in the election all the problems the world floyd fairness and then you'll get rewarded <unk> into the economy and look at problems of discrimination in those villages that were in elementary

and still that title means you have hope and the book says you have all the thrust of the book is that oprah's boss chewing out to keep open love to use a word that phrase unreal scored an open eyed hope and that's what's so hard because there is a kind of he's a naive sentimental hope which is a kind of wishing that says our wish things would get better it's not going to happen with automated better incentives it doesn't just happen automatically and so this is a much more demanding kind of hope it's a hope that says things can indeed change but only if we as ordinary citizens act on them so that somehow if we ever wanted it's a contingent hope and that's much harder than simply passively wishing hoping praying that things will change because you have to actually do something about it and i like it i go back to the subject that other with the phrase the song phrases that

it's as if this alarms a dual time frontiers the difficulty will do right now the dia new task an election they environmental fight trying to stop or pull ourselves out of a quagmire from a war and these are all very consequential but then how do we think of the largest of the tasks and you know how do you make a just world had you live sustainably the single most overwhelming they do seem overwhelming and that why i'm so surprised that you approach life and the book approaches life with hello optimism nothing alarmist going to get better and you and you use other people to make the point is a book that is a collection a collection of writings of others and your own writing is a conversation yeah it's it if you raid this book you

into named you know and some you know but the message in each case it is a compelling on there if we keep hope alive and use models role models involves the exhibit courage and conviction and commitment and they and the stories themselves become while i hope and from what people been saying early responses they become the markets so they say i'm reading this and then allows me to see that there's a sense of possibility even a situation to conduct work feels like there is absolutely none and so part of what i try to use to pay it's almost a paradox because i find it if you look at this or a darker situations the ones that we now the lens of history a blister people prevail that gives you a great deal of hope and our situation so i look at how all in czechoslovakia our look of mandela in south africa i mean those are just to do what they were up against al mansour year and alan jail you're being told you own them and deli will never leave this island prison alive and there is the year or two years goes

by thinking about three years five years ten years twenty years twenty seventh year he gets out and so asking the question what keeps him going and it turns out it's the it's the finding ways that that itself didn't go so it's it's a lose by his own judgment it's they were denied newspapers so he would see of the other prisoners would see a guard wrap their sandwich in a newspaper and discard the rapper in a trash can they would surreptitiously they gather can implement assured and then any in a tiny serve script on a piece of toilet paper that would pass and sell myself the relevant headline a relevant story to give the sense that they were not alone that they were not isolated because part of what any culture does in a way to try and deter descended to beat you down is to say you are the only one who cares no one else cares about this you are isolated and you and your voice in the willows will have no impact and so this is a way of saying no in fact there are many of us and we are not

alone we will continue to raise their voices very very powerful lesson and imagine how the us congress is love really because your intuition spirit orientation it was orientation of the heart orientation law that because it's not he said it's not protect the gnostic asian is not foretelling the future you we don't know how the future can turn any it's it's possible that diffused at least in the short term but maybe in decades the future may not be turning out so well i mean this is an exceptionally difficult period of history on millions of honor that i have survived but i've been around fifty plus years and i can't think of any that are comparable in my lifetime and so it's difficult in that you do it and then there's a wonderful phrase of activist minister jim wallace is hope is believing in spite of the evidence and they're watching the heavens change to believe you act and then something changes and to go back to hobble him i find his essay extraordinarily there was a single pivotal us in the

book that probably isn't the lesson that i just i couldn't imagine losing and the reason isn't easy road in making eighty six eroded under a dictatorship that had three more years ago but at a point than most observers believe that dictatorship will be in place for decades if not centuries so much the world than the subject and yet he had that ability to see over the horizon in a sense and they both say this will change any describes the process and it comes from unlikely sources it comes eight years is a rocky plastic people of the year is a very rowdy rock band influenced by american musicians like frank zappa and dan but here they are indeed authorities are saying this is this visit is mormon and not actually that negative not socially constructed which allies the abortion the dixie chicks like this is that the challenger's going to go

away and so we will in their case fully musicians union cards or they can make a living at it and then you know i'm surprised they play anyway so they break up their concerts that doesn't work through the jail them and that's the point of how those a little older more respectable steps in and he's say we have to do something about this and unexpectedly that defense committee that he forms evolves into charter seventy seven which is a pivotal democracy and challenging that communist dictatorship your journals of occupy and then at one point and this is the other moment that i love about his essay is that they are circulating a petition to free some political prisoners and hobbling self as an analogy will continually and they're getting mocked even by people supposedly five years before this is before the revolution they are under dictatorship with a circling addition they're about ten years before the velvet revolution and some people like milan kundera the novelist and an unbearable lightness of being silly no fan of the regime is exile i think a person is very simple and he won't

sign the petition and a condescending says it's indulgent its exhibition is that it won't do any good and hama looking back seven or eight years later still before the regime falls says on one level the critics the white wooden frame it and we tried our best it didn't work has another level completely wrong because when they use people got out of jail they said that our efforts made him realize their sacrifices a worthwhile so they could continue and that not only that but all the people who came in to sign the petition didn't stop there they went on they preaching tips and sermons teaching this and lectures from the question playing this in music having different conversations and he described this sort of web of dissent that he was absolutely confident would ultimately overthrow the regime and in fact it and it's amazing because if you're in the middle of it you see the bleep possibilities you see the walls that surround you it looks indeed

impossible now from history we look back we see well impossible took a little while it often does but it was an impasse of the media talking about the three other pieces that come from a different background and for former enron a month peace that ends with that beautiful prayer vigil if i had to think a one person who has to look at a world of desolation and it's her prison of her constituents the poor and polish children show both inner city and work right and she's taken on their cards and then you know i'm a i think of social workers to go against the grain against the grain against the grain and never seem to get ahead and indeed quite frankly seem to be falling back a man i don't want simply won't accept the idea that

society won't treat children with justly and decently and encouraging and she's persistent inches tenacious and and it's the what's interesting interview she wrote the impossible take that was a mix of when the sort of the slices from my very very favorite books on the shelves and essays written ford and ones that we just came in on the blue and there's a federal website impossible the lawyer an e mail us about ten thousand people live queried for ten thousand people as i said either one of us says they'd admire your bmi or and so they just came in and there is one that she volunteered right for the book specifically banned what struck me is that it was a window into swimming window into what drives or keeps her going as is appropriate and and there was a sense that the future of history in her view of faith of god's way of acting on manifest through

those children and so that every single time you are i'm blanking in lighting hopes and destroying possibilities and you're starving of medical care you're starting in education year are consigning you just designing spilled into bleak futures that you're shutting off possibilities in the world she closes that tour with oh god of children of destiny despair worn piece disfigured disease and dying children children without hope children without hope despair and the sheer helpless to love and respect and that now to protect them all this what will power from a woman whom will not be powerless right refuses and he says here we have power again and again as a do not accept is to not accept this as an italian that is impossible and then there is rosa parks you did that libby's yourself yes and any point out there that that rosa parks is a one woman that

some people maybe most people think of enveloping the myths some accident yes but she was a woman of destiny really of conscious action an end and had it struck down in a cnn show says a number of years ago in parts and so by telephone and date in it is to sing when de rosa parks started the civil rights movement and it was such a nice because she at that point it been part of existing civil rights movement for twelve years she was a secretary and the boise p she was part of a series of conscious actions in the community she worked with the president in the boise pew local was a man named ed nixon who has an active in a sleeping car porters union funded by the legendary a philip randolph and and took little suitcases on the trains a union activist this didn't just happen out of nowhere it was part of conscious action that was part of the building community was part of persevering some what i like even alert you that highlighted on overall strength yeah not so far from your six months from

both before she got arrested two of the highlander in east tennessee and so so the image was ejected accidentally and it was a very conscious actually mean if it had been accidentally they would have built a campaign around the young woman who got arrested six months before was american pregnant but it would've been a disaster so they didn't it was executive action it was about me and perseverance it also showed a very powerful lesson i think that i actually didn't recognize until i read hobbles piece and really the two moments which is you asked the question of how history changes in tone answer to me is that when we're trying to act and change anything we're trying to win elections stop a war bring justice to america's children whatever it happens to be we have an immediate goal will force most of this larger goal which is that it to broaden the base of those were involved in is the phrase of the african american civil rights historian vincent harding theologian is a phrase there is a river there's the river going back to the political process and you know it's back in

history it forward over the horizon you extend after a lifetime's in every point to broaden the river we're doing something powerful and so in the case of hobble courses writing about the broadening of the river when those people signed those petitions are still up for that rock me in the case of parts i think of the broadening the river at the moment you first came into involvement and he was a husband a broader any remedy been of all before but in some of our women in and i don't honestly know none of the books i read mention at and yet that person had a pivotal role to play in history and without that person was mainly may never know there would probably be no rosa parks and the bus and so part of the recognition of those and heralded action to me don't see the network camera zooming in saying <unk> secretary the local rosa parks is making history rosa parks was taken minutes but i was also part of making history though the justinian talking with paul rudd loeb about

the impossible take a little lot on his most recent book john lewis is there with the organ within wind and tells that story theirs is also housed in his bestselling book ms anson eve or in the storm telling the june walk with them when they think that shotgun house is gonna blow off its foundation cornell west is there as always provocative challenging how did you how did you pick and choose how did you decide whose piece to put in an illusory the law it was a challenging task it was also really fine so i started with my bookshelves and i'd say there probably but about what the small bookstore heavy there's thousands of booksellers one around i said well what

inspires mean in the context of impossible will take awhile was the despair that people were feeling invoicing to me as i travel around the country particularly in the wake of the initial phase of iraq war and a lot of people who do who acted for their fear of how a three or four million people active for the first time in that war the first time in years my neighbors are vietnam vet an electrician you would start acting before that war a man had and in years and so i wanted to give people something to continue on and so i went to the people who inspired me and i do have hobbled mandela alice walker desmond tutu jonathan kozol terry tempest williams's the writers the gist that's the technical and so i thought what would sections but their work's really sung so your mandela was the robben island jim wallace was his visit to south africa with its mobile is the activist ministry sojourners smuggled him in and desmond tutu is preaching to do is this is the church services to be on the verge of getting shut down

the police lining the walls tapping within the tons it's a tense moment in and two to look in their eyes and says you know you are on the wrong side of history and it turns out that amazing two to smile and says but you could be on the right time to join us is that that moment of inclusive as an opening up and so you know that has to be in there but then there again i ask people i thought well so is and it was in the water rights abuses this is wonderful and put them together and then that i asked a guy i asked all these people are amazing essays came the end completely unsolicited is the one called political paralysis from a woman from indiana who it deals with its kind of summer moguls grosses is is it's a paralyzing disease that literally leaves are unable to call barely and somebody a political meeting so i feel so paralyzed is a vegan and she just exploded as you said will yet there was always something i can do it sometimes i cannot walk in there still things i can do a lot of the people are gay rights back and the food bank you be looking the floorboards of the cards could see the road beneath the

news porous people who themselves were born just about destitute reaching out and the sense that decided that whether this cause in a way in a book that is so much about community that was appropriate for a chorus of voices coming from a community to be part of it and and and i think that that that's that's important oceans is so impossible as a combination of the intentional and the found there's a wonderful piece the caymans a disorder to be is one cancer which is amazing philo gen walter wick who didn't kill jesus an alinsky line he takes three traditional parables of all of those things almost giddy great social activists on sundays also activists in chicago and he lives of these parables of overt of turn the other cheek go the extra mile give them your clothes if they asked for your coat and and he says you know if you go back to the original language that when they said thing and silver king james bible it really was the king gerry bonner was translated by court translators in every

point was no ambiguity they they promoted way the promoted docility and so it said do not resist evil really didn't mean do not resist evil in fact you to do the nothing he was always resist unusual but what it meant is do not take up arms against the romans because you'll end of crucified along the roads you will not win an exhibit that that effect is per bulls are examples of the ways to go the extra mile for his roman law said you could be forced to curious and sermons pat and is a heavy get eighty five pounds and from iowa and you could not before secured further because the romans knew that if they'd had to build his dropping dead of exhaustion there will be more walls and they didn't want that so there is a limit what happens if you start going the extra mile to put that roman centurion in violation of roman law and you take as a conquered people you take back the initiative is an amazing is imagine you listen to and pleading with him to give back the pack after initially saying you will do this you will do it i say leave at the turn the other cheek is they write him a society use your left him for

the white herself so for others to bruise on it and so one of these rooms would do we would be of a slap an inferior do to enforce a kind of submission and he struck summit with her fist is only to unequal so one week said the actual price was doing was was asking me to turn the other cheek is making it impossible to be slapped it yesterday struck you could not be struck this lab because you love to write and could not could not do what it had it coming from the other side and so years ago this was as a way of bringing back the initiative and an aunt telling a hungry people that you can still assert your dignity and your will to resist even if the rumors are still perfectly capable of killing you and so he compares it to alinsky as techniques of taking the initiative creativity humor and ancestry much the same and then i carried the piece where one that came in completely close call stories from the charge on a brief visit was a person makes airplanes from boeing just a regular assembly line exactly

i was also having some kind of his activism why abigail my latest elon his wife is from zambia which is formally northern rhodesia as indyk says those northern asia's begin zambia and southern asia because zimbabwe and describe their largely nonviolent resolution call the cha cha cha the through the british art and this amazing acts of a desolate starts with there was a rule that if you were black and you bought something for one story or had it handed out to the window very big red ink and humiliations of this constant reminder of humiliation insubordination and so somebody decided by a land rover he said ok handheld through the window and they said no sir that there were about this the gate is open you can drive out this is fine i do appreciate your business and isn't known although along really have to be enforced and and they said that their services very large car this is a very small window we don't think it's going to fit through the window factory we know it's not an effective or the window and they go back and forth a few times and it gets in the car and he drives it up to the window and through the wall in this inauguration is

resistance campaign and in this amazing act of a density and an element of humor in there as well and at a certain point the british born in the service term john council to kind of put down the uprising and one of the organizers decides to gather as many of the largest women she could find to greet him naked and so when the plane lands it looks out on the sea of huge naked women he doesn't know what to do and he packs and when they were once posted to a visitor yes the pilot to turn around and take in that is that they want to have earned the country as it's freedom and i just i i use your story like that and you modeled their destinies york and it gives you hope they just hear you know you were quote that you can publish that mama's great irish no woe prize winning poet the things that is there is a line in there still hope for a great sea change on the change on the other side

of the enjoyment think about that we only have a couple minutes left i think about desmond tutu's and that last speech which is in my judgment the most powerful most compelling he goes rwanda it goes to this church bodies have been there a year the stench is terrible he preaches to that the tutsis and the truth and he talks about reconciliation and uses his own experience that reconciliation and and and and hope to talk about tutu you open the book with in dancing yes in this country but it's a very serious it's a very serious somber ceremony preachers in rwanda chu to somebody who is not afraid to look on the hardest issues and he looks at them and take them on again and again and again and yet he comes out with grace and likeness and i think what ultimately open when dancing and then the losses would ultimately drives him is a love for the

world and that's an extra bowl from the radical prophetic voice and to the core of the impossible takes a little while and no one on our planet probably embodies it more than to do is a sense that this task of healing the world is difficult it may take a while but it is also a delight and that we have to recognize and embrace it with a lot harder in our passion well we've run out of time for robot well thank you for coming again to be with those my pleasure and thanks to all of you for watching and johnson didn't offer a word on words he breathing