A Word on Words; 2729; Paul Loeb

so you know once again welcome your own words i guess all old the book so susan welcome all i'm very glad to be here it's great to have you here to talk about this book that deals with that count of balancing values in society is sources sources of verses so basically trigger men and you so for a while i hope for over you probably tempted tempted during todays senate work for the subtitle is conviction living with conviction in a cynical time and it is it's a it's a very cynical time it is a time where consistently were told don't hope for a better society this is the best you can possibly get dont raise your voice don't cry don't try to dare to dream don't work for better world just do what you can with it in you as you can to get your piece of his golden chase that everyone is pursuing and don't worry for the environment slipped by the border three people

homeless on the street and thought the economy becomes more more polarized that's not your concern and its disturbed me to hear this sort of counsel of despair are coming at us in so many subtle directions in part because as i've traveled around the country over the years and then i'm writing about social problem for almost thirty years now it strikes me that it's a false council that in fact there are people out there doing powerful courageous hopeful things that if we just knew about and maybe we would struggle little bit further maybe would try to live our beliefs little bit more intense and that's the genesis of the book really if you would have a near election was beginning of their own it seems to me what we've done here and you say almost as much to say what the book is not smart book handbook for social activist there is

more a mosaic of anecdotes and which do that well one story after another and most though stories about trump's role was cynicism as a result more than a lot bump a person with whole thing something that touched the move and challenge them and hear them and they react as this a more than not they react with others around the men not always but most often it's a communal response to whatever it was that moved them in the first place and you begin with the rebecca an introduction was on the elevator and notion of eighteen of elation of baby and so those red cross a sort of thinks what am i going to

do it isn't just about my wife for the north pole fifteen well who is that he was at work as it usually was undone they needed both incomes are just about the work is well how are they going to do it son that's right and all the sensors is women for us a scrap of paper individual in your hat in hand in and it looks like a paul like do you know do this and how editor you don't breach the the ground to propriety of politeness that keeps his distance and then a couple weeks and rebecca nagle my god i'm just that i wanted this time i'm not cover with letters you get this phone call and says you have been thinking about it and i was an avid at first some of them are used for you know your started using it in the mouth of a visiting for years and they start growing in and about twenty twenty five families in their homes the other entire idea that a base for the neighborhood and advantages of the

zoo they're talking over the issues of the world and they're just they're supporting job and it's a simple kind of moment it's not a huge grand issued type of moment but it can mean i open with that because it seemed had to serve metaphor of we cannot address any of the religions of the world on our own and we can and address them with passivity but when we do sort of reach out and say well i don't know what the result is is going to be a major theme of soul of a citizen is that we're always living with a certain ambiguity all the more so i'm trying work to change our society we jump and we try and we see what happens we see more blooms from there you know on top of a cynical time when they are some elevators in some apartment buildings in some cities wary of a woman made such a whole lot of other hand there are no cheap probably a rescue boat headed out over the next four will go to person who got that

note would say what so not is right as if she dangers is huge i told us through why she wants what they thought what is she really want me and i might get it kidnapped right that what we ended ness trusting each other and i call a gated communities of the heart that we end up walled off centered off we don't interact with people we don't wanna we're just we're in the word leave individuals were doing on our own and meanwhile certain major issues and what hat who takes whose job is it to take care of here and is it yours mine somebody else's is their designated person the designated ecologist or something well i don't think so and yet what we are told is that this is none of our fear and there's nothing we can do about it and were told that in so many subtle ways and so many different issues and yet i find that when people do take a stand such powerful things happen to the lies and the legs one woman san antonio weren't in virginia ramirez is a thread education not somebody had any power status or standing and he drops out of school

to go graze a job now clinton was doing when she was growing up as i was a little taxing business and she's not typically involve the community and then when she's forty five years old a local woman or neighborhood basically dies of the call was that your asses in this house that houses not insulate rights rundown of frightened and there and she knows that a woman is over they're hurting right if you get sick he's held for and no one pays any attention because it isn't just to poor latino woman who cares about them and who cares about the neighborhood without a woman dies and the paramedics at a crowd said she had been alive for some in fixed upper house and virginia is furious so she goes down to this group called clean his awareness of public services who got cops it's an outgrowth of the the organization founded by the great new organizer saul alinsky and i go to chicago and she says this woman died what you knew about it and they say audacious lee what is he learned about it as this storm surges and i thought you're supposed to help and a few

days later there's a knock on a door and it's a nun who works with the group as they were guarding the faith based a million guard and then from cops and she's in virginia says only letter and because she was in time i would not let her and she was unarmed but how can happen in all anonymous so she lets the nine eleven ounces were once about that just america's even do anything and that is the woman died and i know because my father picked cross my whole life is alive and that no respect for it and i'm now because my kids go to school and to get a better education and announces you think your neighbors are now about some of the strategies that are so rigid it tentatively calls and people and has a little house meeting you concerned about my greatest when our friend over those numbers right what we're concerned about and she does another one and she starts getting involved the group and the first time she speaks in public it's painful it's difficult he gets the words that enormous fund gets a little bit easier a little bit easier and soon she's talking before the city council and she's testifying in

washington dc in a job training bill of that in the groups meanwhile brought about over the years a billion dollars into the poorest barrios of san antonio and what they found out was but their neighborhood had been robbed of one side that says another money appropriated but they are diverted to more from a river right as always happens and then sheepishly our neighbors set little ajar this is no this is wrong and so when i look at and this is at a key theme and soul of a citizen is that she finds her voice she finds it gets back so much and the phrase she uses she says these people found something me i never knew why haven't i learned everything i know the university of cups and cups is not taxes a nmr vanderbilt or michigan it's a new group but what it is is a form for democratic education people participate finding their voice and i've seen that so many times when people begin to take a stand when the and i think one of the things it's such great fun about

reading books and doing the show in a new office is that i had with amazing frequency unknown group as the book reading along and also and i meet somebody who's a bit run amuck and you know i know that you're from seattle and near a scholar with the center for political leadership there and you know i know i know you've written before all the books so on nuclear the nuclear proliferation the power of love of nuclear and the fright that attend that we've done all the books on on self examination in community activism writing from that mr activity of about five miles and will count that's why does your book and hear you on this bubble felton no

laser light up into those areas and he is a citizen of solo this isn't a soul and end and a kindred spirit my heart in this the story is is i talk about a notion called a perfect standard which is a very debilitating idea that says get involved need to know every fact every figure every statistic down in the twentieth best one point in the day care center on nightline at the drop of a hat what he's alienated like an anonymous at the bill and have to prove or time in your life and pervert tissue and it all the stars may be alive and everything else and i said that's nonsense you go you go with what you know what you know you learn as you go you learn along the way and maybe a year later or two years or five or can certainly hear the extra people look up to but it doesn't ever start with a sort of privileged knowledge and i'd argue that it really ends up a pervert knowledge either because there is you will always have our ambivalence is will it ever our uncertainties about the issues we're dealing with and so i was conifer the house prices and it was a store that will still which is one day he was

it's posted and davis was that your presentation on capital punishment was was how we understood it and some east on a little bit about that and suddenly is at the invitation and you're right after his well now after he got there and his college he discovers that in fact it is a formal debate with an erudite scholar who knows respects disagrees with on and the man goes up and makes a very eloquent argument for capital punishment citing all sorts of historical precedents and what not and we're not quite sure the stake as he wasn't going to be for a bit and he says well i think it's tacky tunes that hour it is a move will not be a wealthy that the fact is that those under a minute that's right it is yes yes i will attack this is as it means i'm not worthy of itself remains shanley means probably means that we can do better and any other service as i think it's a package and what's so interesting about

that moment is it's not to say that we'll or i mean what else would say disdain reasoned arguments that they use would have to place the report but sometimes you just expressed few feet up and you say okay this is why i'm asking this is why i'm taking a stance i don't drive don't believe in part apple punishment and that adds a new perspective because it's tacky and that's the core of it and owning their core principle is as legitimate as a way of arguing as siding for thousands the test now you go on but there was a time when you're passing out leaflets alan johnson a problem years old and right and you were embraced his administration and long come to war ii and you find yourself out there justify more public statements and you say is so now rickey no i know enough and the knowledge not facts was it wrong for me

to speak out without knowledge about facts and say something that i subsequently found out about their which ate my mind on in at which point you are against the war right like good news is drummer was an eye on july seventh grade debate and the phrase of the currency the time in the media was if you don't stop and they will be in the beaches of telling you lie you write that this is los angeles everyone with that because i don't know we don't only swimming as tommy tanks on the page and you know one of the deaths where surfboards or something fell in the class all course responded passionately in they were what i was saying was one benighted two second daughter of these activities are just totally isolated five years later i recognized i was wrong that i identified a line that it in fact what the government was telling us was not necessarily the way things work and i became very passionately opposed that war so i have to think when i'm

describing this notion and saying you need to get past the perfect standard do we need to start with what you know jump in low logical question what iraq what images and you would have been with you that night on nightline the band that's right with you sure i already knew everything that's right and what i have to say is that when we act so long as we are acting as britain learned the long as we're willing to learn from those opposing us so long as we are willing to keep getting this new information thinking about a con understand or perspectives and those of our court opponents and the pigeon because had i not jump in defending my belief system as best i could back then i might not have been led to the knowledge that i later game that would lead me to pose that i'm announcing his journey back because that process of commitment was paramount band the learning as eight as it was i went with it was part of the process of committing a

show so beautiful lives the artifacts but then ramon there you take a shot at a guy who frequently beautiful live and you say that the facts are a little more there were think the difference is when you're playing fast and loose with the truth that i mean to me that's inexcusable and be reckless and could be correct when he says styrofoam is the border re ball okay no it's not but we're here we're a show that's that's a fundamental than that get more acres of trees now than when the pilgrims have this country no there aren't and that's verifiable and when you get that knowledge or obese and the honor ability to correct it so i'm not suggesting that we proceed been hear that knowledge is bad bad understanding is babbitt wisdom and god help us is necessary in our time more than ever what i'm saying is that the

path to it inevitably flows through uncertainty and does it also called let the area for oysters and you hear it then you're out there we haven't been speaking out and you know about or write or use a specter that italy is fulfilling the challenge when he served yeah it's intended to the degree that that happens the hands of bad speeches good speech yeah absolutely said there's something very fulfilling about being contrarian could call us on these years you know and it also take any surprise me off of it a shot at the park until yeah i do because what i find is that it's the council of complacency in a very profound way and what i remember is talking once about i was looking through the book's does in this some of your human and sing on that we are saying no to negatively avoid

negative thoughts negative people and thinking i say that the image of the sort of deep rock trowbridge jesus about thirty set out and like chase the money changers from the temple and then sank oh but i couldn't do that no negative thinking negative than an especially wet when you know what that kind of counsel does is it silences a prophetic voice which to me is really is an essential voice in any culture on monday or that string go that goes back into i said amos in the rest of the ad that says here is injustice here is that we are world should be is not here we need to do something about that and if your or simply say i'm sorry say no the negativity you can't even get there and i were very young well meaning to use our computer are designer are who work with my wife i've been reading choppers books and sort of said very desolate well you know i used to think that i could do something to try and change the world but now that i've read show oprah i feel like i have to get my own self together perfectly before that happens i think a no no no this is

exactly the wrong lesson that you want to be able to show close suddenly we're using not too long ago tom i see many more than an hour he's a bazaar is only about it and it has an hour i mean i you know i try to make is reasonably lively show almost whimsically mean he has his last look and he really he's imbued with a positive thought he saw me song of the area i mean it's known as india once never move toward a one step beyond that and it's the same reason that i missed trust peel their this partial truth in that i do believe in hope i do believe in thinking about what's possible when everybody and soul of a citizen makes a judge and that says the world doesn't have to be this way i can be a little bit better or less that's right less lebanon now let's let's stay calm let's take the gap

protests right i mean here's a woman carol who are all market without that would not only not be is looking at a documentary the middle class long island grandmother teacher a husband's a carpenter or an act of catholics are active in the congregation in and politics the public realm as just someplace else and then she sees this documentary or church resume for slate runs over slavery about the sweat shops the marquee doors in and the new zones in a guatemalan el salvador where they're adding fifty murals work fourteen fifteen hours a day and she sees this young girl and this young girl's eyes from under her accept missiles that the center's look in her eyes as this is a girl she cannot go to high school she can they are generally buy enough to feed are somewhat longer pay for the kinds of clothes that she's making he gets paid forty cents thirty cents an hour something ridiculous like that it's a

tragic break your heart and what would this careless is this moment in solitary that says this is a photo of this to someone like myself this assembly is not on either a different kind of person we say were they like working sixteen hours a day our mayor didn't like it and they used to have you know no this is a workforce and a young woman were a child labor law yeah desperation forces them to make a little extra profit out of it and it angers him so she her husband gordon enjoying a vigil at the gap store in there and they're in suburban community and it's not something they're used to and the ballroom people say things to them they yell things at them as like oh my god we're out there were vulnerable where visitors are lying about these are lying about them they're saying or they're yelling and pushing people into another without really know the character's rediker says which is not the temperament than and then they keep on am miracle miracles they win and the issues are still gaps try to sweep a lot of some of them descended

basically they sat down with religious leaders human rights leaders labor liam's and sign the document to monitor compliance and are slowly moving towards fat and so you have a and i should call an improbable victory but it's such a profoundly by kind of human connection and we think of that woman in maine i'm who nelson smith who got involved campaign finance reform something we're told consistently look this is just the way it is the politician that any barton so forever and in ukraine change you can chain i'm sorry thomas jefferson discusses the losers now and a government of whoever can write the checkbooks and we shot this week to say well it's to be out from now forever that's the way it is except in maine they said no and they form this broad coalition and the woman i were that was a good person not of high standing a high school education raising a couple kids and and says i just wanna leave unless cynical world i want to pass on a less cynical world where children again kai what will

campbell a very basic statement you think it's a tactic to buy and sell politicians like trading cards and so she gets involved and they pass this initiative is based on five dollar contributions from within people's districts are bent qualifies for public matching funds if you get enough of them so that anybody basically who has a broad base of real support they get enough signatures enough i got on emissions they get the funds to actually run a competitive campaign and is pay for carbon taxes on the obvious which is just an elegant stout years and everyone says is not to win no chance to senegal people don't care about the stuff except it wins a majority of democrats and republicans and independents and every county in the state but one and so you have a impossible goal and then it becomes possible by dint of human effort again summey i saw so often writing soul of a citizen but but throughout the time that itinerary donors over the years social activist you say gold or just out of reach and then suddenly

by dint of courage and taking that leap it becomes possible like mandela imagine twenty seven years in south africa and jails and i don't think he can in any way imagine the president of south africa he's thinking about his grandchildren or is great credential or what our long takes and then suddenly your this merkel hope of curves and it dramatically changes like eastern europe in eighty nine ninety the same time feeling where human hopes an aspiration just unleashed in his mom's we absolutely connected and hope which sounds innocent well we're certainly earned him one of those ages of terrible for that the us is now and you say it's largely because individual individuals and institutions we've posted and writers there's two things institutions in another press deserted betrayed us and we don't know the stories that could offer some of their models so i

contrast now to thirty five forty years ago when a lot of our nuclear weapons work as the generation of command were work you had a phrase about the man you know best women in the us will take care of things they'll solve the trust them that kind of blind trust has its profound traps as we found out about vietnam and the the banking scandals that we've been finding out in many many ways for many years and so i'm not advocating blind trust the alternative is actually holding people accountable and the way that we build can learn that that's possible by looking at the movements that have done that and so i look at the one of the tragedies of it is the work of a great democratic movements of the society the women's suffrage movement the abolitionist movement the populist movements of the farmers the civil rights movement the union movement i look to what most of us know about it as if it's gone down george orwell's memory hole and so we don't understand what human courage is capable of doing we don't understand that and so we don't know that and were faced with this

disappointment from above which responses one is to say that's the way it is is ok will work together with other people to change it one of the initial here just a minute about the website people around who want to talk about film citizen who want to be involved a deadly deadly w dot soul of a citizen dot org is the website for the book would show he has wasted by to get information about it but also as links we can literally plug in your zip code in an issue you care about and find some but when you're doing something good