Picked as the Nov/Dec 2004 selection for the Sierra Club reading group program

THE IMPOSSIBLE WILL TAKE A LITTLE WHILE:
Reading Group Questions

Enclosed are links to the book's Table of Contents, to the book's rave reviews, and to some selected excerpts.

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Here are questions for each section:

Introduction

Section One: Seeds of the Possible

Section Two: Dark Before the Dawn

Section Three: Everyday Grace

Section Four: Flight of our Dreams

Section Five: Courage is Contagious

Section Six: The Global Stage

Section Seven: Radical Dignity

Section Eight: Beyond Hope

Section Nine: Only Justice Can Stop a Curse

INTRODUCTION

What stops us from acting on issues we care about? Have there been issues where you've wanted to take a stand, but didn't? What stopped you?

If there were issues where you did take stand, what got you involved in your first public issues? What was the process like?

Are you hopeful in your personal life, for your own individual future? Do you have more or less for what's going to happen with this country and with the world?

Do you feel like ordinary citizens really can make a difference? Do you hold back from acting because you think your efforts are futile?

Were you surprised to see a portrait of Desmond Tutu as so down-to-earth? Do you think of global heroes as saintly and detached? Do you agree that "only someone who knows how good life can be is in a position to appreciate what's at stake when life is degraded or destroyed"?

Were you surprised to know that some of the Eastern European revolutions started with the defense of the rock band Plastic People of the Universe? Any lessons from this?

Did you know the real Rosa Parks story, or did you only the myth? How does it change your view to know she didn't act alone? Does it change your image of an activist?

How do we know when an action matters? Do the stories Paul tells of Nixon, Dr Spock, and his friend Lisa Peattie suggest that the major impact of what we do may be hidden? Can you think of other situations where a powerful person first got involved in a seemingly losing cause, or where the results of attempts to work for change were unclear until long after?

Do you get revived by a connection with the natural world? What lessons does this give in terms of working for its preservation?

Talk about the resonance of one of the following quotes to your attempts to work for change.

• "The difficult I'll do right now. The impossible will take a little while."
• "Today fear so dominates American society that people hesitate to speak out. worried that they may be deemed unpatriotic or simply ignored, marginalized."
• "Hope is believing in spite of the evidence, then watching the evidence change."
• "Hope is not prognostication. It is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart."
• "Nothing cripples the will like isolation."
• "There are nothing but gifts on this poor, poor earth."
• "We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny."

SECTION ONE: SEEDS OF THE POSSIBLE

From "The Cure at Troy," by Seamus Heaney,

Have you ever experienced a moment "when hope and history rhyme?" What was it like?

"A Slender Thread," by Diane Ackerman,

How are personal and political despair similar, in your experience? How do they differ?

Do you feel you have options for political change? Could we see the process of working for change as "putting windows and doors" in a tunnel of political possibilities that we're told allows no exit?


"Ordinary Resurrections," by Jonathan Kozol,

Do you know kids like those in the South Bronx neighborhood Kozol visits? Have you ever lived in a neighborhood where needless death is routine? Are you surprised by the fierceness of a love where they leave Rice Crispies for dead friends or explain "this was his chair" in attempt to honor their missing lives?

What would it take to open more possibilities in their lives? Why are people like Kozol and Mother Martha still hopeful, after all they've seen over the years? Is their hope justified?

What are "ordinary dyings"? Why does our society mourn over some deaths but not others?

Why do you think Kozol entitled the excerpt (and book by the same name) "Ordinary Resurrections." Who or what is "resurrected" in this essay?

"Standing Up for Children" by Marian Wright Edelman

Why do politicians too often talk about their concern for families, then starve the most vulnerable? Why do we allow them to do this? Is part of the reason that lives of children like those Kozol and Edelman write about are invisible?

Do we think of children as having the potential to change and heal the world, as Edelman suggests? What would it take for us to see a poor, dirty and neglected child, and envision them as a potential King or Gandhi?

Is Benjamin Mays right that it is a calamity not to dream, and dream of a better world? Why do we accept this? Why does our society encourage us to dream mostly about private possibilities? What would it take for more of us to dream of justice-and act on it?

What would it take for more of us to be on fire enough to melt the mountains of ice of today's indifference?

"Political Paralysis" by Danusha Veronica Goska

Do we talk of feeling paralyzed too easily. What's our response when we find someone who faces real paralysis, yet finds ways to act? Do we view people who work for change as "virtue saints?"

Why are so many of those who pick Goska up the most seemingly marginal? Why are we often so afraid of the physically ill or economically vulnerable?

Identify a problem in your daily surroundings or community-like Goska being unable to get back and forth to the food bank. Is there anything you do today to make a positive difference? Are any local groups trying to do something? Report back after you've either tried something yourself or asked someone already involved about their efforts to make a positive difference. How can these efforts be sustained?

Contrast Goska's roles as a Peace Corps volunteer and a nurse's aid. What is her point?

Describe a time when you heard a "still, small voice" that prompted you to act. How did you respond and what happened?

SECTION TWO: DARK BEFORE THE DAWN

From "Sept 1, 1939," by W.H. Auden

In the days after the Sept 11 attacks, this poem may have been passed around on the internet more than any in the English- speaking world. What would it mean if we took seriously Auden's message, "We must love one another or die?"

"The Optimism of Uncertainty" by Howard Zinn

Zinn provides many examples of people and events in history that show how seemingly powerless people can actually change the world. Can you think of additional examples from history or your own experience that support this point?

Zinn warns: "Pessimism becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy; it reproduces itself by crippling our willingness to act." Can optimism also become a self-fulfilling prophecy?

"People are not naturally violent or cruel or greedy, although they can be made so. Human beings everywhere want the same things: they are moved by the sight of abandoned children, homeless families, the casualties of war; they long for peace, for friendship and affection across lines of race and nationality." Do you agree or disagree? Support your position with specific examples. I

How would you summarize Howard Zinn's perspective on what we learn from history? He writes: "Throughout history people have felt powerless before authority, but that at certain times these powerless people, by organizing, acting, risking, persisting, have created enough power to change the world around them, even if a little."  Similarly, Loeb writes, "History also shows that even seemingly miraculous advances are in fact the result of many people taking small steps together over a long period of time." What would it mean to take this view of history to heart?

"The Dark Years" by Nelson Mandela

Mandela describes how authorities attempted to "exploit every weakness, demolish every initiative, negate all signs of individuality-all with the idea of stamping out that spark that makes each of us human and each of us who we are." How can individuals promote the opposite in each other-that is, how can individuals or authorities encourage "that spark that makes people human and each of us who we are"?

Why would Mandela and his ANC colleagues go to such lengths to get news of the outside, like passing it from cell to cell on scraps of toilet paper? What's the relationship between isolation from others who are acting and lack of hope, and a sense of community and maintaining hope?

Loeb writes, "Those who make us believe anything's possible, however, and fire our imagination over the long haul, are often the ones who've have survived the bleakest of circumstances. It's the men and women who have every reason to despair, but don't, who may have the most to teach us, not only about how to hold true to our beliefs, but about how such a life can bring about seemingly impossible social change." What lessons can we draw from people facing the most difficult situations, for our own more modest challenges?

How can courage be multiplied? Can you think of a time in your life or a situation you've witnessed when courage multiplied? Explain.

"It was ANC policy to try to educate all people, even our enemies." What was the point of this policy? Have you ever reached out to someone with whom you radically disagree on an issue about which you feel passionately? What was it like?

"An Orientation of the Heart" by Vaclav Havel

In the beginning of his essay, Havel describes how hope is "a state of mind, not a state of the world." And he distinguishes hope from optimism. How would you distinguish the belief that things will turn out well from the deeper sense that guides us even when we are unsure of the results of our actions. Have you ever faced a personal situation where you acted even though the outcomes were unsure?

Have you ever heard people label activists "exhibitionistic" or say they were just trying "to draw attention to themselves?"

Would you agree with Milan Kundera that the petition circulated by Havel and others was futile? Why or why not? Compare Havel's description of people being brought together to challenge the regime even in an apparently futile context with Lisa Peattie's standing in the rain and realizing she'd later helped inspire famed baby doctor, Ben Spock. Are both prime examples of how our actions may only be clear in hindsight?

How did the petition help keep the prisoners going. Have you ever witnessed a situation where the actions of a humanity help courageous individuals keep acting?

Since the dictatorship was still in power when Havel wrote his essay (and according to global consensus likely to remain so), what allowed him to see the cracks in the walls of their seemingly unchallengeable rule? Is it possible for us to look similarly beyond the horizon to see what might be possible in changing unjust situations in our own political context? What does it mean to "make a way out of no way"?

Havel describes resistance against a dictatorship that seeks to control every aspect of daily life in a way that prevents questioning the prevailing authorities. Does our dominant culture ever function in a similar way? If so, how? If much our culture avoids talking about the real and urgent questions of our time , what would a culture look like that challenges this. Do you see any signs of it in America?

SECTION THREE: EVERYDAY GRACE

"The Peace of Wild Things" by Wendell Berry

Where do you go to renew your spirit?


"Mountain Music" by Scott Russell Sanders


At the conclusion of the essay, the father says he must "look harder for antidotes, for medicines, for sources of hope."  In your life and surroundings, identify possible "antidotes" and "medicines" that give you a sense of hope.

"Your view of things is totally dark," says Sanders's son, "It bums me out. You make me feel the planet's dying and people are to blame and nothing can be done about it." Do you ever feel that way when people are talking about global problems? How can people talk about what's wrong in the world without reinforcing a culture of despair?

"The Sukkah of Shalom" by Rabbi Arthur Waskow

Waskow uses the metaphor of the sukkah-"a fragile hut with a leafy rook, the most vulnerable of houses." How can vulnerability become a strength?

At the conclusion of "The Sukkah of Shalom," Waskow says that if people see the world as chiefly about property to be controlled, they will need to build ever-higher and stronger walls and fences. If people only build walls and fences in their lives and communities, what do they run the risk of fencing in and fencing out?

Obviously the Sept 11 attacks were morally reprehensible. And those who would perpetuate further attacks need to be caught and stopped. But Waskow suggests, that they also offer useful lessons about the links between security and justice and the value of recognizing common vulnerability. Do you agree or disagree? Explain.

"Not every demand of the poor and disempowered is legitimate simply because it is an expression of pain," says Waskow. "But can we open the ears of our hearts to ask: Have we ourselves had a hand in creating the pain? Can we act to lighten it?" What is our responsibility for the pain of others? What if we've not directly caused it, yet participate in a situation that causes human misery-like buying the goods of a company that mistreats its workers?

"Getting Our Gaze Back" by Rose Marie Berger

What does Berger mean by "essential quality of Sabbath"? Describe a current situation where you often feel overwhelmed or bombarded by information or chaos. Now describe a daydream or other activity that gives you the kind of "essential quality of Sabbath" that Berger experiences. What activity gives you back your clarity of vision?

"Fragile and Hidden" by Henri Nouwen

What connections do you see between Nouwen's essay and the focus on gaining strength through vulnerability in any of the previous readings, such as "The Sukkah of Shalom"? Have you ever experienced hope at a time or place when you least expected it? Explain.

"There Is a Season" by Parker Palmer

Parker Palmer talks of being "swept away on an updraft of hope," then "swept away in a tidal wave of despair." Have you ever experienced this? In what situation? How do we keep our moorings in situations where our hopes are alternately raised and dashed?

Palmer uses the metaphor of life as "a cycle of seasons" in much of the essay. How can gifts of each season apply to social change?

What lessons does Palmer teach about keeping on for the long haul at working for change? What other lessons can we learn from the natural world?

SECTION FOUR: THE FLIGHT OF OUR DREAMS

"Celebration of the Human Voice," by Eduardo Galeano

Is it valuable to speak out even if you may never be heard? What is Galeano saying about isolation vs. community?

 

SECTION Four Introduction

What is the difference between "capitulatory imagination" and "rebellious imagination"?

How often have you heard the phrase "There is no alternative" used to explain-and justify-a troubling political choice or situation? Is there a link between loss of imagination and resignation? And between recapturing our imagination and being able to act?

"Childhood and Poetry," by Pablo Neruda

"To feel the affection that comes from those whom we do not know," Neruda writes, "widens out the boundaries of our being, and unites all living things." How do we widen the boundaries of our being to really see the lives of those whose worlds are unfamiliar, hear their stories and begin to understand what they experience? How do we develop a a sense of human solidarity with those we've never met?

Have you ever felt the kind of love Neruda is describing? What opportunities do you have you had to extend it to others- those whom you do not know?


"To Love the Marigold," by Susan Griffin

Griffin writes of the critical role of dreaming and imagination in working for change What distinguishes dreaming as escape, fine in its place, from dreaming that opens up new possibilities?


"To see what exists freshly and without prejudice clears the way for seeing what might exist in the future, or what is possible," Griffin writes.  Given all we've been told and taught, what are some ways of learning to see the world with fresh eyes? Have you ever experienced something, heard a story, or seen an image that helped you do this?

"The camera's eyes," Griffin writes, "also catches a tender quality of innocence and hope, an expression one so seldom sees any longer even on the faces of any but the youngest children" Do we live in a time where innocence is scarce? Did we even before the 9/11 attacks? What do we lose by assuming a world where possibilities for common action are continually damped, all except for efforts geared toward making money?

Griffin speaks of the failure of political dreams? How do we work for fundamental change when grand dreams of global transformation have often have ended up in destructive betrayal? As Griffin writes, "Where one there were societies that served as models for a better future, grand plans, utopias, now there is distrust and dissatisfaction with any form of politics, a sense of powerlessness edging into nihilism." Are there other ways to view social change that acknowledge the limits of past alternatives, but still let us dream beyond the boundaries of the present?

How does imagination generate hope? Can we even imagine the image of Desnos reading people's palms in a concentration camp? If we can't translate wild hope directly into politics, can we use play and creativity to sustain our spirits? Can you think of some time where this has happened?

Griffin concludes her essay with the imperative: "Let us begin to imagine the worlds we would like to inhabit, the long lives we will share, and the many futures in our hands." Identify one community of which you are a part, such as your dormitory, college campus, or hometown. Using your imagination, describe the community in terms of one you'd like to inhabit. What will have to occur in the present community in order to make these changes a reality? What role can you have in enacting change?

"Walking With the Wind," by John Lewis Do you have core childhood memories that help you through difficult times? Or ones that hold you back and make you hesitate to act on your deepest beliefs?

Are the core myths of our society communal-about joining together-or individual, based on lone heroes? If the latter, does this make it harder to act together on larger concerns? How can we recover the stories that help us act in common?

We think of our families as bastions of love, or would like to. Can we extend the way we treat the bonds of common kinship- and apply it to how our society should be run, or to how we could work for social change? In this context, what would it mean to treat all human beings as fellow children of God?

"Freedom Songs," by Rosemarie Freeney Harding. And "Rough Translation," by Toni Merosovich

Have you ever experienced a moment where music opened up new possibilities, or carried you forward out of fear? How can we bring this sense into political movements? Identify a particular time of strife in American or world history. Are there examples of song lyrics that offered hope for the oppressed.

Is there a song in your own life experience that gives you hope in times of trial or despair? Explain.

Is it hard to imagine a society where Louis Armstrong or John Coltrane are deemed so dangerous that merely to play them makes you suspect? Does this echo the suppression of the Plastic People of the Universe in Czechoslovakia? What about the attacks on the Dixie Chicks for criticizing President Bush? What was response to musicians from Bruce Springsteen to Eimenem getting involved to challenge Bush's regime?

"Jesus and Alinsky," by Walter Wink

Had you heard anything resembling Wink's reinterpretation of these classic parables? How do they mesh with your previous reading of the Bible? Do you see the parables of "Turn the Other Cheek " and "Go the Extra Mile" as supporting compliance or resistance?

What do you think of Wink's thesis that the more radical translations of Jesus were buried by court translators, in favor of ones that promoted docility and blind acceptance of authority? How does the religious tradition you've grown up with suggest we respond to the actions of our leaders? To question them? Or to assume they're doing God's will if they publicly manifest religious faith?

Did you know about the uprisings against the Romans and the laws that governed relationships between Roman occupiers and the Jews? If you saw the movie "The Passion," how is Wink offering a different portrayal of Jesus than Gibson? Contrast the two.

How has the Bible been used to justify injustice in situations like slavery, segregation , or apartheid South Africa, as in the splits between the southern and northern Baptists and southern and northern Presbyterians? What do you know of this history?

How has the Bible been used to inspire people and maintain hope and spirit in freedom movements, like the role of the black churches in the American civil rights movement and of South African leaders like Desmond Tutu? What do you know of this history?

How do Wink's creative nonviolent resistance efforts parallel Griffin's call for radical creativity in approaching injustice?

How could we apply the kinds of approaches Wink describes to our current time? How can we bring the imaginative-and even the outrageous-into political action, without feeding a culture of fear? Is there a clue in Wink's suggestion that we only pursue tactics that we would not mind others pursuing against us?


"Stories from the Cha Cha Cha," by Vern Huffman

Did you know any of these stories? How do they mesh with the lessons of Griffin and Wink?

"Do Not Go Gentle," by Sherman Alexie

What kind of hope does this story embody?

What does Alexie mean by "We were Indians, and didn't want to carry around too much hope. Hope eats your flesh like a spider bite." Can you hope for a given outcome too much? Can you find ways to act while letting go of the outcome? This was an intensely personal crisis, yet Alexie's character was hardly passive. Does Alexie's essay offer hope to the oppressed?

Alexie talks about being "deadly serious and deadly funny at the same time." Explain how powerful activism can be both

"A father like a sick child," writes Alexie, "is an angry god." How can we take the fierceness with which we'd fight for our family, and fight for the families of other?

This is a wild story, maybe unsettling for some people. Did it seem unexpected in a book on political hope? Would Desmond Tutu have liked this story? What lessons does it convey about the links between imagination, faith and the possibility of miracles of hope?

"Despair is a Lie we Tell Ourselves," by Tony Kushner

What does Kushner mean by calling despair a lie? How does it become a self-fulfilling prophecy? Can hope become a self- fulfilling prophecy as well?

What's the relationship between our individual actions and the possibility of changing the world? "Not any single one of us has to or possibly can save the world," Kushner says, "but together in some kind of concert, in even-not-especially- coordinated concert...the world will change." Do you agree? What examples from previous essays provide examples of his argument?

How do we cultivate a spirit of wild hope, like that in the Sherman Alexie's story or that of the man who drove the Range Rover through the shop window?

SECTION FIVE: COURAGE IS CONTAGIOUS

"To Be of Use" by Marge Piercy

When this poem first came out, in the early 1970's, copies were tacked to every activist bulletin board imaginable. What is it about "work that is real" that is so elusive in our society and so integral a goal in efforts at change? Have you known an activist who embodies keeping on to do the real work of our time?

SECTION Five Introduction:

What do you think of Mary Robinson's judgment that "You have to keep standing up even if it's hard. You have to be willing to pay the costs"? Have you ever stood up to bullying or intimidation? What did it take to do so? Why don't we do this more often in public as well as personal life?

Have you ever spoke out on an issue you cared about in a context you knew would not be receptive? What was the response? And what did it feel like to voice your perspective?

How is silence contagious? How is courage?

What do you think of Cesar Chavez's statement that "Every time a man or woman stands up for justice, the heavens sing and the world rejoices"?

"The Small Work in the Great Work" by Victoria Stafford

What was your response to the young Native American woman's story? Could you imagine yourself taking any equivalent stand? What would hold you back? What would allow you to do this?

Safford talks about our souls blooming when we step into the sunlight of acting on our beliefs, on who we are. What does her essay suggest about vocation or calling? Have you ever taken a difficult action and felt your spirit bloom?


"In What Do I Place My Trust?"

Bertell writes about the importance of human connectedness: "We have to be part of something larger than ourselves, because our dreams are often bigger than our lifetimes." How do we learn to act in causes whose full fruits may not bloom until long after we're gone?

Does Bertell's notion of connectedness and mutual dependency conflict with the common belief of American individualism? Explain.

"Not Deterred" by Paxus Calta-Star

Have you ever been told that your hopes for change are unreasonable? That you have to be "realistic?" Who defines what is realistic and what is not in terms of our common future?

Calta-Star says that "old gray-haired men with many initials after their names dominate discussion and policy making." Who dominates discussion and policy making in your immediate community? Whose voices are not being heard? How can you find a voice, like Polina, in order to be heard?


"Rebellion Is What Build America" by Jim Hightower

Hightower contends that people who only seek their own gain isn't "the sum of the American soul, nor the center of it." Do you agree or disagree?

"Faith Works" by Jim Wallis

What does Wallis mean by "Hope is believing in spite of the evidence, then watching the evidence change"? Do you agree?

Do you think Wallis speaks only to Christians ? Explain.

How did his faith enabled Desmond Tutu to tell the South African policemen that they were on the wrong side of God and history, but that he invited him to join the winning side? How can we evidence that generosity of spirit to those on a different political side?

"Composing a Life Story" by Mary Catherine Bateson

Bateson asserts that women have long had to combine different areas of their lives into a difficult balancing act; men traditionally have been able to separate various aspects of their lives, though increasingly men are living with "multiple simultaneous demands." Do you agree or disagree? What is causing both women and men to live with increasing multiple simultaneous demands?

Summarize Bateson's three meanings for "composing a life." Which of the three does Bateson emphasize and why? Which of the three do you prefer and why? Do you think of your life as a linear narrative, or as something you'll improvise along the way?

Bateson quotes someone who once said, "My life is like surfing, with one wave coming after another." What is a simile or metaphor for your life?
How do Bateson's arguments apply to sustaining long-term social activism?

SECTION SIX: THE GLOBAL STAGE

"Imagine the Angels of Bread" by Martin Espada

Espada describes a reversal of roles-but one more aimed at justice than vengeance. What's the difference between the two visions? Is it hard to imagine those on the bottom of our society being treated with dignity instead of contempt? What thoughts or feelings were evoked in you after you read this poem?

SECTION Six Introduction.

Do you know the Serenity Prayer? Do you view it as encouragement to take on the difficult and seemingly impossible, to accept the world as it is, or both?

Did you know that 16,000 children die each day from hunger-related causes-and that this is more than five times the toll of the Sept 11 attacks? What does it say that most of these deaths are preventable, yet we allow our society to do relatively little?

What's our response when we hear troubling facts that may challenge our worldview? What should be our response? Do we dismiss them as liberal (or conservative) propaganda? Do we check them out further to understand their contexts? Do we try to modify our sense of the world and what needs to be done to create a more just global order?

Did you participant in the movements against or for the Iraq war? What was your judgment of their impact or your judgment of those who did?
 

Explain the following quote: "Hope isn't an abstract theory about where human aspirations end and the impossible begins; it's a never-ending experiment, continually expanding the boundaries of the possible."

When you hear stories like a nuclear protest in Nevada inspiring a counterpart effort in the former Soviet Union, what does this suggest about the way that hope and courage can travel?

What's the most effective way you stay informed as a global citizen?

"Come September" by Arundhati Roy

Arundhati Roy explains, "Whether there's hope or despair is a way of seeing. But even if there wasn't hope, I would still be doing what I do. Because that's what I do; that's who I am." Describe your "way of seeing" the world in terms of social action.

In her essay, Roy sometimes levels harsh criticism of elected leaders and policies. When is it appropriate, even essential, to criticize government policies and the specific elected leaders who enact them? What are the dangers of societies which make criticism of elected officials impermissible?


Roy says that "To call someone 'anti-American'" is "a failure of the imagination. An inability to see the world in terms other than those the establishment has set out for you." What does she mean?

What, if any, is a defensible reason for going to war, in your opinion?


Roy painfully acknowledges: ".'The American Way of Life' is simply not sustainable. Because it doesn't acknowledge that there is a world beyond America." Identify at least three specific strategies or opportunities for you to learn more about and participate in a world beyond America.

Do schools and textbooks often include some of the "grief of history" in their curriculum? If not, why not? Should education more often include some of the "grief of history"? Explain your position.

How often do voices expressing "the grief of history" appear in the mainstream media? Which voices tend to be heard? If you go to a website like www.commondreams.org or www.workingforchange.com, which perspectives and voices do you hear that you don't in the mainstream media?

"The Black Hole" by Ariel Dorfman


Dorfman describes the message about the lack of human worth communicated to the Chilean people: ".subhuman, incompetent, inferior, worthless, lazy.." Are there people in America who get this same message? How much is the American Dream based on "each person scratching his way to the top, where, if he was lucky or ruthless enough, he could then become the exploiter of his brothers."

How did Allende's version of socialism differ from the brutal dictatorships of Eastern Europe? What lesson did it teach when US overthrows governments which play by the rules of democracy?


Dorfman describes how Pinochet disciplined the factory owner and his companeros for "an act of the imagination." Does this mean people should not imagine or dream of justice because of the danger of retribution? Explain.

In many ways this is a discussion of crushed hopes and a lack of justice, of a world where Salvador Allende is dead and the dictator Augusto Pinochet is alive and free. Yet it is also a piece about the persistence of hope. Dorfman seems to find some of the strength to keep working for change in memories of those first days when it seemed like everything could change. Do the hopes he felt seem impossible to you?

How does our hope differ if we've never lived through such moments? How do we find the imagination to dream about the most fundamental changes in a time when we're told that we have no right to even open up these questions.


"Hope for Human Rights" by Kenneth Roth

The title of Roth's essay is "Hope for Human Rights." Why does Roth remain hopeful in the face of the atrocities.


"The Green Dream" by Mark Hertsgaard

Were you surprised that people in countries with extremely undeveloped economies had a sense of global economic crises? Is this a hopeful sign?

Summarize Hertsgaard's proposal, "Global Green Deal." Who/what would oppose this proposal and why? What new kinds of coalitions might support it? Do you know about the New Apollo Project, which creates a similar kind of effort here at home. What do you think of the project after going to its website, www.apolloalliance.org? Do you agree with Hertsgaard's proposal?


"Curitiba" by Bill McKibben

Several essays in this anthology celebrate the power of human imagination. How had the government of Curitiba blended the imaginative and the practical?

McKibben cites "integration" as one of the mantras of Curitiba, meaning the "knitting together [of] the entire city-rich, poor, and in-between-culturally and economically and physically." How realistic is this definition of integration in the city or town in which you live? What barriers stand in the way of this understanding of integration in your city or town? Brainstorm imaginative solutions as Curitiba has done to at least one of the barriers you have identified.

Did it surprise you that a poor city like Curitiba could come up with solutions that rich cities and countries had not even tried? Does our affluence sometimes create blinders on our vision?

SECTION SEVEN: RADICAL DIGNITY

"Natural Resources" by Adrienne Rich

Identify a way that you, too, might "reconstitute the world" in which you live.

"How Have You Spent Your Life?" by Jalaluddin Rumi

This poem was written in the thirteenth century. Are the poem's central ideas more applicable, less applicable to today?

SECTION Seven Introduction:

Do you agree that hope, as Tony Kushner put it, is a moral obligation? What's the difference between naive hope and hope that's grounded?

Do secular and religious activists differ in their views of social commitment and the reasons for persistence? If so how?

"Letter from Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King

What is the central thesis of the excerpt from "Letter from Birmingham Jail"?

Explain what King means by the "myth of time" when he says he hoped that "the white moderate would reject the myth of time." Explain situation(s) in which this point is still applicable today. Take a current situation where don't act because they believe it will simply be addressed in time, and instead discuss possible courses of action that can and should be taken today.

More than forty years ago, Martin Luther King wrote that "we will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people." Is this statement true for today's generation as well?

"The Real Rosa Parks" by Paul Rogat Loeb
 

Why does the retelling of the Rosa Parks story as most know it actually make it harder for ordinary citizens to get involved in issues of social change. Did you know the real story before reading this book, or Loeb's earlier work? How does knowing it shift your view of social change?


Do you agree or disagree that Parks's first action in going to a NAACP meeting was just as pivotal as her stand on the bus, because without one, the other wouldn't have happened?

 
"Prisoners of Hope" by Cornel West


What does it mean to ask that our leaders "Make it real"? In this time of deep political division, how can we distinguish empty rhetoric from the real?

West asserts that "a rich life consists fundamentally of serving others, trying to leave the world a little better than you found it." What are some ways you've already left the world a better place by your words or actions? What are two of your long term goals for making the world a better place?

In his essay West refers to past struggles for Black Americans, yet offers a sense of courage and hope: "Our courage rests on a deep democratic vision of a better world that lures us and a blood-drenched hope that sustains us." What does that "blood-drenched hope" call us to do?


"Behemoth in a Bathrobe" by Carla Seaquist

The voice of conscience suggests we "question the use of labels-'good,' 'evil.'" How can we hold people or institutions accountable for destructive behavior without resorting to simplistic labels?

"Road to Redemption" by Billy Wayne Sinclair

Could you imagine taking a stand like Sinclair's, knowing that it might cost you the rest of your life in jail. What kind of moral courage would it take? Is it surprising that this courage developed in someone who once was a destructive criminal?

What do you think gave Sinclair his core strength? Did it come on suddenly, or did it build as he took different risks of courage?  What role did personal loyalties play in his conversion?

"Resisting Terror" by Peter Ackerman and Jack DuVall

Did you know the story of the Rosenstrasse Jews? Or the Mothers of the Disappeared? Why don't we learn these immensely hopeful stories?

What do these stories say about how people manage to act even among the most intimidating circumstances-like the threat of being shot by the Nazis? Do they suggest lessons for us to take the risk of courageous actions in circumstances where the consequences are often no more than having to deal with someone disagreeing with us? Why don't we act when we have far more freedoms and latitude?


Azucenda de Villaflor de De Vincente became an activist after her son and daughter-in-law disappeared. What allows people to act if they haven't been directly touched by oppression or tragedy? Is it a sense of feeling someone's story, whether or not you know them personally? Interview someone working in a group like Amnesty International who acts although they may never directly know the people they work to save.


Are there lessons from Resisting Terror about how to deal with brutal regimes like Saddam Hussein's. You could look up DuVall's essays on the subject on the Internet.

Whatever one thinks about the possibilities of nonviolent resistance, what do these essays say about the possibilities of human courage and hope?

SECTION EIGHT: BEYOND HOPE

"Origami Emotion" by Elizabeth Barrette

Barrette's metaphor for hope is a paper crane. Think of your own metaphor or simile for hope.

From "The New York Poem" by Sam Hamill

Hamill wrote his poem in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. Did any poems or pieces of art or literature help you reflect on those horrible moments, or give them useful context?

 In the poem's final line, Hamill writes, ".if I don't.the savages will win." What do we run the risk of losing if we don't stay true to our soul in the face of sadness, despair, or defeat?

SECTION Eight Introduction

What is it that keeps us going working for change even when results seem elusive or when we hit frustration? How much is it a sense of our own dignity?

How do we balance the importance of immediate results and long-term persistence? Are there times when you have to keep on even if you see no fruits? How does this link to stories like those of Nixon changing his mind on his nuclear threat because of a demonstration he publicly spurned, and Dr Benjamin Spock becoming involved because of a seemingly fruitless demonstration he witnessed?

Loeb makes a distinction between impatient hope and a deeper, far-seeing kind of hope. What are the defining characteristics of each kind of hope?

Loeb again highlights the importance of community over isolation. How does community help sustain deep, far-seeing hope in individuals? What's the difference between feeling isolated and feeling supported? Does our society try to make social justice activists feel isolated?

"Staying the Course" by Mary-Wynne Ashford

Is the metaphor of rolling a rock up the hill a useful one? How do we know when we're making progress?

Have you ever done something just because it seemed it was right to do, even if you weren't sure you'd get the outcome you desired?

Has anyone ever tried to make you feel isolated for a stand you're taking, perhaps using the phrase "no one else has a problem"?

Ashford describes almost paralyzing despair over planetary crises such as ozone depletion and deforestation. Are there global or national issues that evoke in you a similar type of despair or fear?  What lessons from her essay can help you with your own feelings of despair?

What does it mean to "stay the course"? Use examples from the essay to help explain. Do you have personal examples of "staying the course" related to being true to your own conviction?


"The Elm Dance," by Joanna Macy,

Can you imagine a situation where you could no longer walk in a forest that had long sustained you and your community? What does it do to us when we kill the natural world?

Why did the Novozybkov residents bury their pain for so long? Have you been in a situation where something terrible has happened or is happening and people don't talk about it? Can you think of some example of difficult questions that our society buries?

What happened when the residents began to talk about their pain? Why was it freeing? What is the gain and the hope in talking about the most difficult questions for a family, a community, a society? Why can it help us to let our hearts break open? What's the link between this essay and Art Waskow's talk of the value of vulnerability in "The Sukkoth of Shalom."

What did Macy mean when she explained the history of the Elm Dance and said: "They [the German people] gave their children everything-except one thing. They did not give them their broken hearts. And their children have never forgiven them." Do you agree/disagree that a society should give its children everything, including their broken hearts? Apply Macy's point to a situation today such as "9/11" or another devastating occurrence.

From "Hope against Hope" by Nedezhda Mandelstam

Reread "Celebration of the Human Voice" by Eduardo Galeano in Section III of this book. What do you think Galeano would say to Mandelstam about her decision to scream rather than remain silent? Why? Explain how "silence is a real crime against humanity." Identify issues today that need a voice, perhaps even a scream.

"The Inevitability Trap" by K.C. Golden

In your own words, summarize "the inevitability trap." Think about your own views on the crucial environment issues. Do you find yourself falling into "the inevitability trap"? Is there a way to get out of this pattern?
 

"You Have to Pick Your Team" by Sonya Vetra Tinsley, as told to Paul Rogat Loeb

Sonya says we won't know till the end of history who's right, the cynics or the people with hope, so we might was well join the team of the people with hope. Do you agree?

"From Hope to Hopelessness" by Margaret Wheatley

Part of Wheatley's response to the increasing grief, suffering, aggression, and violence she sees all around her is to journey into hopelessness. After exploring hopelessness through the experiences of others, how does hopelessness actually sustain Wheatley?

What do you think of her judgment that "we don't need specific outcomes. We need each other"?

Have you ever acted on something even when you felt hopeless in terms of prevailing. What was that experience like?

SECTION NINE: ONLY JUSTICE CAN STOP A CURSE

"Still I Rise" by Maya Angelou

This poem has a number of images that capture efforts to humiliate someone, and their tenacious assertion of their dignity. How does the poem exemplify the book's over-arching theme of hope?


Section Nine: Introduction

In the face of ever-increasing global problems in this world, activists can easily experience a sense of rage and bitterness. Have you ever felt "pickled in horrors"? How did you respond to this overload? What brought you out of it.

What do you think was going on when the African American policeman stepped aside in response to Rachel Bagby's song? Describe the hope in this moment.

Dostoyevsky once wrote, "Each one of us is responsible to all others for everything." Do you agree or disagree with this perspective?

"Only Justice Can Stop a Curse" by Alice Walker

Have you ever experienced the mind-state Alice Walker describes, where you decide that humans have messed up the world so profoundly, that maybe we're just doomed to extinction? How did you get past it?

What is your reaction to the curse-prayer at the beginning of the Walker essay? Have you felt this kind of anger and bitterness toward an enemy? Were you able to channel your anger in positive ways? If so, how?

Walker states that although she has been an activist all her adult life, she sometimes has felt embarrassed to call herself one. Would you be embarrassed to call yourself an activist? Why or why not?


Walker concludes her essay by recalling the story of "blond Paul from Minnesota" from her voter-registration work in the deep South.  Have there been people you've dismissed who've surprised you with their courage or vision?

Walker renews her soul by remembering ". fresh peaches and the courage of `people at their best, reaching toward their fullness'" in order to expand her spirit and make her feel larger than her rage. Have you ever been brought out of feelings of bitterness by savoring the fruits of the world? How does this parallel the Desmond Tutu story that opens the book?

How do our small stones of activism add up to build an edifice of hope?

Explain the quote: "All we own, at least for the short time we have it, is our life. With it we write what we come to know of the world." How would you write a more just world with your life?

"The Clan of One-Breasted Women" by Terry Tempest Williams

Has anyone told you "just let it go" about an injustice you later regretted not acting on?

Tempest Williams asserts, "Tolerating blind obedience in the name of patriotism or religion ultimately takes our lives." Explain what she means. Do you agree/disagree? Do you see examples of this today? Explain.

When she is handcuffed, the officer finds a pen and pad of paper, which Tempest Williams says are weapons. Explain how a pen and a pad of paper can serve as weapons. Estimate their effectiveness.

The Tempest Williams essay includes a number of references to the deaths of women the author has loved. The essay also expresses anger toward the nuclear testing that almost certainly destroyed their lives. So where is the theme of hope? Why do you think so many activists passed this essay around when it first came out? Why is Tempest Williams such a powerful voice?

"Next Year in Mas'Ha" by Starhawk

When Starhawk describes the settlement residents who could be her aunts and uncles, describe the tug of loyalty she feels. Have you ever tried to question the actions of a group in which you were raised?

What do you know about the history of the Israeli West Bank settlements? About the life and death of Rachel Corrie? About the nonviolent resistance efforts she was part of. Have you ever seen a map of the settlements. Americans for Peace Now, the US counterpart of the major Israeli peace group, has a map on their website, www.peacenow.org. If you visit it, does it surprise you to see the extent of the settlements compared to the core West Bank population centers?

What is the "slight sweet hint of hope" that Starhawk tastes in a situation that might seem unimaginably grim? How does it connect with the book's themes of the power of generosity? What would it mean, in our own situation, to open our hearts to the children of the enemy and ask for help?


"The Gruntwork of Peace" by Amos Oz

Were you surprised by the span of people that participated in the discussions on the peace plan-Israeli generals and Mossad officials, and long-jailed Palestinian leaders, including leaders of guerrilla groups? By how they were able to overcome the history of bloodshed on both sides, in which many had participated? What do you think they had to let go of to come to the place where they could even talk? How did each side give up part of their identity?

Have you ever had a conversation where you listened deeply to someone you'd once bitterly disagreed with? What happened?

In the introduction to this section, Loeb writes, "But if we're willing to do the moral and spiritual gruntwork and take the necessary leaps of courage, we can slow down, interrupt, and even sometimes halt the seemingly intractable destructive cycles." What is Oz saying about the "gruntwork" of peace efforts? Is gruntwork a necessary part of any successful activism? Explain, drawing from specific examples from this book, your own experience, and anything else that you've read.

"No Future without Forgiveness" by Desmond Tutu

Why do you think the Rwandans listened to Desmond Tutu? Just because he was a Nobel Peace Prize winner? Or was there something in the South African experience that made them take him seriously as a messenger of hope?


What is the difference between "retributive justice" and "restorative justice," which Tutu encouraged? How do we break endless cycles of vengeance? Does Tutu's Truth and Reconciliation Commission give us some clues? What elements have to be included?


Where do you think Tutu gets his hope? Think back to the book's opening, and to Jim Wallis's story of Tutu inviting the South African policemen to join the winning side.

What does Tutu mean by "God has a sense of humor." How does this compare with Howard Zinn's "The Optimism of Uncertainty?"


Do you agree that "Only justice can stop a curse?" What's the relationship between this concept and Tutu's notion of forgiveness? Has this book moved you closer to working for justice? If so, how?