At the same time I am not going to be overwhelmingly pessimistic. There is reason for optimism. "Hope Dies Last" (the name of my new book) is a phrase used by Jessie de la Cruz, who worked very closely with Cesar Chavez organizing the farm workers. She said that whenever times were bleak, they had a phrase, "la esperanza muere última -- hope dies last." Because what is the alternative? Despair. And with despair, all that is left is the head in the oven, or about 20 sleeping pills and a couple of martinis -- or in my case a dozen martinis.
Hope has always been the hallmark of dissenters. We know something happened on Sept. 11, 2001, but there is another day -- Feb. 15, 2003 -- what I call "almost liberation day," when 10 million people across the world acting for peace attended protests against Bush’s preemptive strike at Iraq. That hope continues as an undercurrent in the many, many community groups. The issue could be the environment as well as peace, or civil liberties under John Ashcroft. The question is: Can it be made active?
I must make a confession here. I am a fellow alumnus of John Ashcroft; we both attended the University of Chicago Law School. I was there about 30 years before he was, but he is much older than I am. I maintain John Ashcroft is at least 300 years old, because he is simply the reincarnation of the Reverend Samuel Parris we saw in Arthur Miller’s play "The Crucible." The subject was witchcraft. We were as afraid of witchcraft then as we are of terrorists today. Reverend Parris came into Salem, as the chief prosecutorial officer, like Ashcroft is now. He pointed to the young hysterical girls and said you are not with me if you challenge me, you are consorting with the devil -- with evil.
--Studs Terkel
