The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen's Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear,9780465041664

The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen's Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear

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ISBN13: 9780465041664
ISBN10: 0465041663
Format: Paperback
Pub. Date: 2004-08-17
Publisher(s): Perseus Books Group
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Summary

InThe Impossible Will Take a Little While, a phrase borrowed from Billie Holliday, the editor ofSoul of a Citizenbrings together fifty stories and essays that range across nations, eras, wars, and political movements. Danusha Goska, an Indiana activist with a paralyzing physical disability, writes about overcoming political immobilization, drawing on her history with the Peace Corps and Mother Teresa. Vaclav Havel, the former president of the Czech Republic, finds value in seemingly doomed or futile actions taken by oppressed peoples. Rosemarie Freeney Harding recalls the music that sustained the civil rights movement, and Paxus Calta-Star recounts the powerful vignette of an 18-year-old who launched the overthrow of Bulgaria's dictatorship. Many of the essays are new, others classic works that continue to inspire. Together, these writers explore a path of heartfelt community involvement that leads beyond despair to compassion and hope. The voices collected inThe Impossible Will Take a Little Whilewill help keep us all working for a better world despite the obstacles.

Author Biography

Paul Rogat Loeb is the author of Soul of a Citizen and three other books. He has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and other publications. He is an associated scholar at Seattle's Center for Ethical Leadership and lives in Seattle, Washington.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1(15)
ONE: SEEDS OF THE POSSIBLE
From The Cure at Troy
16(2)
Seamus Heaney
Introduction
18(4)
A Slender Thread
22(8)
Diane Ackerman
Ordinary Resurrections
30(7)
Jonathan Kozol
Standing Up for Children
37(10)
Marian Wright Edelman
Political Paralysis
47(16)
Danusha Veronica Goska
TWO: DARK BEFORE THE DAWN
From September 1, 1939
58(1)
W. H. Auden
Introduction
59(4)
The Optimism of Uncertainty
63(10)
Howard Zinn
The Dark Years
73(9)
Nelson Mandela
An Orientation of the Heart
82(17)
Vaclav Havel
THREE: EVERYDAY GRACE
The Peace of Wild Things
92(1)
Wendell Berry
From Last Night As I Was Sleeping
93(1)
Antonio Machado
Introduction
94(5)
Mountain Music
99(7)
Scott Russell Sanders
The Sukkah of Shalom
106(5)
Arthur Waskow
Getting Our Gaze Back
111(3)
Rose Marie Berger
Fragile and Hidden
114(2)
Henri Nouwen
There Is a Season
116(16)
Parker Palmer
FOUR: THE FLIGHT OF OUR DREAMS
Celebration of the Human Voice
126(1)
Eduardo Galeano
Introduction
127(5)
Childhood and Poetry
132(2)
Pablo Neruda
To Love the Marigold
134(7)
Susan Griffin
Walking with the Wind
141(4)
John Lewis
Freedom Songs
145(2)
Rosemarie Freeney Harding
Rough Translation
147(2)
Toni Mirosevich
Jesus and Alinsky
149(12)
Walter Wink
Stories from the Cha Cha Cha
161(2)
Vern Huffman
Do Not Go Gentle
163(6)
Sherman Alexie
Despair Is a Lie We Tell Ourselves
169(14)
Tony Kushner
FIVE: COURAGE IS CONTAGIOUS
To Be of Use
174(1)
Marge Piercy
Introduction
175(8)
The Small Work in the Great Work
183(8)
Victoria Safford
In What Do I Place My Trust?
191(5)
Rosalie Bertell
Not Deterred
196(2)
Paxus Calta-Star
Rebellion Is What Built America
198(5)
Jim Hightower
Faith Works
203(4)
Jim Wallis
Composing a Life Story
207(23)
Mary Catherine Bateson
SIX: THE GLOBAL STAGE
Imagine the Angels of Bread
218(3)
Martin Espada
Introduction
221(9)
Come September
230(11)
Arundhati Roy
The Black Hole
241(10)
Ariel Dorfman
Hope for Human Rights
251(3)
Kenneth Roth
The Green Dream
254(10)
Mark Hertsgaard
Curitiba
264(17)
Bill McKibben
SEVEN: RADICAL DIGNITY
From Natural Resources
274(1)
Adrienne Rich
How Have You Spent Your Life?
275(1)
Jalaluddin Rumi
Introduction
276(5)
Letter from Birmingham Jail
281(7)
Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Real Rosa Parks
288(5)
Paul Rogat Loeb
Prisoners of Hope
293(5)
Cornel West
Behemoth in a Bathrobe
298(4)
Carla Seaquist
Road to Redemption
302(6)
Billy Wayne Sinclair
Resisting Terror
308(20)
Peter Ackerman
Jack DuVall
EIGHT: BEYOND HOPE
Origami Emotion
320(1)
Elizabeth Barrette
From The New York Poem
321(1)
Sam Hamill
Introduction
322(6)
Staying the Course
328(4)
Mary-Wynne Ashford
The Elm Dance
332(9)
Joanna Macy
Hoping Against Hope
341(3)
Nadezhda Mandelstam
The Inevitability Trap
344(2)
K. C. Golden
Sonya Vetra Tinsley, as told to Paul Rogat Loeb, You Have to Pick Your Team
346(2)
From Hope to Hopelessness
348(13)
Margaret Wheatley
NINE: ONLY JUSTICE CAN STOP A CURSE
Still I Rise
354(2)
Maya Angelou
Introduction
356(5)
Only Justice Can Stop a Curse
361(7)
Alice Walker
The Clan of One-Breasted Women
368(10)
Terry Tempest Williams
Next Year in Mas'Ha
378(5)
Starhawk
The Gruntwork of Peace
383(7)
Amos Oz
No Future Without Forgiveness
390(7)
Desmond Tutu
Acknowledgments 397(4)
Credits 401(8)
About the Editor 409(4)
Index 413

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