Your Humble Blogger uses the term ‘hero’ for a bunch of people who are really really good at what they do, who in some way do what I would do if I wanted to be in their field and had hella talent and dedication. It’s not a great use of the word ‘hero’, since many of these people have performed no acts of heroism. They’re not exactly role models, either. Some of ’em are assholes, and many of them are doing things I wouldn’t ever want to do. But they’re my people, and the emergence of, say, a new column by Jon Carroll or Molly Ivins, or a new Elvis Costello or Klezmatics album or a new Terry Gilliam movie is an Event for me.
Anyway, I don’t follow him as much as I should, but Studs Terkel is one of my heroes. I’ve just finished Hope Dies Last: Keeping the Faith in Troubled Times (New York: New Press 2003), and wow.
Aside from the general brilliance of the whole book, the choice of interviews, the passion of the conversations, and the fascinating facets of activism being revealed, there were a couple of things that stood out. First, the IAF is, was, and continues to be a big influence on activism, and second, that the Catholic Church was (but not so much is) a big influence on activism. I know Mr. Terkel is a Chicagoan, and that he is hip to Dorothy Day in a way that somebody less Chicagoan would not be, but even somebody like YHB, far from Chicago, far from Catholic, should have associated the Catholic Church with workers’ activism and social justice. That I had forgotten that association is pretty sad.
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-Vardibidian.