075, a slow change towards diversity that's happening everywhere, happening in this town overnight. my thought was maybe by going and understanding what worked in this community, what challenges they faced, we'd get a better sense of what's coming for the rest of it. >> johnathan talks about palestine and created one of the longest running conflicts in history. he speaks at the jimmy carter museum in atlanta for just over an hour. >> thanks for coming out on a random wednesday night. i really appreciate it, and i want to apologize for my voice. i have a cold that i caught from my #-year-old, -- 2-year-old, but, anyway, this is

the book. it came out two weeks ago. my first book was about my relationship with my adopted black brother, david, and growing up in a rural town in indiana, and then being sent off to a reform school in the dominican republic, so there were oddly some parallels between the two books as far as race and kind of belonging to a koiserred society with religion and also being sent away, and i think especially when i got to the part writing about jonestown and how secluded and isolated and cut off from the world that the jonestown residents were, i could really empathize with those people, and oddly enough, there were some punishments used in jonestown that were similar to punishments used at my reform school. for example, when people ran away from the reform school,

they had their heads shaved or put on something called running support where they had to run from place to place, so that was kind of interesting to see the parallels. the book has this origin -- i was actually writing a novel, a novel about a charismatic preacher who takes over this small indiana town. i'm from indiana, and i thought about jim jones, another hoosier, and i googled him and learned the fbi released all the documents in jonestown, and nobody had used this to craft a book. what happened was for those that don't know, after the -- a congressman from california, south of here, decided to go down to jones top to investigate

claims people were held against their will. as he was leaving, a group of people from jonestown decided to join him. they wanted out, and so jim jones knew the gig was up once those people left and came back to the states, they were going to tell people about the conditions in jonestown, so what he did is stuck his security guards on the departing party as they waited at the jungle airstrip, and they killed congressman ryan and members of the people that were leaving, so the fbi then goes in, it's a federal investigation, and congressman neil ryan is the first congressman killed in the line of duty of u.s. history. fbi goes into jonestown after clearing the body, and they collect documents as evidence trying to figure out what happened? was there a con conspiracy to kill the congressman? they picked through letters never sent home, diaries, crop reports, meeting notes, collect

50 # ,000 pieces -- 50,000 pieces of paper, and that would be like -- i don't know -- 1503 -- 150 300-page novels. when i started working, it looked like this, heavily redacted, couldn't read anything, and then after i was about to turn the book in, they unredacted certain documents so i took another six months. it was kind of interesting. i'm going to just read to you -- well, first, i guess i should explain the structure of the book. 118 people died that day, and so my way in, since everybody knows

how jonestown ends was to pick five different people who represent different demographics that were attracted to jim jones, and so you have, for example, a middle-aged white woman, college educated who worked, and was a progressive and really wanted to do something to help the cause of minorities and african-americans and was drawn to jim jones church, which at the time was seen as a progressive source and as a movement here in san fransisco. that was at one end. at the other end, there's stanley clayton, african-american young man from oakland who was brought up in a broken home, angry, saw everything kind of in a racial term, and for him, jim jones message about equality and establishing this utopia where there would be no racism or sexism or elitism, i mean, that

really fell sweetly on his ears so he was drawn to the jim jones' church. it was not just black or whites, but 70s mix of people who really wanted to do something to improve social justice. another person is tommy vogue sent down to jonestown as a teenager like i was sent down to my reform school as a teenager to straighten me out, and he was sent to jonestown to get straightened out. he was skipping class and stopped going to church, and so he was sent down there to, you know, isolate him from negative peers, and i really bonded with tommy, and one thing people don't realize is that a third of the people who died in the jonestown massacre were minors. that's another view. what's it like to be in a church just because you're parents are

members and be in jonestown and have, you know, no say in the manner. the -- i also profile his father, so it's tommy vogue, jim vogue, stanley clayton, the young man from oakland, it's edith roller who worked as a secretary, and then there's two sisters from alabama who joined jones church back in indianapolis, and they joined in the 50s in indianapolis when jim jones first started people's temple, and he really was at the cutting edge of the civil rights movement there. he was integrating his church, integrating lunch counters. he was going around to hospitals and integrating hospitals, but, you know, the sisters were,

again, drawn to the message of equality. they saw him on television one sunday. they turned on the tv, saw his integrated khoir, and a young preacher inviting people of all colors to come to the church, and to them, it was a revelation, so they end up in jonestown, so through the book, i introduce you to different people, hopefully, you become emotionally attached to them, and then you understand a little bit more why it was that people ended up in jonestown. you know, i think one of the hopes i have for this book is that it changes perceptions about what happened, that the people who went -- bless you, you know, it is so easy now for people to denounce jones' victims as cultists and baby killers and even, you know, a republicked cultural historian recently called them in her book

the psychotic cool aid bringers in jonestown. i hope this book challenges the notions and really sets the record straight about how traps people were in jonestown and how isolated, and there was no way out, and that's what i found in the documents. i found these heart breaking letters from dozens of letters from people to gyms jones saying i want to go home. i had no idea it was like this. please, my children are scared, just let me go home. they wouldn't let anybody leave. the essential argument of the book in what i discovered in my research is that he was planning to kill his followers for years before he brought them to jonestown. he talked about loading them into busses and driving the busses off the golden gate bridge and crashing a plane into the ocean, and, of course, the ranking file members had no idea

these secret conversations were going on. it was his inner circle who tended to be these young, white, depressed nihilist people who reflected his own character, so i think that's the most heart breaking thing about what happened at jonestown is that the ranking files, we went down there, you know, the poor, the inner city, the progressives, they went down to jones town thinking they were going to partake in a great social experiment, but they were going to stay for a month. they were going to send their kids off for a semester abroad, and then they'd come home, and then once they got down there, jim jones took their passports and money and said no one's going home. no one can leave. that is the most chilling thing i found in my research, and a year before the massacre, he's talking to them about the fact that someday they are going to

commit revolutionary suicide. someday they are going to die to protest capitalism. when he first brings this up, people are like wait a second, we didn't come here to die. we came here to give our children a better life, and they would argue with him night after night. he'd hold meetings in the central pavilion of jonestown, and they would say we want to defend our community. we want to live, and, you know, you have to read the book, but, you know, eventually, he was able to break them down by depriving them of food, of sleep, by telling them that they were surrounded by mercenaries in the jungle who were about to come in and attack them and torture their children, and he had, you know, his conspirators, he had his sons go into the jungle and shoot back at the camp to make it seem like there were people in the jungle about to attack them, and so the --

just the amount of planning and the orchestration that we went into final night are just astounding to me. the methodical nature of his breaking down their will power, their fight, their psychological resistance to him. i'm going to read to you really briefly about the first time he brings up the idea of revolutionary suicide. by the way, i should say, harry newton, the cofounders of the panthers wrote a book called revolutionary suicide, and what he meant by the term is the o oppressed people should not be passive if they are attacked by police or the oppressors, but

they should go down fighting rather than passively, and well, jim jones took this and skewed it to mean that, you know, we're going to commit mass suicide to promote capitalism. he really, you know, took newton's words and twisted them into something all together different. all right. this happens on december 9, 1977, so a year before the actual deaths. on the december 9, jim jones mother died of em fa see ma in jonestown, and a few hours after the death, he summoned his followers to the pavilion and described his mother's last moments as she gasped for air with her tongue hanging out. he invited people who knew her well to take a last look at her. although she looked hoer risk

while she died, he said in death she looked very well, very well indeed. she was the one person jones allowed to call his bluff and get away with it. in jonestown when she overheard him about bragging with shooting a wild turkey, she laughed and called over her daughter-in-law. that man didn't shoot any turkey, she told her. anyone knows he can't shoot anything with a pistol from 200 yards. when she dieded, her moderating influence vanished and another cord at the at the snapped. a few weeks later, he abruptly asked the followers, how many of you plan your deaths? there was a stunned silence. don't you ever plan your deaths? he repeated up patiently. there's a number of you that do

not lift your hand and say that you plan your death. you're going to die. don't you think you should plan such an important event? he called on a 75-year-old texasn. sister, tally, don't you plan your death? >> on a tape recording found, she sounds hesitant. no, she said, finally. why don't you, dear? jones asked? i don't know. i just hadn't thought about it. don't you think it's time to think about it? it's a terrible thing to have it be an accident like i found my mother to be wasted and layed in a box. it's a waste, don't you think? the old woman was confused. she thought jones was talking about life insurance. [laughter] my husband quit paying it, and i didn't have money to pay it, and i let it go, and i hadn't

thought no more about it. i'm not talking about insurance, jones said. i'm talking about planning your death for the victory of the people, for socialism, for communism, for black liberation, for oppressed liberation. have you not thought about taking a bomb and destroying all the cue ku klux klan people? a microphone buzzed loudly angering jones. he ordered the people at the back to stop playing with their babies and to pay attention. an 8-year-old biracial girl raised her hand. she, too, was confused. what does planning your death mean, she asked sweetly. on tape, her voice is shockingly innocent and clear. his response, jones walked into a tribe whose essence was captured in a sentence.

i healthy person has to think think his death, or he may sell out. this was jim jones deepest fear, that his followers would sell out or betray him if they left his church. he'd rather they die first. when somebody so principle, ready to die at the snap of a finger, he told his followers, and that's what i want to build in you, that same type of character. he began talking about various methods of dying. drowning, they say, is one of the easiest ways in the world to die, just a numbing sleepy sensation. the crowd was solemn, and their lack of enthusiasm infuriated him. some of you people get so nervous every time i talk about death, he shouted. he stuck out his tongue and pretended to gag like he saw his

mother do as she died. the crowd laughed uneasily. one woman refused to smile, and he turned on her saying you're going to die someday, honey, you old bitch, you're going to die. this is taken from audiotape in jonestown, and the fbi collected audiotapes i was able to use for the first time, and, you know, i can't imagine being in that crowd that night when all of the sudden this man who you respected, this preacher, this progressive, you know, figure in san fransisco politics is sudden ly saying you need to plan your death, and bellowing at an old woman calling her a bitch.

i can't imagine what that would have been like, sitting with your child and hearing this conversation. so, again, i mean, that's what i hope people take away from my book is the better understanding of what happened in jonestown and how trapped these people were, you know? he told another tape, you know, had some saying to people who want to leave, we're not going to pay your way home. if you want to go home, you can swim home. you know, over and over he's telling them no one's going how many, we're going to be here and die together. the thing is they're -- i've been to jonestown, i went there in 2008, and it's so isolated, even today. in the 70s, people had to take a two-day boat trip up jungle rivers to get there, you know? there was no phone.

there was a hand radio, but he controlled who used it. he censored all the mail going out, and that's another heart breaking thing that the fbi agents recovered were all the letters never given to residents dense saying you know, so and so, you need to come home, mom is dying, and she wants to see you before she goes, please. they were never given these letters, you know? their letters, you know, to their relatives and loved ones in the family were never delivered either. i just hope, again, that by reading this, people understand this, and the phrase "drinking their kool-aid" is so offensive. and most people heard that phrase, but people born after 1980 have no idea where it comes from, that is originates from this horrific event in jones town, so maybe after reading this book, that phrase will, you

know, won't be borrowed as glibly as it is now. anyway, i want to open it up for questions. i think i talked enough. yes? [applause] thank you, thank you. [applause] >> important work. about 30 years ago, i went to puma and did a piece for "atlantic," and so i'm a little more cynical than you are. i've really felt it for the children who suffered this, but in terms of the adults, as i said it, i've seen people succumb to the twin ideologies which have been so harmful to people, the ideologies of the religion, coupled with the ideology of politics, that's in

and of themselves, they are pretty difficult pill and can be destructive. put them together like jones did, you and have an extremely destructive brew. the question i have for you, the good thing is just briefing quickly through the book, i see a lot of people held -- involved in helping to create this image of jones being an honorable and good and "revolutionary" person could including harvey, and sorry, they really helped him, and they deserved our scorn for that just as we praise them for other things. willie brown was involved in it, and gutter scum like angela davis and newton and kpfa's news department which never ceased to praise jones because they saw him as a fellow ideolog who professed what they did. the question i have for you is

have you gone to any of these prominent people and asked them how they could justify creating the myth of james jones that led so many people acropper, including people like angela davis who should hang her head in shame. >> well, jones hoodwinked a lot of people, and as you say, they got, you know, he -- the politicians cornered him. they came to people's temple because jones had his command, you know, 3,000 foot soldiers willing to go out and canvas neighborhoods and people demonstrations and cross voting districts to get people elected, and there's a tape where they are basically saying, yes, you helped get me elected, and therefore i'm going to make you the head of the housing authority, which he did, and you are right that when these allegations of physical abuse

and financial misdeeds happened, the slate that he helped elect, you know, mayor marsconi, counsel member milk, they turned a blind eye to it, you're right. of course, they were killed about ten days after the massacre happened. you know, there's jane fonda, willie brown, angela davis, and on the outside, people's temper looked good. i talk in the prologue that for me, growing up as i did with a, you know, a black brother and always feeling like a misfit and longing for a place to belong, from the -- if i had come to a temple service on a sunday morning and seen this, i would have definitely had been interested. my brother, david, and i, you know, i would have been interested because of his message of social justice.

i would have been interested because there was real love between temple members. i mean, having grown up in the church, a church is so much more than just its leader. it's the relationship you have with the other members and your kids befriending others, and like, for example, a young man like clayton from oakland whose mother didn't give a damn about him and stole feed to get something to eat while his younger brother cried with hunger, the temple offered him a place to sleep. the temple got him out of jail on early release. the temple encouraged him to get his ged. the temple ran all kinds of services. you know, drug rehab. it had child care for working moms. it had medical care for the elderly, impoverished people.

it looked really good on the outside, so, you know, i don't think -- i think it's kind of hard to blame these people. i mean, in retrospect, you know, yeah, you can say, yeah, jim jones was an evil man, but until marshall broke the story about what was happening in new west magazine and this all came out, you know, he really held a tight reign on communications and what was going on with the church. angela wouldn't speak to me. she's a very busy woman. yes? >> i'm wondering about the -- thanks. i'm wondering about your research and how you were able to gain access to that fbi files? was that difficult? what was the process like for you? >> yeah. so, what happened was there was a freedom of information act

lawsuit that was filed by relatives of people who died in jonestown, and there is a professor of seology at san diego state university who had her two sisters killed in johnstown. they were in the leadership. for her and her husband, it's a personal effort, and they filed lawsuit after lawsuit against the fbi to get the filed released, and then, you know, the fbi finally did release the files without an index, so it's like, you know, a letter that would start on, say, you know, they released them on three cds. they scanned the material. cd 1 ends on cd 3 on page 15. it was nuts. they put the information together, and they and myself, we are the only people who read through the documents in their entirety, and a lot of them are

just very, you know, tedious documentation like, you know, purchase orders and, you know, really dry stuff, but then every once in awhile you come into something like, you know, this document, which is the camp doctor who was in charge of trying to figure out how to kill everyone; right? so on wednesday's the camp doctor stopped delivering babies and suturing wounds, and then he tried to figure out how to kill everyone. this was a plot where i was like this is stranger than fiction. he tried to develop botulism and other toxins, and so he was putting cultures he put in baby food jars collected in the nursery, and then he writes cyanide is one of the most rapidly acting poisens.

i had misgivings about its effectiveness, but from further research, i have more confidence in it, at least thee theoretically. i'd like to give two grams to a large pig to see how effective our batch is. okay? so in these documents, you can see who is responsible for what, and like larry shaft, who few people heard of, you know, is talking about, you know, killing off everybody in jonestown, and, you know, it was really interesting. there's another woman who was a probation officer here in california who was smuggling guns down to johnstown in shipping crates. she's now living in upstate new york kind of disappeared into the woodwork as a lot of the temple leadership did after the massacre. she's actually about to get a rude surprise as a local reporter is on her tail, but, you know, it was really

fascinating especially once they released the unredacted versions. you could see who was doing what and who was to blame for what. >> wow. >> it took me a year to piece the documents together and figure out, you know, put them in chronological order, how do you structure the narrative? everybody nows how it ends, but they don't know how my people end, and hopefully my people engage you enough to want you to read through an entire book and figure out what happens to them. ..

>> i was just wondering what it you've found out too. >> it is an interesting question if we really believe didn't just this zandi call the day of our live when he was starting

his ministry hes tumbled across this bull marvell group and then in the '60s the average american's or not happy with the advance of the civil-rights movement this preacher who wanted to go further not militant like the black panthers but but publicly and vehemently about racism in america. that did interesting question. it is is hard to say he was also the first family to adopt and african-american baby in india as though he integrated his own family later adopting kids from korea his family was a reflection of his stated ideology whether he believed

in soulful justice at that point* or building the church around the help of the people it is hard to tell he look to the minister as the head of the church for the authority figure he wanted to be him coming from the loveless household some of the preacher getting this respect a and attention and affection from the conversation that is what he wanted for himself and that our and the control got the better of him. and indianapolis of they tried to to leave the church he was saying it is god's

will you stay in my church or if you leave something bad will happen said he tried to complete the control his followers a friend of a friend knew jim jones and was somewhat enamored and then at some point* became disillusioned and my friend asked why and the response was she was convinced that to he was mentally ill. do you have a comment on

that? >> very clearly he was emotionally disturbed, i don't think he was never diagnosed. [laughter] you can tell me after you read the book. the way he controls people, the extent to which which, he was growing this movement reportedly where either you were 4e quality are against it. everything was black and white with him. people would turn over their real-estate holdings and all of their wealth to the church to move it to a temple commune and one

lamented that wish to realize something is realize -- something is wrong with jim jones but her sister really believes and gets angry every time they tried to talk to her and has also given all of her worldly belongings to the church. says she figures she will come back and live with the nephew but she got down there and jim jones said nobody is leaving. it is hard to say there was an element for example, he was having sexual liaisons with both men and women as a control factor. but yet they stayed in the church. i think if you got further

out to the rank-and-file with the satellite church in los angeles they would have nothing to do with him the rest of the week after sunday and they decided to take a leave of absence then were trapped down there having no idea what his plans were. >> you mentioned a letter that said my mother died he was opposed to anybody leaving and said even one year before this happened that when his mother died 19,707th, he was seriously contemplating thinking up ways in so that he was

already planning to kill him but of the day that it happened, had a plane landed representative wright and got out and several journalists from the examiner and chronicle one of which was killed and the others arrived. but i happened in a narrative that the day developed in its own way. he may war may not have had the intention is to kill the had the poison and already come to them with the motivation but on the suicide, not just that but also several murders there was a truck that went out to the landing strip to kill the journalist so it was a combination of suicide and murder and a lot of people survived is a little more

complicated so what made that day unfold exactly the way that it did? it seems to me that two as a navy veteran whose wife will go back do civilization and apparently that has been did not want his wife and the kids to go back. this particular episode in the day's events was completely shielded from the public for months they had page after page that the fbi gave to the newspapers but the actual incident was

hidden and also the speech that after this we have duo commit suicide they will come after us and wipe us out with military force with the impending invasion because they tried to make the gesture so there is a double suicide homicide was that planned or did that just have been macquarie where events that of his control but then he had a bunch of guys at the air strip. it seems like maybe not orchestrated but he was involved in a settlement that revealed itself as the day went on and the offense kept tugging away i never figured out myself.

>> what is your question? [laughter] >> you say he was intent on killing everybody but is that true if the events of the day precipitated? if he tried god to assassinate rise and perhaps jones would continue with his sure raid for another decade or was he convinced he would wipe them out in a short amount of time? you mentioned his one stages mother died when year before >> reading johnstown not only with the media but also a group of inspectors they come back to the states to blow the lid off but it would is so tightly controlled if you go to my website you can listen and some of the audio rehearsing

answers to reporters' questions. all of the residence aid tour a gravy with of vegetable but not enough protein or sustenance. a lot of people who survive lost 30 or 40 pounds they were very weak he had them rehearsing what do we eat here? we each well. what do each year? we have for coming chicken, steak, he was rehearsing them and wanted death fantasy johnstown was agree fantasies so when dead defectors left he knew they would come back and talk to the media and how horrible

conditions were now oh rehearsing them and planning to kill everyone he knew the kid was up and what precipitated that? he was able to say after his security guards shot them that now people are implicated in the crime and we say all 41 and one for all so now they will torture us of it is better if we flit across to the other side be leaving in reincarnation. >> >> did you speak to any department of justice or any

investigators? >> i spoke with an fbi agent who was on the scene after the massacre. the lead photographer and as far as affirmative justice most of the documentation was released in the files and that is what i worked off of. [applause]

>> those people on the cover our workers from the dark ages the cotton mill of my home town folks who had survived the twenties and thirties and forties when it was a brick of been in the summer time and that there was so thick with flying cotton and it filled your lungs with a cotton fiber they would hang out the windows trying to get a breath of air. kids wed ride by in cars and wagons and see it and it would scare them to death. these are people that lost their fingers and hands and

arms to the chain's a head to come down out of the mountains walking barefoot with all of their children in a line and the bill hired all but a show of them when -- men and women and the children. they were valuable because their hands were small they could reach into the gears to unclog line. they were as young as eight common nine come at 10. >> host: tell me about the town to when it is a great town it is a beautiful town. almost like somebody painted it. it nestles in the foothills of the appellations

surrounded by beautiful mountains. not far from the river one of the most beautiful places on earth. but the civil war wrecked the region a lot of people call it the richman war its star of the region then came reconstructions almost like the civil war faded into reconstructions that faded into the great depression except for the poor the bill came in the early years of of the 20th century and was salvation.

these people were sharecroppers or subsistence farmers and dug wells and cut timber and all of a sudden there was inside work it saved them and this sends a and daughters see it as a salvation. >> host: how much were they paid? >> guest: next to nothing if buried nickels and dimes of that a few dollars a week. even after roosevelt demanded a decent wage for them, and the mill owner refuse to pay it.

and defy the federal government successfully and broke the union. the bill orders paid what they knew they had to which considering the poor mountain people where they came from was not very much. going into the '60s and the '70s, it became a decent paying job. the machines god safer. by the '70s and '80s if you work for a cotton mill you made as good of money as a blue-collar worker except maybe some coal miners or steelworkers. >> host: people were losing fingers, hands and

getting paid next to nothing but why were they so loreal? >> there was nothing else there. pot shops and steel mills but to understand why you work in a place that kept a part of view at quitting time, you have to understand that these are folks who don't want to go anywhere else. a lot of said ken volk went up to detroit but it was important to these people to live in the mountains of their fathers and it was important they live in a place where her grandmother

put jelly in the window sill and it is important to them when they died nobody sent her body home on a train. >> when did it close? >> after 100 years, i think 2001. >> host: what did that tutu the city? >> it would be a romantic story but that is not true. the bill became a lesser force although still a force , jacksonville state university, a college became the economic force in town. not that there was a lot of whole new industry, you work with your hands for a living in this country so the bill

faded out of existence and a lot of the workers, my brother was one of them went to work for jobs that paid less. they don't pay as much but are not as dangerous and it did not rack their health. a lot of them said they work for nothing so they could have insurance. the town went on about its collective life but the cotton mill workers often wound up in jobs that did not pay as well so standard of living failed some went

to work for honda and got very lucky. or a new plant around the state where they had to travel. the town went on about its life but it really was the blue-collar the heart of the place it kind of went still. it is such an not deign to get your hands around because when my brother lost his job, i know that it killed him because for these people, the work is the thing. people talk about seven years and the cliche. we live for stock car racing in football and we handle

snakes in shoe a lot of tobacco. but what my people are about to his work. they talk about work how many feet of wood flooring and how much of pulpwood they cut? how many bricks they laid. they are really about work. and if you take the work away and took them to south america and asia you take something that cannot be put

back you hate the fact it killed so many people that died young's you hates all of that to, you also hate and to see that taken out of their hands because there ain't no perfect world and there is no perfect solution. i just know that it is bad the best. >> host: what prompted you to write this book? >> i promise the my would write it does long days along with those i bumped into in my home town. i roach about a long time ago and a lot of these will send my home town, the older folks had helped me on previous books.

if i could i told them i would. one-man a particular, who we're went to work in the bill and his mommy and daddy worked themselves to death. after world war ii then he looked around at the carnage and the people trying to breathe and he walked out. he was always a part of the bill he lives there now and his mommy and daddy gave their lives i thought all of those stories were worth telling and i told him i would tell him the story of his mommy and daddy. i see them at high school graduation and i would be

deeply ashamed not to do the book already provide five of a got a chance to do it. i am glad it is negative and -- dunne and on the shelf. i am proud of it. >> host: hell is this different from the other books you have written? >> it was similar although not necessarily about family. i told in essays of other people but they're all friends and people i know on the street. it is different that the books on family had moments even though there was killing and dying poverty and struggle and sacrifice, there are moments i hope people laughed out loud or smiled.

this was a little gramm and a little sadder i hope it hit people right in the stomach and did not give you much of a chance to breed. >> host: for people who live in the state of alabama , when they put up the book what do you want them to take away? >> the country is changing. people say we have the service economy now. what do we serve? i have heard this said that if you work at wal-mart all our work at ruby tuesday's two shopped at wal-mart. there was a time to pick up a tool meant you could pound

out a living. with that living came an incredible dignity. incredible power. of self and a feeling that is capable to hand me a tool and i will make something out of this. but we have taken in the tools away. those people are still here. there in st. louis in oakland and laid-off concrete finishers from vermont and they are everywhere. this book is