Someone who does an act. In a democratic society, you're supposed to be an activist; that is, you participate. It could be a letter written to an editor.
More Quotes from Studs Terkel:
All the other books ask, 'What's it like?' What was World War II like for the young kid at Normandy, or what is work like for a woman having a job for the first time in her life? What's it like to be black or white?Studs Terkel
I want to praise activists through the years. I praise those of the past as well, to have them honored.
Studs Terkel
One day I visited a guy who had made a fortune as a broker. He was sitting in his office with his computer. I hire people from here and make deals from this room, he told me. Then he took me to the trading room. Nobody was talking to anybody else, the place was silent as a tomb, they were all sitting there watching their terminals a great word, terminal. I tell you, it scares the crap out of me.
Studs Terkel
But once you become active in something, something happens to you. You get excited and suddenly you realize you count.
Studs Terkel
Suddenly the sirens are sounding all over Chicago. At the time, the Cold War was going on between us and Russia, and there was great fear through the air. And when people heard the sirens, old women had heart attacks and kids ran under beds because that's what they were taught in school. I remember that moment most, the sirens going on and people not celebrating the Sox but hurrying to the grocery store to store up on stuff for the next month of siege, for they believed the Russians were coming.
Studs Terkel
So here we are. We have a choice to make.
Studs Terkel
Readers Who Like This Quotation Also Like:
Based on Topics: Letters Quotes, Society & Civilization QuotesAnd from a military school which taught me that to fit into society, you can't just do anything you damn well please because it will suit you. And that it's much better to be with the winners than it is with the losers.
Sam Donaldson
For me it always comes down to what is a good song and I'm very old fashioned in the way that I like to make songs that have something classic about them whether you can play them with an orchestra or an electro synthesizer or an acoustic guitar.
Marc Almond
If America had been discovered as many times as I have, no one would remember Columbus.
Sean Connery