"Introduction to Soul of a Citizen
Soul of a Citizen awakens within us the desire and the ability to make our voices heard and our actions
count. We can lead lives worthy of our convictions.
A book of inspiration and integrity, Soul of a Citizen is an antidote to the twin scourges of modern lifepowerlessness
and cynicism. In his evocative style. Paul Loeb tells moving tells moving stories of
ordinary Americans who have found unexpected fulfillment in social involvement. Through their
example and Loeb's own wise and powerful lessons, we are compelled to move from passivity to
participation. The reward of our action, we learn, is nothing less than a sense of connection and
purpose not found in a purely personal life.Praise for Soul of a Citizen
"I stayed up half the night reading Soul of a Citizen, finding it a beautiful and morally transcendent
work. Paul Loeb is a personal hero of mine who gives decency and generosity a political character, in
the humblest of ways." --Jonathan Kozal
"Soul of a Citizen helps us find the faith we need to act on our deepest beliefs-and keep on." --Marian
Wright Edelman, president, Children's Defense Fund
"Compassion, intelligence, and thought-provoking wisdom...A new vision for personal engagement
with societal issues." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Reading Group Guide Questions
1. What barriers to social involvement have you found, both in yourself and in others? What images
does our culture present when describing citizens who act. What comes to your mind when you
hear the term "social activist"?
2. "It takes energy to act," says fisherman and environmental activist Pete Knutson. "But it’s more
draining to bury your anger, convince yourself you’re powerless, and swallow whatever’s handed
to you. The times I’ve compromised my integrity and accepted something I shouldn’t, the ghosts
of my choices have haunted me. When you get involved in something meaningful, you make your
life count." "When we shrink from the world," writes Loeb, "our souls shrink, too." Are there times
when you’ve stayed silent over a "public" issue where you wanted to speak out? Did you feel a
psychological cost from swallowing your convictions? Have you felt the sense of reclaiming your
soul when you’ve begun to speak out?
3. When Virginia Ramirez begins to get involved, her husband tells her, "That’s not your role." Have
you ever been told that you shouldn’t do something because it’s not your "role" or place?
4. Garrison Keillor recently tried to honor Martin Luther King Day by explaining, "Rosa Parks
wasn’t an activist. She was just a woman with her groceries who was tired." What does it do to our
sense of possibility to strip away the reality that Parks had worked 12 years with a local NAACP
chapter before she ever took her famous stand? What else do we lose when we bury the history of
citizen movements?
5. Consider this quote: "Contrary to expectation, we’re most effective when we realize that there is
no perfect time to get involved in social causes, no ideal circumstances for voicing our convictions.
What each of us faces instead is a lifelong series of imperfect moments in which we must decide
what to stand for." Has the "perfect standard" discouraged you from getting involved in your
community? Or discouraged others who you wanted to enlist in community projects? What would
it mean to willingly "live with ambiguity" in our political lives? How can we, as citizens, become
"good-enough activists" who don’t demand perfection or certainty before we begin to take a stand?
6. When Los Angeles activist Suzy Marks hid behind her peace sign, did this evoke a familiar feeling
for you? Have you ever felt like hiding and becoming invisible while trying to speak out?
7. Did you know about Maine’s Clean Elections initiative? What about Deborah Prothrow-Stith’s
success in stopping youth violence in Boston, or Adam Werbach becoming national president of
the Sierra Club at age 23? If you didn’t, this new knowledge give you hope? Are there ways we
can work to get such important stories into common awareness?
8. "America’s prevailing culture of cynicism," Loeb writes, "insists that nothing we do can matter. It
teaches us not to get involved in shaping the world we’ll pass on to our children." Do you agree
with Loeb’s characterization of contemporary cynicism as a key corrosive force in our culture?
Have you ever received "the cynical smirk" when you’ve tried to do something worthwhile? Or
even when you've mentioned some issue you care about? Is there a way to question authority
without becoming cynical?
9. Do the antidotes to cynicism presented through Loeb’s stories persuade you? That is, do you
believe these ideas and examples could reduce cynicism in yourself and others you know?
10. Was Derrick Bell foolish to resign his tenured position at Harvard Law School? Can you think of
other examples where people have paid a real cost for standing up for their beliefs, yet feel their
actions were worth it?
11. What kind of results do you expect from social activism? What would help you do this work if the
fruits of your efforts weren’t visible?
12. How is it different to take a stand for our own communities, like Virginia Ramirez, or to work in
solidarity with someone else’s community, like Carol McNulty’s involvement challenging the
sweatshop practices of the Gap?
13. How would you write your political autobiography? What stories would frame your life in terms of
community involvement?
14. "Our most fundamental responsibility as citizens," Loeb writes, "is to love not only our own
children, but other people’s as well—including children we will never meet, who grow up in
situations we’d prefer to ignore." In other words, loving children is fundamental to our public lives
and commitments. If you repeated this quote at your workplace, or to your neighbors, what kinds
of responses would you receive?
15. Loeb suggests parents set models of community involvement or withdrawal for their children.
What models did you get from your family? What do your children learn from your public
involvements?
16. How have you balanced work, family, and community involvement? Who do you respect for
successfully balancing all three?
17. Loeb quotes Harvard public policy professor Robert Putnam’s finding that over the past several
decades more Americans have been bowling, while league bowling has steadily declined. More
Americans now bowl in a typical year than vote in Congressional elections, but Americans are, in
Putnam’s phrase "bowling alone," instead of in groups. Should we be concerned about such
statistics? Are we losing a sense of community? Have you encountered projects that help rebuild
it?
18. Communities can also have their limits. Loeb entitles one of his sections, "Let’s not talk about the
bad things." Do you think many of us are afflicted with "misplaced politeness"? Do you find it
hard to talk about critical public issues with people who aren’t already activists—like with your
neighbors or co-workers?
19. What is the lesson in the story where the Stanford student says he hopes his grandchildren will get
to volunteer in the same homeless shelter as he has? What relationship have you seen between oneon-
one volunteering and systemic change? When does one become the other? Do you support
both? To what extent? Does Loeb’s "politics of witness" offer a way to unite them?
20. What balance needs to exist between finding the initiative within yourself to combat apathy in your
community and helping motivate others to join your cause?
21. Loeb describes participation in public life as "a process through which our personalities evolve"
and argues that taking action is also an experiment in self-education, which helps us learn about
ourselves through our own actions and those of others. What role should social action play in
formal education? Should schools require students to become participants in public life and take
part in social movements? At what age is it a good idea to get kids involved in community issues?
Should they be able to understand fully what they’re doing before they’re allowed to contribute on
their own, or is any contribution, whether understood or not, a good start?
22. Have you ever been intimidated by the language or knowledge of people who are involved in
activist causes? What would have made you feel more welcome? Or if you’re already involved,
how could you reach out to people who feel too intimidated and hesitant to take the first step?
23. Loeb talks about the "necessary discomfort" in working with people who don’t agree with us or
have widely differing experiences. Have you seen people with different political beliefs work
together on a cause? Should the story of former Klu Klux Klansman C.P. Ellis give us hope?
24. Have you seen effective political efforts that successfully bridge race and class? Where have
organizations that you've been involved with hit the limits of insularity?
25. Loeb discusses vulnerability and calls it both an asset and a limitation. He suggests there’s a fine
line between being vulnerable enough to listen, ask for help, and accept that you don’t know
everything, and being so vulnerable that you give up hope of being able to achieve anything. If a
balance of vulnerability and confidence is required to be effective in public life, especially in a
leadership position, how do you achieve the correct balance?
26. Have you ever been burned out while involved in a social cause? What about while participating in
other community activities? Does fear of burnout hold you back from social involvement? How do
we balance our larger commitments and our personal lives?
27. What can we learn from Hazel Wolf about keeping on for the long haul?
28. Loeb tells how his friend Jorge, a doctor who volunteered in Nicaragua, lost faith in his ability to
make a difference. While believing in what he did, Jorge was overwhelmed because he could not
address all areas of an issue at once. He says Jorge’s "pained silence exemplifies the predicament
many formerly active people find themselves in today. They remain caring and compassionate, but
they’ve lost faith in their voices." Do you feel that if you cannot change everything at once, why
bother? How do you maintain faith in your work and your ability to make a difference?
29. In the section We Never Celebrate Our Victories, Loeb states that, "Few of us are capable of
taking on highly difficult tasks without being rewarded somehow. We need approval, gratitude, a
feeling of accomplishment, some indication of success." How can you help organizations you're
involved with allow people feel this reward and keep them involved? How can you learn to
celebrate victories, even if they’re seemingly small?
30. Marian Wright Edelman writes, "We are going to have to develop a concept of enough at the top
and the bottom." What’s your vision of a just society? What would it take to achieve it? Is it more
productive to focus on what’s wrong in our world, or on possible solutions? Can you learn to act
without a hard and fast blueprint for the ideal society, but only a general "magnetic north"?
31. If the Bush administration is indeed moving backward on an array of critical environmental and
social justice issues, despite even the ghost of a popular mandate, how should ordinary citizens
respond? How should we respond to a president who lost the popular vote, then was enshrined by a
Republican Supreme Court. Are any of the lessons from this book useful in breaking the silence
that gives Bush's administration the presumption of legitimacy?
32. What does Loeb mean by radical patience? How did Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, and
Susan B. Anthony exemplify this? How can you relate this concept to the things that need
changing?
33. How would you want to answer Rabbi Hillel’s question about how to live for more than just
ourselves?
34. Sonya Tinsley, a young African-American activist in Atlanta, talks about "picking your team,"
those who try to live their commitments, versus the team of the cynics. What are you hopeful
about, and what motivates your hope?"
