Great interview! Diane your writing is gorgeous and original.
The thoughts expressed were very appropos for me. I have been involved in social change for over 10 years and yet I still find myself highly ambivalent on social activism (my own that is–I tend to come from a more touchy-feely community building approach).
Bush is a real and valid target but I’m not sure he is the most important, nor the most worthy.
My own presumption about human nature is that, unlike in the movies, very few people consciously speak to the evil dark lord and most people view themselves, if not as heroes, than as ordinary people trapped in circumstances and powers beyond their control. Hannah Arendt pointed out the “banality of evil” in her observation of the Nuremberg trials.
Maybe most evil is largely unconsciousness and all of us, sit on sit somewhere on a spectrum of consciousness.
So how do you fight injustice, violence, when it is more than an administration, when it is founded in the unconsciousness of every day people?
How do you change people minds and hearts? How do you wake them up? With great difficulty,I’ve found. I’ve dedicated myself to meditation and psychotherapy for years and even WITH that intention, and with myself– something I arguably have control over– waking up has been arduous.

I have no answers. I get up and work because I love what do– but truly I’m not sure how much difference I make, maybe I’ll only know in the long-term.

Thank you for such a insightful piece.