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 by Tom Rankin Local Heroes Changing America is about the work and vision of committed individuals and communities across America. Through the images of our country’s finest photographers and the voices of extraordinary citizens as collected by renowned documentary fieldworkers, this book takes us to twelve distinct places, to witness what it means to live responsibly and actively in one’s own community. We often hear and read the tired cliché, “think globally, act locally.” Rather than ringing hollow like so many clichés or much of the rhetoric about contemporary political and social life, the stories that follow evoke most meaningfully the real potential, even the necessity, for all of us to be engaged in local life and change. In an age when cynics remark glibly that we no longer practice the principles of democratic activism for the betterment of our home places, what is said and pictured here tells another story, a story of the vitality and passion of individual people who work for change with the humble tools of their own wisdom, experience, and commitment. (To read the entire INTRODUCTION download the PDF file) |