Many people look at a vacant lot and see failure, destruction, or nothing at all. Grace Lee Boggs sees possibilities for a cultural revolution. Boggs, a 95-year-old Detroit-based activist and author of The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century spoke to Democracy Now! yesterday about Obama’s new budget plan and the state of the economy in Detroit.
Boggs reframes the issue of economic crisis, both in Detroit and the nation as a whole, urging us to look at the American way of life, and ask deeper questions like How shall we live? and How can we remake the American Dream anew?
In the vacant lots of Detroit, Boggs sees a way forward: “[I]nstead of seeing devastation,” she says, “see hope, see the opportunity to grow your own food, see an opportunity to give young people a sense of process …”
Watch both of Boggs’ segments below:
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