Pointed.

"It's not just the work. Somebody built the pyramids. Somebody's going to build something. Pyramids, Empire State Building--these things just don't happen. There's hard work behind it. I would like to see a building, say, the Empire State, I would like to see on one side of it a foot-wide strip from top to bottom with the name of every bricklayer, the name of every electrician, with all the names. So when a guy walked by, he could take his son and say, "See, that's me over there on the forty-fifth floor. I put the steel beam in." Picasso can point to a painting. What can I point to? A writer can point to a book. Everybody should have something to point to.

"It's the not-recognition by other people. To say a woman is just a housewife is degrading, right? Okay. Just a housewife. It's also degrading to say just a laborer. The difference is that a man goes out and maybe gets smashed."

~"Mike Lefevre, Steelworker," interview from Working by Studs Terkel


I love Studs Terkel's book. The voices are so vivid. Like this one. Here he is--Lefevre--a blue collar steelworker, and he gets it. He's a modern day philosopher for the common man. And he reads. He's not dull; he's fascinating. Read the whole interview. It's worth it.