Q&A; / MARK EHRMAN : Of Kind Strangers, Steak and Shrimp
What gives you hope?
Rosie Flores, singer/songwriter:
“I travel around the world and I get hope from seeing kindness from strangers from shore to shore. Can all this hatred we hear about in the world be real, I wonder? Sometimes I can close my eyes and imagine world peace and the day when people can live and work and laugh together in harmony, without caring what race, religion or background we come from.”
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Richard Reeves, author of “President Kennedy: Profile of Power”:
“I’m hopeful about a new generation taking over. I would like to see the end of the idea of the 1980s, which I took to be that there was a price tag on everything--every idea, every person. It seems to me that it’s time to get back to what counts. And that’s doing a job well, caring for others and children. Maybe it’s just that I like looking in the national mirror, television, and seeing us young again.”
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Victoria Looseleaf, public access goddess (“The Looseleaf Report”) and creator of “Whorehouse of the Mind: A Hallucinogenic Soap Opera of Sex, Drugs & the Space Program,” a staged reading:
“The $4.99 steak and shrimp dinner special at Norm’s. It’s huge, it’s diverse and it’s delectable--just like L.A. And it even comes with rice pudding. I love it.
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Dweezil Zappa, musician , whose father, Frank Zappa, died in December:
Hope? My family gives me hope. Animals give me hope and being able to laugh gives me hope. Just recently, I’ve also found that when something tragic happens, the kindness of strangers can give you hope. People are best when things are at their worst.
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Ted Hayes, homeless advocate:
“Hope for me is the creation of Genesis I pilot dome village for the homeless. It is what most people in L.A. once considered impossible to achieve given the economic, social and ethnic difficulties. Hope is when the rich and poor, the various ethnic, political and religious polarities can work in tandem on the same project over an eight-year period and accomplish what seems to be a miracle.”