At the Edge of a Precipice

If the Oxford English Dictionary is to be believed, a community is simply “a body of people or things viewed collectively.” However, in Studs Terkel’s article, “Community in Action”, recorded for NPR’s “This I Believe” series, this definition is challenged and extended dramatically. At the very core of Terkel’s belief is the rejection of community is as a passive body (as the OED definition would imply), and instead the emphatic assertion that community is something alive and active. This article reads not as a mere statement of his tenet, but rather as Terkel’s call for revolution in its most classical sense- the return to an older (and wiser) foundations of an active community, instead of a rejection of the word.

This argument is made manifest, first and foremost by the context of this article. Terkel first invokes the audience's trust, establishing ethos with the readers (or listeners, as this case might be), by affirming that this manifesto is a belief personal to him. He uses pathos to draw establish a connection, with a vignette that underlies his fundamental beliefs. Terkel himself is an expert, of sorts, on beliefs- he recorded countless stories in his quest to document the oral history of the 20th century. Terkel's belief carries the weight of trust- a country that has trusted itself to tell their stories to this man, now ready to receive his response in kind.

His story is one from the Great Depression, involving an all too familiar scene- a family left homeless- and Terkel's witness to the community, each making use of his own personal skills, replacing the family back into their flat. This story is one of hope, but even more so, it is an invocation to the communities of 2005 to return to this action.

Terkel tells his story to an audience that is similarly world weary as those families of the Great Depression, for 2005 was the beginning of what is now (somewhat ironically) called the Great Recession. In 2005, the country was beginning to see the full extent of the difficulties that the modern financial crisis would bring- home foreclosures, job losses, and other such horrors. A modern community stands on the same ledge as the community that hedges Terkel's beliefs, and is faced with the same questions: To separate, leaving each to fend for themselves, or to come together and create something more powerful. Terkel argues for the latter.

Terkel, does not merely ask the reader to consider his own story, but also summons the views of several other trusted figures in American history- Einstein, who acts as an acute observer of Western antipathy towards groups, and Thomas Paine, who affirms Terkel's view of the necessity of an active and thriving community. The use of these figures is an act of logos, adding reasoning to why the audience should consider Terkel's belief.

Terkel's article does not force the reader to establish "right" or "wrong" beliefs, but does ask his audience to consider this as epideictic rhetoric. Terkel addresses an audience that might foresee a crisis as terrifying as the Great Depression and asks them to consider where they could go from here. He offers an alternative to an "each to their own" mentality, arguing convincingly that no single person- no matter how intelligent or skilled- can hope to achieve as much as and active and unified community.