Studs Terkel: "An Act of Guys"

"It's not an act of God, it's an act of guys -- guys
exploiting other guys!" Studs spat, righteous
indignation flushing his already rosy cheeks. "Ya see,
when you say, 'false hope,' you hope that God was on
their side. And it's not an act of God, it's an act of man!
There were a couple hundred violations and who
oversees that? . . . And if they're fined 250 bucks it's
like two cents."

The real false hope, and Studs believes there is indeed
such a thing, was not that families were told a dozen
men who were already dead were alive, but the
circumstances that led to their deaths in the first
place.

"False hope is [believing that] the company is taking
care of all the regulations. It's man who betrayed, not
God, unless you look as God as a certain force, as I do
. . . God in every person. We have the potential to be
brighter than we are. We have the potential to be
better than we are. And that's the God in us, to me."