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Morning News

Kerry Kennedy Cuomo Talks About Her New Book 'Speak Truth to Power'

Aired September 20, 2000 - 9:38 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Now I want to turn our attention to an amazing new book about the fight against human rights abuses. That book focuses on the subject and a whole lot more, it's called "Speak Truth to Power." The author, Kerry Kennedy Cuomo, joins us now live from Washington to talk more about it.

Good morning to you.

KERRY KENNEDY CUOMO, AUTHOR, "SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER": Good morning.

HEMMER: Absolute pleasure going through the material you got together. You talked and profiled with 51 people from all corners of the world and you make the case that these people are the Martin Luther King's of their own country, pretty powerful statement. Is that a stretch in any way?

CUOMO: Absolutely not. These are people with an extraordinary sense of resistance and resilience who stand up to government oppression, stand up to the Bull Connors (ph) of their own country for the right to vote, for the right to participate in the political process, for the right to be free from torture, and they hold in common a firm belief in the capacity of one individual to make a difference.

HEMMER: And before we go more to the book though, we know the influence MLK had on this country. But do you believe they're really exacting that kind of change in Sudan, in Ivory Coast, in different parts of the world that need it?

CUOMO: Well, I think that -- you know, one of the things that Archbishop Tutu says in the book is, "We don't have a god who says gotcha, we have a god who lifts us up and dusts us off and tells us to try again." And I think that these people are not put off by the difficulty and the sense -- and a sense of futility about the impossibility of their task, just as Martin Luther King was not put off by that in our own country.

HEMMER: We're going to...

CUOMO: But they keep working at it. They keep fighting.

HEMMER: We're going to take a look at some of the pictures, some of the people you profiled. Why did you choose the people you do and, first of all, Harry Wu out of China, who is actually well-known, maybe one of the better-known people in your book?

CUOMO: Right. Well, I wanted to choose people who are the real heroes, and I wanted to have a diversity of issues. Harry Wu, of course, works on the LaoGai, on the terrible prison system in China, where literally thousands -- hundreds and thousands of people are enslaved, many of them making goods for the American market, and many of these are political prisoners.

We have Kali Secharti (ph), who works on child labor in India. And that's an issue that -- where there are children slaves as young as 6 years old, and I think Americans don't realize that in our own country there are 250,000 children working in sweatshops, working in our fields, in our agriculture fields to put food on our tables, and these are kids who are not allowed to go to school, but instead are sweating away in these sweatshops.

HEMMER: Were these people who relayed their stories and experiences to you, were they at risk for telling their story, revealing about their mission, et cetera?

CUOMO: Well, I think that most of the people who I spoke to are the leadership of their countries. They are the Martin Luther Kings. So they've stepped out front and they've made that decision. But, of course, many, many of them are at risk. The person who is perhaps most at risk for revealing their identity was from Sudan, and that person graces the cover of the book, but to reveal their identity would probably mean the end of their life at this point. So that's why we did not reveal it.

HEMMER: You also relay and tell us quite clearly that some of the stories are quite tough to take. But you say in your words, "it's not the repression, but the resistance, it's not the terror, but the courage, not the futility, but the power of one to create change."

CUOMO: That's exactly right. I think that if we concentrate on the horror and the hatred, than the haters win. But I have to say that, you know, Eli Wiesel (ph), who I interviewed for the book, said "the opposite of love is not hate, the opposite of love is indifference." So I think that all of us need to take a look at our own lives and not go out and try and change the haters so much, but question our own indifference and try and take a stand and make a difference on these issues, and when we see injustice, be angry enough to speak out and have the courage to speak truth to those in power just like these defenders do.

HEMMER: Kerry Kennedy Cuomo, "Speak Truth to Power," nice work.

CUOMO: Thank you.

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