"To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic" wrote the great American activist and writer, Howard Zinn "It is based on the fact that human history is a history not of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.
"What we choose to emphasise in this complex history will determine our lives" he added "If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places - and there are so many - where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction...
"...And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future" he concluded "The future is an infinite sucession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvellous vistory..."
All the people featured in a new short book, Good Deeds in Salford, are enacting this vision every day, in their local neighbourhoods and on a city wide scale. These range from Ann Smith, who's been keeping the Kersal Collandes morris dancing for almost 35 years, to Ed Blaney, who puts on the free Salford Music Festival; to the Sounds of Salford radio presenters raising thousands of pounds for charities; to Ronnie Haland, the Norwegian who bought the 'B'Hive pub for the Charlestown community.
There's stories of Salford people of all ages volunteering, cooking for the elderly, walking dogs for neighbours, feeding and clothing the homeless, welcoming refugees escaping terror and saving people's lives...
"There are lots of people in Salford who do good deeds every day without even thinking about it, and we don't hear about them" writes Thomas Lever, of Lower Kersal Young People's Group, in the book's intro "A lot of people are just modest, and just do good deeds because they care."
Thomas hopes that the book will inspire further stories and the encouragement for other towns and cities to produce their own good deeds books...
There are a few hundred free printed copies of the Good Deeds in Salford book circulating in the city or read the virtual copy at https://issuu.com/lowerkersalyoungpeoplesgroup/docs/good_deeds_-_web_pdf
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