•A letter from Yuki Yokoyama; sent Monday, August 30, 2004
Hi. My name is Yuki Yokoyama.
I am an undergraduate student in California State University Northridge, and my major is Communication Studies.
I have purchased your book in July and read it over the summer in order to be prepared for the class I had in mind for taking, which is an interdisciplinary class called "Glopan Peace and Justice."
I was amazed by the wisdom encoded in your book when I finished reading it. (It took me quite a while because I am a Japanese international student who practically began studying English five years ago.)
Here is my story: On the first day of the class, we were asked by one of the professors (we have three professors in the class because it is an interdisciplinary course) to introduce ourselves to other class mates and ask four questions to different students individually.
When I were asked to ask the fourth question, the question was whether we as a humanity achieve a state of global peace and an establishment of universal justice. Being influenced by the optimism I leaned from your book, I answered to the other student that "I think it is possible." Then, she took the other position in extreme and said, "no, it will never happen."
As a result of my personality, I answered back to her, "of course we can! The question session ended with her parting shot, "we'll see!"
Soon after the class ended, I realized the meaning of what I have just done. It is much, much harder to prove my position with substantial, empirical evidences. So I started to brainstorm hypothetical strategies that we can achieve the "global peace and justice."
By the end of the week, I had developed four primitive hypotheses.
Then, I decided to refer back to your back because I remembered the surge of positive emotion when I first finished reading your book.
Then my eyes got caught on the chapter 8's title; "Hope Without Guarantees." Then, I thought, I got the answer that I had been looking for. Your thesis is backed with 10 hopes without guarantees. So as my hypothesis is backed with 4 hopes without guarantees. I realized that whether the hypotheses would turn out to be true or not does not really matter. It is a fact that there are hopes without guarantees in our hands!
I'm not sure whether I can prove my hypotheses are achievable, but I am quite certain that
I can convince the student that I am standing on the right position.
Furthermore, I realized when I read the director's commentary that the chapter is not the conclusion.
Thank you so much for giving me an opportunity to touch on the wisdom, enabling me
to find a reason to commit, and, most of all, giving me your time for reading this letter.
Sincerely,
Yuki Yokoyama
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