The purpose of WHAT IF? is to speak to those who already
see full well the pornographic and pointless violence of
America, its vicious and intractable racism, the incredible
greed and ruthlessness of its elites, the emptiness of its
consumer culture, and the hopelessly compromised nature
of its democracy. It is to remind those people that from
the start there has been another America that stood in counterpoint
to the dominant one, an America of persons who not only
questioned and agitated but outright rebelled. Against American
Indian genocide, against slavery, against imperialism and
war, against poverty and landlessness. If America survives
to become a new land, it is that history, the history of
its rebellions, even more than the history of America’s
many reform movements, which should be honored and treasured
by its new citizens.
Marcos in the Mission by Fernando Marti
