When I'm stunned by the horror of some act, like the dragging death of James Byrd Jr. in Texas, part of me wants to do something, part of me feels helpless, and part of me feels unknowledgeable about what to do. What I want Hope to do is keep striking that part of us that wants to do something. I want the magazine to show what we do at our best, even though we're struggling with very difficult problems. It's not about somebody taking in a puppy, but about somebody who really feels a colossal challenge and maybe doesn't want to get up in the morning, maybe wants to shoot him- or herself. We did a story on a brutally abused prostitute who turned herself around.
Somebody has to say there are possibilities.
That's what sells. I'm not saying that we've got the model that will work, but there needs to be something that focuses on what is possible. You wrote that you grew up in chaos, with no sense of home. I grew up near the Rhode Island coast. My father was an alcoholic, and my mother was a diagnosed schizophrenic.