This is one of my favorite quotes. And I think that at this point in our collective lives it is a lesson that we need to be reminded of. Every. Damn. Day. This is part of a speech at Tony Kushner (author of Angels in America) gave in Chicago to students at Roosevelt University in 2003. This is taken from the book, The Impossible Will Take a Little While by Paul Rogat Loeb:
"I do not believe that the wicked always win. I believe our despair is a lie we are telling ourselves. In many other periods of history, people, ordinary citizens, routinely set aside hours, days, time in their lives for doing the work of politics, some of which is glam and revolutionary and some of which is dull and electoral and tedious and not especially pure—and the world changed because of the work they did.
"That’s what we are starting now. It requires setting aside the time to do it, and then doing it. Not any single one of us has to, or possibly can save the world, but together in some sort of concert, in even not-especially-coordinated concert, with all of us working where we see work to be done, the world will change. And we have to do it by showing up places, our bodies in places—turn off the computers, leave the Web and the Net—and show up, our bodies at meetings and demonstrations and rallies and leafleting corners.
"Because this is a moment in history that needs us to begin, each of us, everyday at her or his own pace, slowly and surely rediscovering how to be politically active, how to organize our disparate energies into effective group action—and I choose to believe we will do what is required. Act. Organize. Assemble. Oppose. Resist. Find a place a cause a group a friend and start, today, now now now, continue continue continue. Being politically active is for the citizens of a democracy maybe the best way of speaking to God and hearing Her answer: You exist. If we are active, if we are activist, she replies to us: You specifically exist. Mazel tov. Now get busy, She replies. Maintain the world by changing the world."
Comments