We know what the birth of a revolution looks like: A student stands before a tank. A fruit seller sets himself on fire. A line of monks link arms in a human chain. Crowds surge, soldiers fire, gusts of rage pull down the monuments of tyrants, and maybe, sometimes, justice rises from the flames.
Interpretation
The birth of a revolution is marked by courageous actions against oppression that can lead to justice.
This quote by Nancy Gibbs illustrates the transformative moments in history where individuals, often in dire circumstances, take bold actions that challenge tyranny. It highlights the diverse forms of resistance and bravery, from students standing up to military power to acts of self-sacrifice, all contributing to a collective movement for justice, often emerging from chaos and destruction.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a discussion on the power of activism in social movements.
Americans sometimes ask what the government does and where their tax money goes. Among other things, it pays for all kinds of invisible but essential safety nets and life belts and guardrails that are useless right up until the day they are priceless.
Most professional women I know - myself included - long since gave up looking for a rulebook or a roadmap; we make it up as we go along. Every day presents a new choice, a new challenge, which makes long-term career planning seem like an especially abstract exercise.
Virtues, like viruses, have their seasons of contagion. When catastrophe strikes, generosity spikes like a fever. Courage spreads in the face of tyranny.
Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth were slaves by birth, freedom fighters by temperament.
The battles after the wars are over can be the toughest; there's no longer the public interest that accompanies, for good and for ill, the start of combat.
Girls grow up scarred by caution and enter adulthood eager to shake free of their parents' worst nightmares. They still know to be wary of strangers. What they don't know is whether they have more to fear from their friends.
The path to relative economic, social and ecological sustainability is guaranteed to be littered with failures of every nature and scale. If we recognize them and learn from them, the transition will proceed faster and in more resource-efficient ways. If, on the other hand, we prefer the short-term comfort of burying our failures, or of blaming scapegoats, the transition will be significantly slowed, or could even be derailed completely.
The natural cure for an ill-administration, in a popular or representative constitution, is a change of men.
The north remembers, Lord Davos. The north remembers, and the mummer’s farce is almost done. My son is home.
The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact, a return to the idealized past.
I am excited to have a black president because white supremacy is real and it needs to be shattered.
We bury our seeds and wait, _x000D_ Winter blocks the road, _x000D_ Flowers are taken prisoner underground, _x000D_ But then green justice tenders a spear
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