I believe that worrying about the problems plaguing our planet without taking steps to confront them is absolutely irrelevant. The only thing that changes this world is taking action.
Interpretation
Worrying without action is pointless; we must take steps to create change.
This quote by Jody Williams emphasizes that mere worry or concern over global issues is futile unless it is coupled with proactive measures. It advocates for individuals to take actionable steps to address the challenges facing the planet, suggesting that change is only possible through direct engagement and effort.
In practice
In a discussion about climate change, one might say, 'As Jody Williams reminds us, worrying is irrelevant; we need to take action now!'
Landmines distinguish themselves because once they have been sown, once the soldier walks away from the weapon, the landmine cannot tell the difference between a soldier or a civilian - a woman, a child, a grandmother going out to collect firewood to make the family meal.
I think thereβs a mythology that if you want to change the world, you have to be sainted, like Mother Teresa or Nelson Mandela or Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Ordinary people with lives that go up and down and around in circles can still contribute to change.
Guns go home with the soldiers, but landmines are designed to kill - mindlessly, out of control, for years.
What I consider to be peace [is] a sustainable peace in which the majority of people on this planet have access to enough resources to live dignified lives.
Resolve to be a master of change rather than a victim of change.
Things will get easier, people's minds will change, and you should be alive to see it.
The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born; now is the time of monsters
Everything that you are against works against you. Everything that you are against can be restated in a way that puts you in support of something. When you are able to state what you are for rather than what you are against, you are focusing on the potential for positive change. Once that is in place, you will find whatever you are focusing on expanding.
In a summer marked by instability in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, I know the world also took notice of the small American city of Ferguson, Missouri - where a young man was killed, and a community was divided. So yes, we have our own racial and ethnic tensions.
Women may be the one group that grows more radical with age.
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