Journalism is not a precise science, it's a crude art
Dan RatherRead
Tonight, savagery in the streets of Iraq. Ten Americans die in a single day, four of them civilians murdered, mutilated and dragged through the streets....What drives American civilians to risk death in Iraq? In this economy it may be, for some, the only job they can find.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the brutal realities of war and the desperation that drives civilians to take dangerous jobs.
Dan Rather's quote reflects on the grim situation in Iraq, emphasizing the violence faced by Americans and the harrowing circumstances that push civilians into risky jobs, often stemming from economic desperation. It illustrates how extreme conditions affect people's choices and the sacrifices they make in pursuit of survival amid chaos.
In practice
During a speech addressing the impact of war on civilians, you could cite this quote to emphasize the human cost of conflict.
Journalism is not a precise science, it's a crude art
Only votes talk, everything else walks.
From the streets of Cairo and the Arab Spring, to Occupy Wall Street, from the busy political calendar to the aftermath of the tsunami in Japan, social media was not only sharing the news but driving it.
A college degree is the key to realizing the American dream, well worth the financial sacrifice because it is supposed to open the door to a world of opportunity.
Covering the civil-rights movement was a mind- and eye-opener for me. Houston was a segregated society, as was Texas as a whole - some of it by law, a lot of it by fear and tradition. But there was no violence where I lived, and if there was hate, it was either concealed from me or I just didn't recognize it.
Courage is being afraid but going on anyhow.
I knew that when the great guiding spirit cleaves humanity into two antagonistic halves, I would be with the people. I know this, I see it printed in the night sky that I, eclectic dissembler of doctrine and psychoanalyst of dogma, howling like one possessed, will assault the barricades or the trenches , will take my bloodstained weapon, and consumed with fury, slaughter any enemy who falls into my hands.
The courageous have fears that cowards never know.
At 13, I was fearless. I looked at everything so positive. When you're older and been through it all, you know how bad it can get. There is a fear of failing.
The way I was taught, being black was a plus, always. Being a human being, being in America, and being black, all three were the greatest things that could happen to you. The combination was unbeatable.
Each day befriend a single fear, and the miscellaneous terrors of being human will never join together to form such a morass of vague anxiety that it rules your life from the shadows of the unconscious. We learn to fly not by being fearless, but by the daily practice of courage.
I've said to people before that I'm going to do my very best to make it, and I'm not going to give up. And that's true. But I might not make it. And if I don't make it, the Marathon of Hope better continue.
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