Category: courage
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Work to be done
“Juneteenth is freedom, but we are not free until all of us are free. There’s still work to be done,” says Opal Lee. I found this quote in the June 19, 2022 issue of The Dallas Morning News. Opal Lee is a retired teacher and counselor. She also was an activist in the movement to…
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Fragile?
The artist Frida Kahlo is credited with this quote: “Not fragile like a flower Fragile like a bomb” I recently saw a Frida Kahlo exhibit in Tulsa, Oklahoma. –Joy
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Go together
An African proverb advises, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” I found this quote in Lisa Congdon’s book You Will Leave a Trail of Stars. –Joy
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Just show up
Author Kate Bowler recently did a podcast with the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, who offered this advice when it comes to showing up for people in difficult times: Just. Show. Up.
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We are not free
We all need to struggle for a world where we are all free of racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, gun violence, poverty, inequality, hatred and every single form of oppression, says Lisa Congdon in her book You Will Leave a Trail of Stars. “We are not free until everyone is free,” Congdon concludes.
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Decisions about the male body?
During Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing, then-Senator Kamala Harris asked: “Can you think of any laws that give government the power to make decisions about the male body?” Judge Kavanaugh answered, “I’m not aware—I’m not—thinking of any right now, senator.” I found this quote in the winter 2022 issue of Ms. magazine. –Joy
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A decision she must make herself
In her 1993 Supreme Court hearing, Ruth Bader Ginsberg explained to the Senate Judiciary Committee: “The decision whether or not to bear a child is central to a woman’s life, to her well-being and dignity. It is a decision she must make for herself. When government controls that decision for her, she is being treated…
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Strong and compassionate
We can be strong and gentle—at the same time. “We need women who are so strong they can be gentle—so fierce they can be compassionate,” Kavita Ramdas, former head of the Global Fund for Women, once said.
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Get angry
Our anger is positive—if it leads to action. “The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off,” the activist and author Gloria Steinem once said. –Joy
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Be tenacious
Don’t give up! “We must have perseverance and, above all, confidence in ourselves,” Marie Curie, the Nobel Prize winning physicist and chemist, once said.