Civil Disobedience
Page 7
- But the question is, do we care enough? Do we care enough to keep standing up for the country that we know is possible, even if it’s hard, and even if it’s politically uncomfortable? Do we care enough to sustain the passion and the pressure to make our communities safer and our country safer? Do we care enough to do everything we can to spare other families the pain that is felt here today?
- So there’s this profound mythology around whistleblowers which says, first of all, they’re all crazy. But what I’ve found going around the world and talking to whistleblowers is actually they’re very loyal and, quite often, very conservative people. They’re hugely dedicated to the institutions that they work for. And the reason that they speak up, the reason they insist on seeing, is because they care so much about the institution and want to keep it healthy.
- I don't see myself as a hero, because what I'm doing is self-interested; I don't want to live in a world where there's no privacy and, therefore, no room for intellectual exploration and creativity.
- Opposition is different from terrorism. Opposition is a political movement. Opposition doesn't mean to take-- armament and kill people and destroy everything. Do you call the people in Los Angeles in the '90s, do you call them rebels or opposition? What would the British call the rebels less than two years ago in London? Do-- did they call them opposition or rebels? Why should we call them opposition? They are rebels. They are not rebels even, they are terror-- they are behaving-- this opposition, opposing country or government by behaving by barbecuing head, by eating the hearts of your victim? Is that opposition?
- We thank you, father, for the tremendous progress we have made in 50 years. That we can sit in the safe confines of this sanctuary, being protected by the city of Birmingham, when 50 years ago the city turned its eye and its ears away from us.
- It should be clear by now, that despite centuries of being disappointed by the system, African-Americans believe in the value and potential of this democracy more than even white people do. We shed our lives for it; sacrifice our dignity to it; and internalize our anger in the face of it.