Plain Speaking

Fake news is propaganda.
The powerful demanding apologies from artists is censorship.
Business dealings while in office are corruption.
Threatening protestors and petitioners is authoritarianism.
Declaring a minority an internal enemy and calling for militarized unity is fascism.
Everything starts with naming these things in public.
Resistance starts with plain speaking.
--Alex Steffen

Obsessing

Waves of anger and fear
Circulate over the bright
And darkened lands of the earth,
Obsessing our private lives.
--W. H. Auden

Apart

We make ourselves a place apart
Behind light words that tease and flout,
But oh, the agitated heart
Till someone find us really out.
--Robert Frost

Kindness

Now is the time for kindness.
--Margaret Edson

Attitude

The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude.
--George Orwell

Fully

We need to mourn all these injuries fully, so that they do not drag us into despair, so repair will be possible.
--Junot Diaz

Voice Be Still

If it be your will
That I speak no more,
And my voice be still
As it was before.
I will speak no more.
I shall abide until
I am spoken for
If it be your will.
--Leonard Cohen

Long After

Now, I bid you farewell, I don't know when I'll be back.
They're movin' us tomorrow to the tower down the track.
But you'll be hearin' from me, baby, long after I'm gone.
I'll be speakin' to you sweetly from a window in the Tower of Song.
--Leonard Cohen

Darker

They're lining up the prisoners
And the guards are taking aim.
I struggled with some demons,
They were middle-class and tame.
I didn't know I had permission
to murder and to maim.
You want it darker.
We kill the flame.
--Leonard Cohen

White Man

There'll be the breaking of the ancient western code.
Your private life will suddenly explode.
There'll be phantoms, there'll be fires on the road.
And a white man dancing.
--Leonard Cohen

Dark Time

In a dark time, the eye begins to see.
--Theodore Roethke

Other Side

Now I greet you from the other side
Of sorrow and despair,
With a love so vast and shattered
It will reach you everywhere.
--Leonard Cohen

In Love

We are so lightly here.
It is in love that we are made,
In love we disappear.
--Leonard Cohen

Stubborn

I'm sentimental, if you know what I mean.
I love the country but I can't stand the scene.
And I'm neither left or right
I'm just staying home tonight,
getting lost in that hopeless little screen.
But I'm stubborn as those garbage bags
that time cannot decay,
I'm junk but I'm still holding up
this little wild bouquet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
--Leonard Cohen

Thirst

It's coming to America first,
the cradle of the best and of the worst.
It's here they got the range
and the machinery for change,
and it's here they got the spiritual thirst.
It's here the family's broken
and it's here the lonely say,
that the heart has got to open
in a fundamental way:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
--Leonard Cohen

Holy Places

It's coming from the sorrow in the street,
the holy places where the races meet;
from the homicidal bitchin'
that goes down in every kitchen
to determine who will serve and who will eat.
From the wells of disappointment
where the women kneel to pray
for the grace of God in the desert here
and the desert far away:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
--Leonard Cohen

Real

It's coming from the feel
that this ain't exactly real,
or it's real, but it ain't exactly there.
From the wars against disorder,
from the sirens night and day,
from the fires of the homeless,
from the ashes of the gay:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
--Leonard Cohen

Pain

Often our pain encourages us to isolate ourselves. The truth of it is our pain is a badge for how we are members of this larger community. Recognizing this and recognizing our shared humanity is not a small insight.
--Junot Diaz

Value

You are born alone. You die alone. The value of the space in between is trust and love.
--Louise Bourgeois

Vote

The vote is precious. It is almost sacred.
--Rep. John Lewis (D-GA)

Service

When it comes to public service, I'm better at the service part than the public part.
--Hillary Clinton

Women

Why extremists always focus on women remains a mystery to me. But they all seem to. It doesn't matter what country they're in or what religion they claim. They want to control women. They want to control how we dress. They want to control how we act. They even want to control the decisions we make about our own health and bodies.
--Hillary Clinton

Jesus Himself

You could take Jesus himself and pummel him with tomatoes for decades and he'd come to be known as "that guy who smells like tomatoes."
--Paul King

Vote

A vote is a choice to join a power-seeking coalition. It is not a personal affirmation of a coherent ideology. It is not a moral choice.
--Clay Shirky