The black man continues on his way. He plods wearily no longer-he is striding freedom road with the knowledge that if he hasn’t got the world in a jug, at least he has the stopper in his hand.
I am the product of the sustained indignation of a branded grandfather, the militant protest of my grandmother, the disciplined resentment of my father and mother, and the power of the mass action of the church.
I spent much of my prison time reading. I must have read over 200 large books, mostly fictional stories about the American pioneers, the Vikings, Mafia, etc. As long as I was engrossed in a book, I was not in prison. Reading was my escape.
You don’t have to do anything. Why worry? It’s all god’s plan anyway. Just love everyone and believe.
Here’s the thing, back in the day, a lot of guys would make fun of me, that I would sing and dance, that I was a cheerleader. But I kept my head on straight. I had goals.
I had one drama teacher who was amazing, Ms. Perkins. She really tried to inspire me and get me going.
I was 13 and at summer camp when I had my first kiss.
His heritage to his children wasn’t words or possessions, but an unspoken treasure, the treasure of his example as a man and a father.
People often tell me I could be a great man. I’d rather be a good man.
I can remember playing under the big wooden desk in his office. My mother didn’t like us to chew gum, so we’d go into his office, and he’d feed us gum under the desk.
Once you run for office, you’re in it – sort of like going into the military. You’d better be damned sure it is what you want to do and that the rest of your life is set up to accommodate that. It takes a certain toll on your personality and on your family life. I’ve seen it personally.
The first sign of tyranny is government’s complicity in privatizing the commons for private gain.
Like other Americans, I’ve reconciled myself to the idea that an animal’s life has been sacrificed to bring me a meal of pork or chicken. However, industrial meat production – which subjects animals to a life of torture – has escalated the karmic costs beyond reconciliation.
Wind has the potential to produce many, many more jobs per kilowatt hour than coal. But the coal industry has tremendous political clout on Capitol Hill because of its alliance with the railroads and coal-burning utilities.
If we don’t cut carbon’s money pipeline, we will pay for their gasoline with floods, droughts, fires, super storms, drowned cities, mass extinctions, wars, and collapsing civilizations.
The most patriotic thing you can do is to take care of the environment and try to live sustainably.
Most Americans don’t know about environmental problems, because we have in our country a negligent and indolent press. The biggest lie that the right wing holds in our country is that there is such a thing as a liberal media. Americans are getting their news from the right-wing media.
Resurrecting American democracy is vital to averting climate catastrophe. We must first repeal the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, which has flooded elections with billions of oily petrodollars from carbon tycoons.
Corporate polluters, their phony think tanks and political toadies like to marginalize environmentalists as tree huggers, or radicals. But there is nothing radical about clean air or water.
Sometimes it’s more important to change politicians than light bulbs.