In times of turmoil and trouble, I often turn to the timeless wisdom of author and activist James Baldwin who courageously lived his life openly in the mid-20th century.
From Notes of a Native Son: “I love America more than any other country in the world, and, exactly for that reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.”
From No Name on the Street: “If one really wishes to know how justice is administered in a country, one does not question the policemen, the lawyers, the judges, or the protected members of the middle class. One goes to the unprotected—those, precisely, who need the law’s protection most!—and listens to their testimony.” And this as well: “It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.”
From a 1984 interview with The Village Voice: “You have to go the way your blood beats. If you don’t live the only life you have, you won’t live some other life, you won’t live any life at all.”
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