Activist Quotes

My answer to those who oppose my appointment as CEO is that this is really a decision of the YWCA. They want to strengthen their grassroots to advocate on behalf of women's and children's empowerment and ending racism.

Most of us see Justice O'Connor as something of an icon, although we do not agree with all of her decisions.

More than 10,000 ballots in Miami-Dade County have been rejected by some machine without any opportunity for a human being to take a look. That is just not right.

Is a woman raped every three minutes or every six minutes? It is far too much, whatever it is.

In any grass-roots campaign, building an ongoing base of support is as important as winning the ultimate goal.

I've talked to law enforcement officials at the state and local level who say that violence against women is going up. In any case, we think that it's an important issue whether it's going up or not. And we are determined to stop it.

I want to reach young women and to get them involved in the mission of the YWCA, economic empowerment of women and girls, and ending racism.

I want to organize so that women see ourselves as people who are entitled to power, entitled to leadership.

I know that it isn't just violence against women, it's how do we support ourselves and our families, how do we deal with health care for ourselves and our families? It's a bigger picture.

I know that Bush, for political reasons, is going to nominate a minority, a Hispanic man or someone where it will be harder for people on the progressive side to oppose and split some of the traditionally progressive or democratic constituents.

I just have that sense this is the reason we got Sandra Day O'Connor on the Court in the first place is because Ronald Reagan was running for President.

I have a very personal interest. I am a Miami-Dade voter. One of the issues is that my vote and so many other votes of women and African Americans in Florida are being discounted or discarded. I want my vote to count.

I come from a Christian faith. I am not going to give you insight into my particular beliefs.

Extremely strong, effective, tenacious, and powerful political networks can be built when you fight losing battles as well as when you win.

Bush's choice of Dick Cheney as his running mate is clear confirmation of the policies he would promote and the nominations he would make to an already closely divided U.S. Supreme Court.

Advice and consent does not mean rubber stamp in the Senate.

I don't think you lead by pessimism and cynicism. I think you lead by optimism and enthusiasm and energy.

And of course we are familiar with the English common law rule of thumb that said a man could in fact use a stick no bigger than his thumb to discipline his wife and family.

The opposition has moved from a blaming the victim to blaming the victim's advocate's statistics. Irrespective of what the numbers are, it's far too many.

Jesus never said anything about homosexuality.

The practice of peace and reconciliation is one of the most vital and artistic of human actions.

Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.

In order to rally people, governments need enemies... if they do not have a real enemy, they will invent one in order to mobilize us.

In true dialogue, both sides are willing to change.

Smiling is very important. If we are not able to smile, then the world will not have peace. It is not by going out for a demonstration against nuclear missiles that we can bring about peace. It is with our capacity of smiling, breathing, and being peace that we can make peace.

We really have to understand the person we want to love. If our love is only a will to possess, it is not love. If we only think of ourselves, if we know only our own needs and ignore the needs of the other person, we cannot love.

If in our daily life we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. This is the most basic kind of peace work.

People deal too much with the negative, with what is wrong. Why not try and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom?

What drives people to public service is a sense of possibility. If you haven't sensed that possibility you don't get started in the same way, you don't feel you can have an impact.

We don't have a full black community in Boston. Our people are scattered. There's a middle class where I live in Highland Park but it's not like a piece of Washington or Chicago.