The worst thing they could do is not try. ~ Sarah Kendzior Community organizing is all about building grassroots support. It's about identifying the people around you with whom you can create a common, passionate cause. And it's about ignoring the conventional wisdom of company politics and instead playing the game by very different rules. … Continue reading On Keeping it Local: Inspiration From Arizona
It is important to look closely at the people who will not call evil by its name. There are no neutral parties in this moment. ~Steve Schmidt “Our partner, Trump.” ~Russia "I don't think you want to be associated with those kids, Michele. Trust me on this one." ~My mother, circa 1991 People judge you … Continue reading The Company You Keep
The important thing about groupthink is that it works not so much by censoring dissent as by making dissent seem somehow improbable. ~James Surowiecki One morning when I was in fourth grade, my teacher wheeled in a television from the AV center. She beamed as she rolled that rickety cart to the front of the … Continue reading On Conformity, Groupthink, and the Slap Heard Round the World
You have been created in order that you might make a difference. You have within you the power to change the world. -Andy Andrews Last night our doorbell rang. Which was a shock, because it never does. At least, not outside delivery hours. I had just emerged from a 1.5 hour conference call and was … Continue reading On a Pokemon Quiz, Small Deeds, and the Simple Ways We Can Make Life Better for Each Other
It is not that the good undoes the evil, but that we feel better when we know that others are acting, responding, not giving up. ~Timothy Snyder An employee at Russia's state "news" channel, Marina Ovsyannikova, briskly walked behind the anchor's desk and held up a white piece of poster board. It was the kind … Continue reading On the R-Nought of Courage, and Not Letting Them Keep You On the Sidelines
History is not how one man smooths the past so that we all slide towards war. It is how many of us, each a little differently, confront the difficulties of the past and so imagine our own individual routes towards the future. ~Timothy Snyder Resist notions of fate ... and optimism.... History is also made by … Continue reading On the Danger of Inevitability, Our Role in History, and Sleepwalking
"We are all potential heroes waiting for a moment in life to perform a heroic deed." ~The Banality of Heroism "True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost." ~Arthur Ashe "You should put sunflower seeds in … Continue reading On Courage, the X Factor, and Sunflowers
Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them. ...We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, … Continue reading On Giving No Ground to Bullies
Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt. Scared is what you're feeling. Brave is what you're doing. ~ Emma Donoghue I was standing at my kitchen sink last night, rinsing dinner dishes, when I realized that someone in Ukraine … Continue reading On Courage, and Defiance, and Democracy
"Children are happy because they don’t have a file in their minds called 'All The Things That Could Go Wrong'” – Marianne Williamson "Above all, never let age extinguish the fire of your inner child.” – S. Ajna There's a new, highly sought-after writer in Boise. He's got a fresh voice, a unique style, and … Continue reading On Getting Out of Your Own Way, and Making Space on the Shelf
Small Deeds Done 