"It is only after the deepest darkness ...

... that the greatest light can come."  Malcolm X

@Jnoubiyeh

Progress is impossible without change...

...and those who can't change their minds can't change anything.

"Our greatest fear is NOT that we are powerless...

...but that we are powerful beyond measure."

@purplesnow99

Sometimes we underestimate our ability to be change agents in a society
controlled by the most wealthy, with the world's most potent, destructive
military and police power protecting the wealth of the wealthy, so it does
not have to be shared.  But the diminutive figure of Gandhi comes to
mind when I think of how this seemingly insignificant soul was able to
bring the British empire to its knees without firing a single weapon shot.
He did not waiver from his belief that "right" will always eventually defeat "might."

"Being challenged in life is inevitable ...

... being defeated is optional."

@GreatestQuotes

It has always impressed me the way people like Gandhi, Margaret Sanger,
MLK, Jr., and Eugene Debs did not "go away" when they were knocked
down, beaten, imprisoned, and mocked by the press. Defeat was not an
option in their minds!  They all had the goal of improving the lives of the
suffering, the discriminated against, the poor ... and they were not going
to let any powerful entity stop them from moving toward their goal!

People wanting to change the status quo will always be challenged
because they demand inclusiveness from powerholders intent on keeping
their privileges for themselves. But they will never be defeated if they
"rise and rise again" after they are knocked down.

"Tell a person they are brave and you help them become so."

Thomas Carlyle

It was words of love, empathy, and solidarity from my family that enabled
me to become and remain brave in the face of the gross brutality and
injustice that I experienced several years ago, as described in my book,
No One Will Ever Tell!  Those who have experienced persecutions
from governments, institutions, or "authorities," yet continue to maintain
their dignity and, as Anna Pavlova puts it, "follow without halt, one aim,"
have done so because there have been others who have inspired their
bravery by words or deeds.

"If we do not change our direction ...

...we are likely to end up where we are headed."  Chinese Proverb

(@MotivationalQuotes)

The Republicans would have us believe that the U.S. needs to
change back to the ways of George W. Bush: preemptive war;
"detained" without charges or trial because "the good guys"say it's
needed; increasingly less taxes for the rich, while the working
poor pay more and more for their Government's military and
security expenditures, which only benefit the rich; the continual
reduction of public lands and public services so the rich can
increase their ownership and charge what they want ... etc.,
ad nauseum. The American public, or so we are told by the
mainstream media (which BTW is and has been conservative,
not the "liberal media" gullible Americans have been spoon
fed since Reagan), wants the Government to move more to
the right, even to have it undue the miniscule changes of the
past two years. Bush, (whose timing of release of his self-
serving book was excellent,right as the Republicans fulfilled
months of media predictions that they would take back the
House of Representatives and significantly gain in the Senate),
is now considered more popular than Obama and "Tea Party"
right-wingers are being pumped up for the White House.

Ironically, the direction the U.S. has been heading for the
past 10 years has been more and more away from democracy
and more and more towards totalitarianism at the same time
that its rhetoric about democracy and "freedom" has been
greater than ever. As a recent alternative newscast concluded,
the message the U.S. is sending to the world is, "Do as I say,
not as I do."

"The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it"

Moliere

It can be discouraging to those of us working hard for a more equitable
country, a more equitable world, to think that we have overcome a major
obstacle put in our way, only to find that we were either deceived or
another obstacle has been present right behind the one just removed.
Yet rather than dwelling in discouragement, we must see glory in the
victory by taking note of any lives that we have affected for good, as
well as the increased strength that that victory has given us to remove
the next obstacle.    We will overcome.