The civilized have created the wretched, quite coldly and deliberately, and do not intend to change the status quo; are responsible for their slaughter and enslavement; rain down bombs on defenseless children whenever and wherever they decide that their “vital interests” are menaced, and think nothing of torturing a man to death: these people are not to be taken seriously when they speak of the “sanctity” of human life, or the “conscience” of the civilized world.
~ James Baldwin – Source: page 489 of COLLECTED ESSAYS (1998), from chapter one of “The Devil Finds Work” (orig. pub. 1976)

People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state of innocence long after that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster.
~ James Baldwin Biography – Fiction Writer, Essayist, Social Critic, 1924-1987

… The greatest bulwark of capitalism is militarism.
~ Emma Goldman Biography – Anarchist, Feminist, Labor Advocate, 1869-1940

It’s amazing how people can get so excited about a rocket to the moon and not give a damn about smog, oil leaks, the devastation of the environment with pesticides, hunger, disease. When the poor share some of the power that the affluent now monopolize, we will give a damn.
~ Cesar Estrada Chavez Biography – Farm Workers’ Union Founder, Human Rights Activist