Kent Annan

“Anger, guilt, sadness, determination, paralysis: one or all of these emotions may surge in us as our attention is drawn to the injustice of the world and to our own desire to make it a little more just.”
― Kent Annan, Slow Kingdom Coming: Practices for Doing Justice, Loving Mercy and Walking Humbly in the World

“The aphorism “Pull yourself up by the bootstraps” comes ironically to mind because it’s so inapplicable: if you can’t afford boots, don’t have any power and barely any resources, if there’s no way to hoist yourself up, then when you need something (say, food or tuition for your kids) the choices are either to ask for it or take it. Or suffer quietly. Or throw rocks at a tap-tap or hit your wife. So are good, brilliant, powerful people working somewhere to find systemic economic and political solutions to the problems we see crushing down on our neighbors? And will the good guys win? Because too often they don’t.”
― Kent Annan, Following Jesus Through the Eye of the Needle: Living Fully, Loving Dangerously