Policy Reform Quotes

“The growing policy-reform movement is a broad church. It includes everyone from ganja-smoking Rastafarians to free-market fundamentalists and all in between. There are socialists who think the drug war hurts the poor, capitalists who see a business opportunity, liberals who defend the right to choose, and fiscal conservatives who complain America is spending $40 billion a year on the War on Drugs rather than making a few billion taxing it. The movement can’t agree on much other than that the present policy doesn’t work. People disagree on whether legalized drugs should be controlled by the state, by corporations, by small businessmen, or by grow-your-own farmers, and on whether they should be advertised, taxed, or just handed out free in white boxes to addicts.”
― Ioan Grillo, El Narco: Inside Mexico's Criminal Insurgency

“I celebrate ideals of individual excellence, self-reliance, and personal responsibility… But rugged individualism alone did not get us to the moon. It did not end slavery, win World War II, pass the Voting Rights Act, or bring down the Berlin Wall. It didn’t build our dams, bridges, and highways, or map the human genome. Our most lasting accomplishments require mutual effort and shared sacrifice; this is an idea that is woven into the very fabric of this country.”
― Cory Booker, United: Thoughts on Finding Common Ground and Advancing the Common Good

“Change in policy without a change in the mindset of the citizens, in time brings civil war down on a nation.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Şehit Sevda Society: Even in Death I Shall Live

“Beyond Inclusion (The Sonnet)

It is not really inclusion that we must aim for,
Rather we must work to outgrow the need for inclusion.
It is not really global harmony that we must aim for,
We must outgrow the very term international relations.
It is not really a reform in policy that we must aim for,
Rather we must aim to outgrow the need for policy aids.
It is not really social awareness we must aim to advocate,
Rather we must be the living epitome of social oneness.
It is not a flea market of parties that we must aim to build,
Rather we must turn the very term partisanism obsolete.
It is not a junkyard of ideologies that we must aim to raise,
Absorbing good from all, let us stop being ideological elites.
Plenty of time we have wasted on arguments of philosophy.
Now let's go out on the streets and soil to get our hands dirty.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Handcrafted Humanity: 100 Sonnets For A Blunderful World

“Without accountability in the commoners, no reform in policy can reform society.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Mücadele Muhabbet: Gospel of An Unarmed Soldier

“Be the last first human standing.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Honor He Wrote: 100 Sonnets For Humans Not Vegetables

“Disparity is not a policy issue, it's an education issue.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Either Reformist or Terrorist: If You Are Terror I Am Your Grandfather

“Law and policy are an aid to civic duty, not a substitute.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Mucize Misafir Merhaba: The Peace Testament