Iysha

“Make it a rule never to give a child a book you would not read yourself.”
― George Bernard Shaw

“I am writing this sitting in my small office in Brussels. The
month of June is nearly gone and the heat has just arrived.
I work in a building that hosts various organizations and
charities working for global justice. Some focus on Western
Sahara; some on Palestine; others on torture, Latin
America, or Africa. It is a good environment to work in,
surrounded by people who believe in a fairer and better
society, and who have decided to act on their beliefs and
dedicate their lives to trying to change the world. Sounds
utopian, maybe. But the important word here is probably
not the one you are thinking of. It’s trying. Trying and
trying again. Never stopping. That is a victory in itself.
Everyone and everything tells you that “outside” you will
not succeed, that it is too late, that we live in an epoch
where a revolution cannot happen anymore. Radical
changes are a thing of the past. You can be an outsider, but
not outside the system, and you can have political beliefs,
even radical ones, but they need to stay within the bounds
of the permissible, inside that bubble that has been drawn
for you by the elites.”
― Frank Barat, Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine and the Foundations of a Movement

“I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want. I can never train myself in all the skills I want. And why do I want? I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in my life. And I am horribly limited.”
― Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

“Cornell West on Angela Davis,

As a new assistant professor of philosophy, she was demonized by Governor Ronald Reagan in California. The University of California Board of Regents stripped her of her academic position owing to her membership in the Communist Party. She was put at the top of the FBI’s Most Wanted list, on the run from the police forces of the US Empire, and incarcerated after her capture. Her grace and dignity during a historic court trial electrified the world. And her determination to remain true to her revolutionary vocation —in the intense international spotlight—has been an inspiration.
After the systematic state execution or incarceration of Black warriors and government incorporation of Black professionals, Angela Davis still stands tall with intellectual power and moral fervor.”
― Cornell West