Maureen Caupp

“Although we witnessed the worst of human nature in Utange, we also witnessed the best of it. The greatest lesson I came away with from my time in the refugee camp is that your today doesn’t get to determine your tomorrow. Everything in life is fluid. Pride, strength, and responsibility—all of those notions are the domain of people in comfort and safety. When you’re facing death, you’re not guided by your importance or your past, and you certainly don’t worry about whether your pride is intact. Again and again, I witnessed that if you can push through whatever is happening today, tomorrow might be worse, but it could also be better. The only option for the human spirit is to keep going.”
― Ilhan Omar, This Is What America Looks Like: My Journey from Refugee to Congresswoman

“And yet I also rail against having every action I take reduced to a social construct stemming from my religion, stripping me of the complexities of multidimensional thought. I am a human, not a figurehead. I have always chafed at owning other people’s notions about my identities, be it what it means to be a mother or a member of Congress.”
― Ilhan Omar, This Is What America Looks Like: My Journey from Refugee to Congresswoman

“Upon arriving at the murder scene, they saw Deputy Sheriff Peewee Stubblefield pacing back and forth on the front walk. He stopped and smirked as Sheriff Roosevelt Baker braked the patrol car. He emitted a noise sounding more like a groan than a sigh.”
― lea charles, Easy Peasy: An Appalachian Town Diner Cozy Mystery

“To know there was someone whom I could always count on but who also let me be whatever I wanted to be gave me more security than anything else could.”
― Ilhan Omar, This Is What America Looks Like: My Journey from Refugee to Congresswoman