That which fundamentally motivates one still dictates the terms of what one thinks and does — […] one's eyes should be on the prize, not on the perpe… - Cornel West

"If we can't overcome the kind of despair that you're talking about, but remember now what Goethe said, that 'he or she who has never despaired has never lived', nothing wrong with wrestling with despair. The question is not allowing it to have the last word."
Anderson Cooper, "What gives you hope?",
"We do have a cloud of witnesses of all colors, all social orientations, all national identities against forms of evil. Hope is a verb as much as a virtue. We have to stay in motion and always know that we've got some memories of love and justice. We've got some joy tied to our witness that the world can never take away and if we have a collective effort than we can hold up this blood-stained banner just a little longer."

We simply cannot enter the twenty-first century at each other’s throats, even as we acknowledge the weighty forces of racism, patriarchy, economic inequality, homophobia, and ecological abuse on our necks. We are at a crucial crossroad in the history of this nation–and we either hang together by combating these forces that divide and degrade us or we hang separately. Do we have the intelligence, humor, imagination, courage, tolerance, love, respect, and will to meet the challenge? Time will tell. None of us alone can save the nation or world. But each of us can make a positive difference if we commit ourselves to do so.

Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public.