Witness
QUOTES
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“When
the lives and the rights of children are at
stake, there must be no silent witnesses.”
-- Carol
Bellamy
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"The
UN Declaration of Human Rights laid down what
any person might reasonably expect, yet there
are remarkably few people who enjoy these rights.
With cameras in the hands of activists and meaningful
distribution of those images, we will witness
what really goes on in this world and hopefully
want to change it." -- Peter
Gabriel
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"When
we bear witness, when we become the situation
— homelessness, poverty, illness, violence, death
— the right action arises by itself. We don’t
have to worry about what to do. We don't have
to figure out solutions ahead of time. Peacemaking
is the functioning of bearing witness. Once we
listen with our entire body and mind, loving action
arises.
-- Bernie Glassman
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The mere fact of an American being present could
help save the lives of innocent people. That's why
I believe in the importance of bearing witness,
to become a voice for the voiceless.
-- Bianca Jagger
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"I became convinced that noncooperation with evil
is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation
with good. No other person has been more eloquent
and passionate in getting this idea across than
Henry David Thoreau. As a result of his writings
and personal witness, we are the heirs of a legacy
of creative protest."
--
Martin Luther
King, Jr
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Perfect
courage means doing unwitnessed what we would be capable
of with the world looking on.
-- La Rochefoucauld
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"Witnessing
the extreme poverty in remote parts of Affrica
can make you feel sad and powerless until you
realize how little it takes to change these people's
lives fundamentally in sustainable ways."
-- John Legend
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"I've
witnessed the total devastation of HIV and AIDS
in sub-Saharan Africa... I've met too many brave
and beautiful children who are struggling to
care for their sick parents or their orphaned
brothers and sisters. Many children infected
with HIV will not live to see their fifth birthday...
Children suffer not only from this virus but
also the stigma, poverty and destruction that
accompany it. As a UNICEF ambassador I hope
to draw more attention and funding to this crisis.
The tsunami in Asia revealed the deep compassion
and generosity of people worldwide. By working
together and applying that same focus and support,
we can protect a new generation of children
from suffering."
--
Lucy Liu
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And
this is the time. It is the time for this land
to become again a witness to the world for what
is noble and just in human affairs. It is the
time to live more with faith and less with fear-
with an abiding confidence that can sweep away
the strongest barriers between us and teach us
that we truly are brothers and sisters.
-- George McGovern
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Because
war and preparations for war have acquired legitimacy,
and because of the tremendous proliferation of
arms through production and export, so that they
are now available more or less to all and sundry,
right down to handguns and stilettos, the cult
of violence has by now so permeated relations
between people that we are compelled to witness
as well an increase in everyday violence.
-- Alva Myrdal
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“Public
truth telling is a form of recovery, especially when
combined with social action. Sharing traumatic experiences
with others enables victims to reconstruct repressed
memory, mourn loss, and master helplessness, which is
trauma's essential insult. And, by facilitating reconnection
to ordinary life, the public testimony helps survivors
restore basic trust in a just world and overcome feelings
of isolation. But the talking cure is predicated on
the existence of a community willing to bear witness.
-- Lawrence N. Powell
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Even
when they call us mad, when they call us subversives
and communists and all the epithets they put on
us, we know we only preach the subversive witness
of the Beatitudes, which have turned everything
upside down.
-- Oscar Romero
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"We
want to bear witness today that we know the relation
between corporate greed and what goes on too often
in the Supreme Court decisions.
-- Cornel West
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“for
the dead and the living, we must bear witness.”
-- Elie Wiesel
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Sometimes
I see myself fine, sometimes I need a witness.
And I like the whole truth, but there are nights I only
need forgiveness.
-- Dar Williams
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“When
I see brokenness, poverty and crime in inner cities,
I also see the enormous potential and readiness
for transformation and rebirth. We are creating
an art form that comes from the heart and reflects
the pain and sorrow of people's lives. It also
expresses joy, beauty, and love. This process
lays the foundation of building a genuine community
in which people are reconnected with their families,
sustained by meaningful work, nurtured by the
care of each other and will together raise and
educate their children. Then we witness social
change in action.”
-- Lily Yeh
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