A Quote by Jesmyn Ward
People are not afraid to be activists, to be vocal. And I think back to my years in college, and that wasn't the case.
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It took LGBT activists 15 years to defeat section 28, but this is not a movement that's afraid of the long struggle. They know all progress is hard-fought, that discrimination against any individual anywhere is discrimination against all, and that the campaign for true, global equality must therefore be won one issue, case and country at a time.
My vocal style is called bel canto, which is an old Italian vocal style going back hundreds of years.
I don't think what people realize is I've been through years and years and years of training - piano, dance, vocal lessons.
It's kind of depressing when you hear the anti-science rhetoric in America, but I think that people are just afraid of change, and I think they're afraid of disruption, and I think they're afraid of the feeling that the rug is being pulled from underneath their feet. People are used to things changing maybe over many generations, but they're not used to seeing things change within their own lifetime. The problem is people are going to college and graduating, and realizing that their major is obsolete.
I trust my electors. I see them in weekly meetings. I'm their advocate, I'm there to take up their case. I'm not there to decide whether they've got a good case or a bad case. And I think that if you trust people, they're more likely to trust you back.
The great thing about 2017 is that, because of the terrible political state that we're in and that America is in, young people are so vocal at the moment about so many issues, from racism to LGBT rights to beyond. I feel like - especially when I look at my fan-base - people are so vocal about their opinions and so vocal about spreading love. That's really important, and I think it's really amazing that people are talking about that. I just want that to keep happening.
I don't remember at all what was said at my college graduation, and I think that's the case for many people.
There was a lot of rebelliousness, without focus, in my younger years. And even when people ask me, "Oh you went to prison and you went to college for a couple years?" I'm like "Yeah, I learned more in prison than I think I ever learned in college." That's the sad truth.
I think people are afraid. I remember when we'd have discussions in the '60s among people who were active. We'd say, "Well, people are afraid," and the answer to us was, "If you're afraid, you know you should be doing something." People are afraid today, but they're not doing anything.
At times, I can be vocal about what I think people want to hear as opposed to being vocal about what I really feel.
I think these questions about what will happen are questions for activists and about the agency of people in the course of events. This is not a question for a journalist, but for activists.
I firstly don't think of myself as an activist, I never have. I always say that, I think this word "activist" is relatively recent one. I don't remember when people started being called that or what it means. It reduces both writers and activists, it makes it seem as though a writer's job is to just keep people entertained with best-selling books and the activist's job to keep on repeating the same thing without a great deal of subtlety and intelligence. I don't think either is the case.
I'm not saying that you need a State Department that looks like the litigation department of a major law firm. But you need people who are not afraid to make the case for the United States, who are not afraid to stand their ground, not afraid to be isolated in international organizations when that's the correct approach for our diplomacy. This is a cultural change that has to be effected through incentive systems, promotion systems, career training systems. This is not something that you can do with the stroke of a magic wand, it's going to take years to make this change.
I think I'm known as an adventuress. Even generally in life, I have no fear. It's not that I'm not afraid of things, but when I am afraid of something, I don't back away - I approach it and try to understand what makes me afraid.
I'm a product of the '60s and the '70s - slightly rebellious back then in college, not so much in high school, when I got to college I think I was. And I think a lot of where I'm at right now is rooted in a lot of hypocrisy that I recognized back then that I never wanted to be personally.
When you think back today to a time more than 70 years ago when Germany was a terrible place, a place people were afraid of, it is a wonderful development that we have gone from being a terrible place to a place that people dream of.
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