Quote of the Week
"Only people with hope will struggle. The people who are hopeless are grist for the fascist mill. Because they have no hope, they have nothing to build on. If people are in trouble, if people are suffering and exploited and want to get out from under the heel of oppression, if they have hope that it can be done, if they can see a path that leads to a solution, a path that makes sense to them and is consistent with their beliefs and their experience, then they'll move. But it must be a path that they've started clearing. They've got to know the direction in which they are going and have a general idea of the kind of society they'd like to have. If they don't have hope, they don't even look for a path. They look for somebody else to do it for them." ~~Myles Horton in The Long Haul (1990)
Peace Changeseeker!
ReplyDeleteWOW! HELL of a quote.
So how in the Hell are you doing these days?
Excellent post.
ReplyDeleteHey, ACT. It's always a pleasure to see you come by. I really like this quote myself, but it's just one of many in Myles Horton's autobiography (with Herbert and Judith Kohl). Horton was the one that established the Highlander School in the Appalachian mountains of Tennessee, where Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, and thousands of other labor union and civil rights organizers have been trained since the 1930's. What a legacy! And this book is crucial. Not only does it tell Horton's story and the story of the school, but it has a wealth of nuts-and-bolts how-to information about social movements and organizing. What a find! I've owned it for years and finally got around to reading it.
ReplyDeleteWelcome, cero. And thanks. Horton obviously heard more than a Who, huh? :^)