The power of friends
Sep. 15th, 2009 09:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pecuniumI want to hand out kudos to the people who organised the seminar I was at, they did it for no other reason than that they thought it needed doing.
The story goes like this, a number of people (I don't know how many, more than 12, less than 20, I think) get together once a week to have dinner and watch movies. They happen to share a certain political mindsent, and some of the movies are topical. One of those movies sparked a conversation on torture, and they decided they needed to do something.
So they did. Some of them are politically active, and have friends who know people. So they got in touch with the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, and that led them to me.
I don't know how much they spent, but they paid for at least a couple of people to fly to Chicago. They fed me, paid for my amusements, and worked to get me (and so the seminar) a wider audience.
They did that, and they deserve praise. They could probably use a donation, to help cover the costs of this, but regardless, when it mattered, they were not willing to leave the heavy lifting to other people.
They summed it up in the program book.
I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides.
Elie Wiesel
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead
Or, as Mike Ford said, and I quote on my splash page,
Say what you mean. Bear witness. Iterate
The story goes like this, a number of people (I don't know how many, more than 12, less than 20, I think) get together once a week to have dinner and watch movies. They happen to share a certain political mindsent, and some of the movies are topical. One of those movies sparked a conversation on torture, and they decided they needed to do something.
So they did. Some of them are politically active, and have friends who know people. So they got in touch with the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, and that led them to me.
I don't know how much they spent, but they paid for at least a couple of people to fly to Chicago. They fed me, paid for my amusements, and worked to get me (and so the seminar) a wider audience.
They did that, and they deserve praise. They could probably use a donation, to help cover the costs of this, but regardless, when it mattered, they were not willing to leave the heavy lifting to other people.
They summed it up in the program book.
I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides.
Elie Wiesel
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead
Or, as Mike Ford said, and I quote on my splash page,
Say what you mean. Bear witness. Iterate
