in the conflicts i covered as a reporter
in latin america
africa
the middle east
and the balkans
i encountered singular individuals
of varying creeds
religions
races and nationalities
who majestically rose up
to defy the oppressor on behalf of the
oppressed
these individuals despite their vast
cultural differences had common traits
a profound commitment to the truth
incorruptibility
courage
a distrust of power
a hatred of violence
and a deep empathy
that was extended to people who were
different from them
even the people defined by the dominant
culture
as the enemy
and then
there are those ordinary people
who risk their lives in wartime
to shelter and protect those of an
opposing religion or ethnicity
being persecuted and hunted
to resist radical evil
is to endure a life
that by the standards of the wider
society is a failure
it is to defy injustice at the cost of
your career
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your reputation
your financial solvency
and at times your life
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you do not become a dissident just
because you decide one day to take up
this most unusual career
were thrown into it by your personal
sense of responsibility
combined with a complex set of external
circumstances
you were cast out of the existing
structures
and placed in a position of conflict
with them
the dissident does not operate in the
realm of genuine power at all
he or she has no desire for office
and does not gather votes
he or she does not attempt to charm the
public
he or she can offer if anything only
their own skin
and they offer it solely because they
have no other way of affirming the truth
they stand for
their actions simply articulate their
dignity as a citizen
regardless of the cost
empathy becomes in all despotisms a
subversive act
to act on this empathy
the empathy for families terrorized by
our war machine in iraq afghanistan
yemen and somalia
the empathy for undocumented mothers and
fathers being torn from their children
on the streets of our cities
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the empathy for muslims who are
demonized and banned from our shores
fleeing the wars we created
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the empathy for poor people of color
gunned down by police in our streets
and locked in cages
the empathy for girls and women
trafficked into prostitution
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the empathy for the earth
that gives us life
and is being contaminated and poisoned
for profit
the most difficult existential dilemma
we face
is to at once acknowledge the bleakness
before us
and act
accept
sorrow for who cannot be profoundly
sorrowful at the state of our nation
the world
and the planet
but know that in resistance there is a
bomb
that leads to wisdom and if not joy
a strange transcendent happiness
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the powerlessness of kindness
of senseless kindness is the secret of
its immortality
it can never be conquered
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this dumb blind love
is humankind's meaning
we will find our own freedom
our autonomy
our meaning
among those who also resist
and this will allow us to endure
and maybe even triumph
you