People From Louisiana

"A lot has happened very quickly to bring us to this unique moment. It was barely a week ago when, in the dead of night, President Putin launched a full-scale invasion of our fellow UN Member State at the very moment – at the very moment – the Security Council was holding an urgent meeting attempting to foster diplomacy and de-escalation. As the Security Council discussed peace, Putin declared war. Ukraine has defended itself with great courage and vigor. As President Biden said in his State of the Union address last night, President Putin “met a wall of strength he never imagined. He met the Ukrainian people.” But the brazen and indiscriminate nature of Russia’s attacks has had devastating, horrific consequences for the entire country. Russia has bombed residential apartment buildings. It has bombed sacred burial grounds. It has shelled kindergartens and orphanages and hospitals. Russia has spurred mass hunger and caused so many to flee their homes – the latest UN estimates are marching toward a million people."

"People across the world have already united together in exactly the way this General Assembly must do today. Protests and vigils against Russia’s war, and in solidarity with Ukraine, marked with blue and yellow, have sprung up across the globe. These are protests for peace. From Bangkok to Budapest. From Berlin to Buenos Aires. From Sydney to Seoul. From Calgary to Cape Town. And even in Moscow and Minsk. People everywhere are standing up to call for President Putin to stop this attack."

"The Russian people are themselves asking how many lives Putin will sacrifice for his cynical ambitions. And they are appalled at the answer. To the Russian protesters, I say thank you – thank you – for your bravery. To the Russian soldiers sent to the front lines of an unjust, unnecessary war, I say: your leaders are lying to you. Do not commit war crimes. Do everything you can to put down your weapons and leave Ukraine. The truth is that this war was one man’s choice and one man alone: President Putin. It was his choice to force hundreds of thousands of people to stuff their lives into backpacks and flee the country. To send newborn babies into makeshift bomb shelters. To make children with cancer huddle in hospital basements, interrupting their treatment, essentially sentencing them to death. Those were President Putin’s choices. Now it’s time for us to make ours."

"Now, at more than any other point in recent history, the United Nations is being challenged. If the United Nations has any purpose, it is to prevent war, it is to condemn war, to stop war. That is our job here today. It is the job you were sent here to do – not just by your capitals, but by all of humanity."

"We have a legislative branch that creates the law and the executive carries it out. When it works in that fashion, America works."

"The work of the liturgy transcends us because it is Christ’s work, and it is our privilege to participate. This work is an art, sanctioned by the Church, which is Christ’s Body. In the liturgy we present what He has intended to make lasting for the salvation of mankind until all is consummated."

"You actually start the job on your knees, pray, because that's where the job puts you, instantly, on your knees, pray, because so many things are really to be put in God's hands, and to let God lead us, guide us, shape us, form us as we need to be."

"So one of the questions I think Jesus is going to ask us on judgment day is not have we lived a good life, and not just have we lived the Gospel, he's going to ask us "Who have you made a disciple of in My name?" So that becomes the question for me and for you, who am I discipling right now?"

"Treating Black feminism as primarily an anti-racist intervention within feminism continues to render it as a disruptive and temporary event, to be addressed, responded to, and moved on from, back to the regularly scheduled course of things."

"We live in a nation that does everything to induce our rage while simultaneously doing everything to deny that we have a right to feel it. American democracy is as much a project of suppressing Black rage as it is of leigimizing and elevating white rage. American democracy uses calls for civility, equality, liberty and justice as smoke screens to obscure all the ways in which Black folks are treated uncivilly, unequally, illiberally, and unjustly as a matter of course."

"Without carrying out these actions, without standing behind our military men and women in combat, you really dissuade, I think, the recruiting of new members of our military if they’re sitting here thinking, ‘Gosh, I can actually be convicted of murder in a war scenario, this is crazy. Certainly we need to take all efforts to protect lives, but I think there were some imperfections in these three cases and the president courageously and boldly did the right thing."

"What happens at the beginning of your poem has to—because it’s a poem—be transformed by the end of your poem. So if the triggering moment for the beginning of your poem is a known political moment, I am fine with that, that’s great. But as I’m reading, I expect it to change because that was just the trigger…"

"A poem should go beyond what you already know, and if it’s going to go beyond what you already know, a poem might say something that begins to have you question what side you’re on, which, in turn, might begin to have an audience question what side you’re on…"

"A metaphor is a sign of desperation when we need another world to describe what we are feeling. Metaphors are about desperation and safety. We call out to metaphor because a metaphor makes us feel safe."

"It is the hardest thing to take chaos and make order of it. Poetry is a veil in front of a heart beating at a very fast pace."

"take Jericho Brown, telling too much necessary truth in all his work, but especially "Bullet Points," on the violence black men and women experience at the hands of cops. "I promise that if you hear/Of me dead anywhere near / A cop, then that cop killed me." I heard Jericho read this live and found myself on the edge of my seat, my fingers curled into tight, sweaty fists as I tried to absorb the pain wrapped in the intense beauty of his words."

"Nobody is a born killer. And nobody ever forgets the first time they get laid, nor the first time they spike somebody."

"There are a lot of promises in the recycle bins of history."

"“Everybody knows that.” “Assume for a moment that everybody is wrong.”"

"Truth is the first casualty in war, but communications is the second."

"If it ain’t broke, don’t break it."

"In the land of the unarmed, the man with a rock was king."

"“We aren’t looking for trouble.” “Doesn’t mean you won’t find it.”"

"Rich people seldom run amok; They hire somebody to do that for them."

"Well, said his little interior voice, a second is as good as an eon, if you succeed. Yeah, and as good as forever if you fail."

"Young soldiers had a lot of expectations and fantasies about how it would be and what they would do and feel. Invariably wrong, those expectations."

"Veate said, “You said ‘used to be.’ Not a mystic any more?” “No. I burned too many bridges. I saw too much grief to believe in a benevolent cosmos any longer. I caused much of that grief myself.”"

"Wall knew what made the man work; he had studied every scrap of information available on him, including his own brief meeting before it all fell apart. Khadaji was a hero; he wore the psychologically flawed psyche like a cape, he was a slave to fair play and he believed that the universe was an innately good place. Khadaji made it a point not to kill during his revolution, not with his own hands. He could have snuffed Wall like a flickstick when first they’d met. But he had not; he had given Wall a chance to consider the error of his ways. What a fool."

"It wasn’t a death wish. It was a see-how-close-you-can-get-and-live wish."

"Civilization didn’t like surprises..."

"“So here we have the basic ingredients in the art of distraction,” Gunny said to Singh, as they walked toward the rendezvous point. “When in doubt, wait until dark, turn off the lights, and blow shit up.”"

"When wheels turned, those on top sometimes found themselves buried in the mud after things rolled to a stop."

"The matadors didn't hold with killing, but the way Sleel figured it, when someone tried to take you out, they lost their breathing rights. He'd worry about his conscience later. At least he'd be alive to worry about it."

"“Thanks,” he said. She beamed at him. “Sure. What are friends for, if not to point out when you do stupid shit?”"

"All great truths are simple, and that was both great and true itself."

"He had put it all behind him, the danger and intrigue, and he had never regretted it. He had done a lifetime’s work in a decade and a half, and walked away without a backward look. He had done what he had been driven to do by a mystical battlefield revelation that he could not ignore, but he was long past that. It seemed sometimes when he thought about it as if it had all happened to another man, in another life, one he knew only slightly, if at all."

"Causing the union trouble was easy enough, since unions were almost always paranoid by nature."

"“We live in an age where such things are inseparably entwined with our lives,” he said. “There have been more than a few other unnatural disasters around the galaxy of late, most of which are connected to major computer systems.”"

"What had Von told him, so long ago? He might not be able to control what he felt or thought, but he could control what he did. That was the important thing, that was the crux of free will."

"The gnat had bitten the dinosaur. The revolution had begun!"

"He did not have to have all the answers. Hell, he didn’t have to have any of them. All he could do was the best he could. Nothing else much mattered worth a damn."

"“A priest.” Pen nodded. “A title. Our order concerns itself more with the redemption of man then the seeking of his Creator. Assuming there is such a thing.” “Doubts are good,” Vaughn said. “If a belief can’t stand questioning, it isn’t apt to be much.”"

"It would be foolish to deny something that worked simply because one did not know how it worked. One did not need an advanced degree in physics to push a button."

"Odd how such major changes in a man’s life could come about so quickly, based on such flimsy things as feelings."

"He had not found God, but he had found something much more important. He had found himself."

"But her first reaction was from fear. Her very best, most potent trick suddenly didn't work anymore. Her first thought probably was that something was wrong with you. But her second thought would have been that something was wrong with her. Had to be pretty scary."

"Eventually, you will learn for the right reasons; to begin with, it is only necessary that you learn at all."

"Perhaps the voice stilled. Perhaps not. Either way, he lost the sound of it in the surging wave that crested and carried him to new places with this new woman. For a few moments, at least, the sound went away, along with the darkness, the worry, the memories. He and Moon danced the oldest man and woman dance, yin and yang, and all else was less than a shadow. For a few moments."

"That, of course, was the problem with zen. Mountains were mountains, streams were streams, and forests were forests, except when they were not. And then were again. To someone who knew zen, on the proper intuitive level, it all made perfect sense. To someone who did not know zen, it made no sense at all."

"“You should know that there is great personal danger involved, Emile.” Khadaji chuckled. “So, what else is new? You skate the edge, sometimes you get cut.”"