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Quote by Ellen Willis

“To refuse to fight for love that is both free and responsible is in a sense to reject the possibility of love itself.”

Quote by Ellen Willis

Author

Ellen Willis
Ellen Willis

Ellen Willis was an accomplished American cultural critic and essayist, renowned for her insightful perspectives on popular music, film, and gender issues. Her writing career spanned over four decades, influencing countless readers. more

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“The fourth challenge we face is to unite around powerful action programs to eradicate the last vestiges of racial injustice. We will be greatly misled if we feel that the problem will work itself out. Structures of evil do not crumble by passive waiting. If history teaches anything, it is that evil is recalcitrant and determined, and never voluntarily relinquishes its hold short of an almost fanatical resistance. Evil must be attacked by a counteracting persistence, by the day-to-day assault of the battering rams of justice.”

“We have got to call time on the bullsh*t that makes us feel as if we are powerless, the bullsh*t that tells ordinary people they have a defined place in the world and should put up with their lot. The bullsh*t that means the same people always end up with the same jobs. The bullsh*t that says we just have to tolerate a rising tide of hatred and division. The bullsh*t that says the laws are just the way they are and you should live within a system that was designed for someone else.”

“Don't you understand man? The slogans of capitulation can KILL! Every time we say "Live and let live"--death triumphs! Too much has happened, too much has happened to me. . . . That which warped and distorted all of us is--all around: it is in this very air! This swirling, seething, madness that you ask us all to help maintain! It's no good, Wally--your world. It's no--damn--good! You have forced me to take a position. Finally -- the one thing I never wanted to do. Just being for you is not enough. To live, to breathe--I've got to be against you.”

“There is nothing wrong with a traffic law which says you have to stop for a red light. But when a fire is raging, the fire truck goes right through that red light, and normal traffic had better get out of its way. Or, when a man is bleeding to death, the ambulance goes through those red lights at top speed. There is a fire raging now for the Negroes and the poor of this society. They are living in tragic conditions because of the terrible economic injustices that keep them locked in as an "under-class," as the sociologists are now calling it. Disinherited people all over the world are bleeding to death from deep social and economic wounds. They need brigades of ambulance drivers who will have to ignore the red lights of the present system until the emergency is solved.”