It was very bad if the council had resorted to recruiting men. By tradition men were our last line of defence, their physical strength bent towards the single and most important task of protecting our homes and children. This meant the council had decided that our only defence was to defeat the enemy, period. Anything else meant the end of Darre.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the necessity of defending one's home and children, revealing the weight of tradition and the urgency of survival in dire times.
In this quote, N.K. Jemisin underscores the gravity of the situation in which the council finds itself, suggesting that turning to men for defense signifies a serious threat to their way of life. The emphasis on physical strength and the traditional role of men as protectors highlights the dire circumstances that have forced the society to rely on their last line of defense against potential destruction, reinforcing the themes of survival and the desperation inherent in conflict.
In practice
This quote could be used in a discussion about the importance of protecting one's community during a crisis.
So here is why I write what I do: We all have futures. We all have pasts. We all have stories. And we all, every single one of us, no matter who we are and no matter what’s been taken from us or what poison we’ve internalized or how hard we’ve had to work to expel it – – we all get to dream.
There is nothing foolish about hope.
But love like that doesn't just disappear, does it? No matter how powerful the hate, there is always a little love left, underneath. Yes. Horrible, isn't it?
There is no greater warrior than a mother protecting her child.
Love betrayed has an entirely different sound from hatred outright.
Any woman can face the world alone, but why should we have to?
Struggle is a never ending process. Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it in every generation.
Yesterday from my office window I saw a crippled girl negotiating her way across the street, her shoulders squarely braced. At each jerky movement her hair flew back like an annunciatory angel, and I saw she was the only dancer on the street.
I'm so proud that now you can exist as a gay man and be an Olympian, and it can be beneficial rather than negative. So it's amazing. And I just think I feel so liberated now that I've been out of the closet for a while, and so I'm free in that I just get to be myself, speak freely, act freely, and I think that I am competing confidently.
Young Egyptians, gazing through the windows of the Internet, have gained a keener sense than many of their elders of the freedoms and opportunities they lack. They have found in social media a way to interact and share ideas, bypassing, in virtual space, the restrictions placed on physical freedom of assembly.
For many years now, I have been an outspoken supporter of civil and human rights for gay and lesbian people. Gays and lesbians stood up for civil rights in Montgomery, Selma, in Albany, Ga. and St. Augustine, Fla., and many other campaigns of the Civil Rights Movement. Many of these courageous men and women were fighting for my freedom at a time when they could find few voices for their own, and I salute their contributions.
But to the fighting soldier that phase of the war is behind. It was left behind after his first battle. His blood is up. He is fighting for his life, and killing now for him is as much a profession as writing is for me.
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