The best way to get people to connect with an issue is to humanize it. You can do so much more powerfully with music and touch the heart.
Interpretation
Humanizing issues helps to build emotional connections, especially through art like music.
This quote emphasizes the importance of making abstract issues relatable and emotionally impactful by presenting them in human terms. George Takei suggests that art forms, particularly music, have a unique ability to resonate with people on a deep emotional level, allowing for a more profound connection to important social issues.
In practice
In a presentation about social justice, you could use this quote to emphasize the emotional power of storytelling.
I remembered some people who lived across the street from our home as we were being taken away. When I was a teenager, I had many after-dinner conversations with my father about our internment. He told me that after we were taken away, they came to our house and took everything. We were literally stripped clean.
I'd like to think that, when I explain it, that Mr. Trump will understand marriage is defined by two people who love each other, commit to each other, and will care for each other through thick and thin.
Back in the day, coming out was something very personal. You began by acknowledging the truth, first to yourself, then to close family and friends. Those of us more in the public spotlight, though, also had to 'come out' to the press.
My father told me about American democracy. And he said you have to be actively engaged in the political process to make our democracy work. So I've been doing that my entire life. Civil rights movement. The peace movement during the Vietnam conflict. The movement to get an apology and redress for Japanese-Americans.
I'm especially concerned about the future of this country, because I'm concerned about the gay people of the future. We need to ensure their good life by registering to vote.
In many ways, my decision to come out changed the course not only of my personal life but of my professional one as well.
There is nothing like a dream to create the future.
I'm grateful for anything that reminds me of what's possible in this life. Books can do that. Films can do that. Music can do that. School can do that. It's so easy to allow one day to simply follow into the next, but every once in a while we encounter something that shows us that anything is possible, that dramatic change is possible, that something new can be made, that laughter can be shared.
I work really hard at trying to see the big picture and not getting stuck in ego. I believe we're all put on this planet for a purpose, and we all have a different purpose... When you connect with that love and that compassion, that's when everything unfolds.
I don't know whether it's the athlete in me or the passion I have for the game: I always think that I can step back on the field and play.
People say, 'why not have the Paralympics and Olympics combined?' I'm like, 'When Usain Bolt was running, I fully appreciate everyone will watch him and not me. But guess what? When I'm on, we're the stars, right?'
Whoever we are here, we might be princesses somewhere else. Or writers. Or scientists. Or presidents. Or whatever the hell we want to be that everyone else says we can't.
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