While acting is what I do for a living, activism is what I do to stay alive.
Martin SheenRead
Childhood hunger in America is as much a paradox as it is a tragedy. Why, in the wealthiest country in the world, should hunger darken the lives and dreams of 12 million children and their families? I believe that, when Americans learn the facts and understand how their involvement can make a difference, banishing childhood hunger will be a national, local and personal priority.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Childhood hunger in America is a tragic contradiction given the nation's wealth, and awareness can drive change.
This quote highlights the shocking reality of childhood hunger in America, framing it as both a tragedy and a paradox. Despite being the wealthiest nation, millions of children suffer from hunger, raising questions about societal priorities. Martin Sheen emphasizes the importance of awareness and personal involvement in addressing this issue, suggesting that collective action can transform childhood hunger from an overlooked problem into a national and local priority that affects everyone.
Themes
ChildhoodHungerParadoxTragedyAwarenessAmerica
In practice
Example use cases
During a charity event, we can quote Martin Sheen to raise awareness about childhood hunger.
More from Martin Sheen
All quotes βI am still a journeyman actor and a peace and justice activist. I'm a pilgrim trying to win my freedom and serve as best I can in the time I have, with this gift I've been given.
Martin SheenRead
When I reached adulthood, even now, I could afford to belong to a country club. But I could never belong to a private club because of my experience as a child, because it would isolate me from the whole of humanity.
Martin SheenRead
Future generations are not going to ask us what political party were you in. They are going to ask what did you do about it, when you knew the glaciers were melting.
Martin SheenRead
My recovery is the single greatest accomplishment of my life. Without that, the rest of my life would have fallen apart.
Martin SheenRead
I honestly do not know if civil disobedience has any effect on the government. I can promise you it has a great effect on the person who chooses to do it.
Martin SheenRead
Similar quotes
Sometimes I do feel hopeless when I look out and scream out through my music, and I scream out through these interviews, and I scream out to people to kind of get their attention back on the things that are meaningful. There's people dying on the streets of Chicago - young people, young men and women who are losing their lives.
Lupe FiascoRead
When the human race neglects its weaker members, when the family neglects its weakest one - it's the first blow in a suicidal movement. I see the neglect in cities around the country, in poor white children in West Virginia and Virginia and Kentucky - in the big cities, too, for that matter.
Maya AngelouRead
The news media's silence, particularly television news, is reprehensible. If we knew as much about Darfur as we do about Michael Jackson, we might be able to stop these things from continuing.
Nicholas KristofRead
You meet folks who are funny and really smart and persistent and loving that are confronting this thing we call poverty, which is just a shorthand for this way of life that holds you underwater. And you just wonder what our country would be if we allowed these people to flourish and reach their full potential.
Matthew DesmondRead
I'm very much interested in getting prisons off the stock market. I'm very much interested in upgrading the public school system... and taking a second look at capital punishment.
Ruby DeeRead
There are huge divorces and divides and chasms in black America between the have-gots and the have-nots, between the monied and the poor, between the educated and the non-educated. And there are huge and growing chasms daily. And I want to say that it's not simply about generation. It's about genre.
Michael Eric DysonRead