One person can make a difference, even if it takes forty years.
Fred KorematsuRead
My folks were so worried about what they were going to do. All they can take was what they could carry with their hands. What they had for twenty-five years of building their business was going to go out the door, or they're going to lose it.
Interpretation
The quote reflects the struggle of loss and the emotional turmoil of having to abandon a lifetime of work and business.
This quote by Fred Korematsu speaks to the profound sense of vulnerability and fear faced by individuals who are forced to leave behind the fruits of their labor due to circumstances beyond their control. It highlights the emotional weight of losing one's livelihood and the uncertainty that comes with such a transition, emphasizing the sheer determination and resilience required to cope with such challenges.
In practice
During a motivational speech on overcoming adversity.
One person can make a difference, even if it takes forty years.
As long as my record stands in federal court, any American citizen can be held in prison or concentration camps without a trial or a hearing.
I lost everything when they put us in prison. I was an enemy alien, a man without a country.
All of them turned their backs on me at that time because they thought I was a troublemaker.
Every day in school, we said the pledge to the flag, 'with liberty and justice for all,' and I believed all that.
I'm Asian, so they assumed I'm not an American and that I come from Japan. Restaurants would refuse to serve me, and places would refuse to give you a haircut.
Literally falling on the ice and having to pick yourself up in front of thousands of people is not an easy thing to do. The thing that you learn is to pick yourself back up, to learn from your mistakes.
Look, I would say that anyone who does this work and doesn't have a strain of idealism is an adrenaline junkie or completely narcissistic. There is no other justification. You're risking your life, and if anything happens, it's our families who suffer tremendously.
Safe is good for sidewalks and swimming pools, but life requires risk if we are to get anywhere.
If you think somebody cares about you and believes your life is worth saving, how can you give up?
How much courage does it take to fire up your tractor and plow under a crop you spent six or seven years growing? How much courage to go on and do that after you've spent all that time finding out how to prepare the soil and when to plant and how much to water and when to reap? How much to just say, "I have to quit these peas. Peas are no good for me, I better try corn or beans.
One of the ironies of courage, and the reason why we prize it so highly, is that we find it easier to be brave for someone else than we do for ourselves alone.
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