We can't get at crime unless we know what language it speaks. Otherwise, we are just suppressing the cough, not curing the disease.
Greg BoyleRead
If there is a fundamental challenge within these stories, it is simply to change our lurking suspicion that some lives matter less than other lives.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of recognizing the equal value of all lives.
In this quote, Greg Boyle highlights the fundamental challenge of societal perceptions that lead to the belief that certain lives are less valuable than others. He urges a shift in perspective to acknowledge and respect the inherent dignity of every individual, advocating for a more compassionate and equitable view of humanity.
In practice
During a speech addressing social justice, the quote can be used to inspire unity and equality.
We can't get at crime unless we know what language it speaks. Otherwise, we are just suppressing the cough, not curing the disease.
Relapse happens, especially when you're dealing with folks who are frankly the least likely to succeed based on their own pasts and difficulties. We can work with the most likely to succeed. I'm not interested in that.
We ought not to demonize a single gang member, and we ought not to romanticize a single gang.
Anyone who knows gangs knows that lawmakers cannot conceive of a law that would lead a hard-core gang member to 'think twice.'
Homeboy Industries has chosen to stand with the 'demonized' so that the demonizing will stop; it stands with the 'disposable' so that the day will come when we stop throwing people away.
The idea that any law enforcement agency or person would ever know these gang members better than Homeboy Industries is impossible.
It is a monstrous thing that I will say, but I will say it all the same: I find in many things more restraint and order in my morals than in my opinions, and my lust less depraved than my reason.
The most important things are the hardest to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them.
Everything flows and nothing stays.
There are three kinds of praise, that which we yield, that which we lend, and that which we pay. We yield it to the powerful from fear, we lend it to the weak from interest, and we pay it to the deserving from gratitude.
Kindnessβ covers all of my political beliefs.
I can measure the motion of bodies but I cannot measure human folly.
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