We continue to blame the poor for their own condition. They are lazy. We do not want to know that the poorest of the poor are toddlers under three years of age.
Interpretation
This quote critiques the widespread belief that poverty is a result of individual failure rather than systemic issues.
Madeleine M. Kunin's quote highlights a critical and often overlooked aspect of poverty: that the most vulnerable individuals, like toddlers, are not responsible for their circumstances. By emphasizing that society often blames the poor for their situation, it draws attention to the need for understanding and addressing the systemic factors contributing to poverty rather than attributing it solely to personal shortcomings.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about social justice during a community meeting.
It's time for male leaders to not only ask for binders of qualified women, but to re-write the definition of 'qualified.' The best man for the job, may in fact, be a woman, whose biography is not traditional, but is rich with experiences and skills that are not necessarily learned either in school or on the job.
It's time for women to wake up, to use the power of the vote, to honor the suffragists who chained themselves to the White House fence so that women could vote.
When women and men can shed an equal quantity of tears in public, that's when we'll have equal power.
Any smart executive understands that to find the best talent she has to explore new territory that lies beyond familiar geography. That applies not only to gender, but also to race, religion, background and age.
What works for a man, still does not work for a woman - both in terms of how they see themselves and how we see them.
Legislative proposals that would enable an employer to determine whether or not a woman's insurance would cover the cost of birth control strikes women as particularly bizarre. Is the boss going to take care of the children that are conceived accidentally? Stop treating us like children. Women are grown ups.
I am not interested in the past. I am interested in the future, for that is where I expect to spend the rest of my life.
It is as hard for the good to suspect evil, as it is for the bad to suspect good.
Ideas are refined and multiplied in the commerce of minds. In their splendor, images effect a very simple communion of souls.
I don't blame the average seventeen-year-old punk-rock kid for calling me a sellout. I understand that. And maybe when they grow up a little bit, they'll realize there's more things to life than living out your rock & roll identity so righteously.
The statement that 'God is dead' comes from Nietzsche and has recently been trumpeted abroad by some German and American theologians. But the good Lord has not died of this; He who dwells in the heaven laughs at them.
We imagine that we want to escape our selfish and commonplace existence, but we cling desperately to our chains.
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