Homeless shelters, child hunger, and child suffering have become normalized in the richest nation on earth. It's time to reset our moral compass and redefine how we measure success. Marian Wright Edelman More Quotes by Marian Wright Edelman More Quotes From Marian Wright Edelman People who don't vote have no call on political leaders! Marian Wright Edelman political leader people None of the candidates are ever perfect, ok? Then you have to get them in there and you have to hold them accountable. You have to make noises. Marian Wright Edelman candidates noise perfect People want to pick the leader, and we are obsessed with celebrity and whoever is on the cover of this or that. Marian Wright Edelman leader want people We're a violent nation, and we need to confront it. This gun plague has to stop. Marian Wright Edelman violent gun needs In 1990, when we started the Black Community Crusade for Children, we were always talking about all children, but we paid particular attention to children who were not white, who were poor, who were disabled, and who were the most vulnerable.Parents didn't think their children would live to adulthood, and the children didn't think they were going to live to adulthood. That's when we started our first gun-violence campaign. We've lost 17 times more young black people to gun violence since 1968 than we lost in all the lynching in slavery. Marian Wright Edelman gun children thinking That's not to say that some of the new media is not advantageous. You can reach lots of folks with what Black Lives Matter is doing, mobilizing people. God bless them. Marian Wright Edelman black media people When I started out as an activist, the issues were much clearer. There's advantage to the new media, but on the other hand, you miss the ability to frame an issue that you had when there were just three TV networks: CBS, NBC, and ABC. So the whole world could see the same police dogs. The same Bull Connor and his white tank. Now you've got narrow-casting. The media is all fragmented. It's so hard to get people to focus in a sustained way. Marian Wright Edelman issues dog white Our government has to be held accountable for enforcing the law. Tamir Rice, the fact that they could exonerate that police person [who killed him], and Tamir's family was charged for the ambulance to take him [to the hospital]. It's inhumane. Marian Wright Edelman police government law It's deeply rooted in the American psyche. Black men have always been viewed as the other, which leads to a different application of the laws. The current laws are an obscenity. More black men are locked up for using pot than white folk are for far more serious crimes. Marian Wright Edelman law white men The core of the culture is racism and how black men are viewed. They've always been demonized and seen as threats in our culture. Another holdover from slavery. We've got to deal with that core root of racism and demonization of the upbringing of black men. Black women are not exempt by any means. Marian Wright Edelman roots men mean As [Martin Luther] King said, it never cost anybody a dime to integrate the lunch counters. When you start talking about trying to deal with jobs and hunger and things that require investment, then that's really the tough stuff, because everybody wants to do right if it doesn't cost them anything. Marian Wright Edelman kings talking jobs In my generation, we learned how to be leaders by being exposed to and involved with adults who empowered us and gave us a sense that we could choose things. We've let down the generations coming behind us and we are trying to re- establish that connection. Marian Wright Edelman adults leader trying
