Saturday, January 08, 2011

the safety of the world


The safety of the world depends on your saying 'no' to inhumane ideas. Standing up for one's own integrity makes you no friends. It is costly. Yet defiance of the mob, in the service of that which is right, is one of the highest expressions of courage I know.

Representative Gabrielle Giffords' commencement address to Claremont's Scripps College in May 2009, as reported by the LA Times after Giffords was shot in the head this morning by a gunman at a "Congress on your Corner" event in Tucson. Six others were killed.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for posting this. I always find commencement speeches inspiring, but this is one of the better ones.

Related Posts with Thumbnails