James Baldwin: Incontestably
“Incontestably, alas, most people are not, in action, worth very much; and yet, every human being is an unprecedented miracle. One tries to treat them as the miracles they are, while trying to protect oneself against the disasters they’ve become. This is not very different from the act of faith demanded by all those marches and petitions while Martin was still alive. One could scarcely be deluded by Americans anymore, one scarcely dared expect anything from the great, vast, blank generality; and yet one was compelled to demand of Americans — and for their sakes, after all — a generosity, a clarity, and a nobility which they did not dream of demanding of themselves … Perhaps, however, the moral of the story (and the hope of the world) lies in what one demands, not of others, but of oneself.”
– James Baldwin after the killing of Martin Luther King Jr., while the war in Vietnam still raged
