Independent Study (The Testing, #2)

by Joelle Charbonneau

Thinking something is true doesn’t make it so. Perception is almost as important as reality.

History says that progress often requires sacrifice, but what kind of progress can we claim when it is built on the lives of the citizens it is supposed to aid?

“Because sometimes the best leaders are the ones who have no interest in leading. Those are often the ones who are most interested in doing what is right, not what is popular.”

“Those who depend fully on another person’s knowledge to decide what is possible are easily manipulated. The most effective leaders utilize experts from all fields, but rely on none when it comes to making a decision.

People look out for themselves and their friends.”

The bigger the government, the bigger the population it can claim. The larger the population, the less our leaders feel personally accountable to each citizen under their care.

Bombs were dropped. Millions of people killed. A world destroyed because the leaders of our country and those around the globe were not willing to declare failure. They could not admit that the path they had embarked on was doomed. Instead, they forged ahead. More bombs. More destruction. More need to prove that they were right. That others were wrong.

“It takes a lot of courage to choose to do nothing when you aren’t certain of the outcome.

How easy it would be to let the emptiness swallow me. To find release from sadness at the bottom. To be welcomed by those I have lost and turn away from the problems I face now. But I don’t. I take my hand from the rail and step back. This is one choice I will never make. There was a time immediately after the end of the wars when the hopelessness of the scarred world led many to seek the peace of death. I understand better now the despair that can lead to that choice, as well as the courage it takes to fight.

The strength it requires to turn from the easy path and face the hard.

A cage that cannot be seen is no less there than if the walls were made of steel.

Whether we are dead or alive, we are better off because we are free.