Unbought and Unbossed

by Shirley Chisholm

Most Americans have never seen the ignorance, degrada- tion, hunger, sickness, and futility in which many other Amer- icans live. Until a problem reaches their doorsteps, they're not going to understand. They won't become involved in economic or political change until something brings the seri- ousness of the situation home to them. Until they are threatened, why should they change a system that has been fairly beneficial for a fairly large number of people? It is going to have to be the have-nots — the blacks, browns, reds, yellows, and whites who do not share in the good life that most Americans lead — who somehow arouse the conscience of the nation and thus create a conscience in the Congress. My role, as I see it, is to help them do so, working outside of Washington, perhaps, as much as inside it.