The First Ladies

by Marie Benedict

“You must never apologize for a sin someone else has committed,” she says with a shake of her head.

Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy, as it says in the book of Proverbs.

“I was invited. And even though I anticipated their reaction, their racism isn’t my problem. Racism belongs to the people who are racists.”

I am not oblivious to the shortcomings of the Republican Party. But I cannot see myself turning on the party of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass—the party that freed my parents, my grandmother, and my siblings from slavery.

Part of the struggle to make change is the struggle to get the right change-makers in place.”

We don’t need white people to save us; we just need white people to be fair and enact laws that guarantee equality.”

“One day, you’ll be scrutinized and scorned, and the next, you’ll be celebrated and lauded. Sometimes by the very same people. You will not be able to control the narrative, but you can act according to your conscience, particularly in your personal life. And at the end of the day, that should be the only measure that matters.”

Over two thousand Americans were killed in the surprise Japanese attack, primarily military personnel but civilians as well.

“The melancholy doesn’t care if you’re colored or white, at war here or abroad. It takes hold when it feels like it, not when we believe it’s justified.”