Van Jones

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What I know is that it hurts people to hurt people. What I know is that hurt people, hurt people.

 

And so behind that plexi-glass, on the other side of that baton, is a hurt person who is hurting more in hurting others. That doesn't mean that you don't resist. It doesn't tell you how to deal with that situation but I think you can deal with that situation better when you maintain all of the truth.

 

And the truth is there is an injustice here, and there's a truth that says the person committing that injustice is just like me. I've done things that are unjust, I've done things that are unfair, I've done things out of fear, I've done things out of blind rage and you know, people have to at some point recognize the worst in society is just the worst in ourselves.

 

 

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You know an activist is somebody who takes action, somebody who gets involved, somebody who's not afraid to roll up his sleeves and get their fingernails dirty and maybe get a little mud on them. Nothing happens without some agitation, without some forward motor. You know they talk about in a washing machine that agitator that gets the clothes clean, moving up and down, keeping things stirred up. Society can settle into a very dangerous complacency unless some people are vigilant and willing to say, ‘Hey wait a minute, who's being left out? Who's being hurt, who needs our help, who's getting away with something they shouldn't be?' Those people are called activists and those are the people who have made history for ten thousand years and have kept the human family moving forward for a very long time.