Maya Angelou: It's Time To Lift America's Spirit

Maya Angelou is one of my heroes, role models, inspirations for how to walk with integrity, courage, wisdom, and incredible grace. In this interview, Maya Angelou shares:


The country is growing up and confessing to something we've known all along. What prevented us from admitting that we knew that? And I was taken back to slavery.

If you will have a person enslaved, the first thing you must do is convince yourself that the person is subhuman. The second thing you have to do is convince your allies so you'll have some help, and the third and probably unkindest cut of all is to convince that person that he or she is subhuman and deserves it.

Well, such a job has been done on all of us that people found it very difficult to admit that human beings are more alike than we are unalike. We've known it. But to admit it, you have to stop saying because this guy speaks another language, because their eyes are shaped differently from mine, because they're first-generation Americans from Eastern Europe, then they don't count, I don't have to consider them. With this, the country is finally able to see through complexion and see community.

Please go here for the entire interview: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/31/maya.angelou/index.html

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Thank you to my sister Britta for sharing these quotes:

Rosa Sat So Martin Could Walk

Martin Walked So Obama Could Run

Obama Ran So Our Children Can Fly


“If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy,

tonight is your answer,”

-President-elect Barack Obama, November 4, 2008