quotes: October 2001 Archives

And I Quote

Given the sense of stress and fear over the last few days, the quotes below have been sticking in my mind. Consider these comments:


I'm very much afraid that I might be
the next victim because innocent people
are being killed because they're in the
way of the situation.
-- Rhona L.


I'm afraid I'll be the next victim because
I never know what would happen. Just like a
lot of these deaths, I could just be an innocent
bystander and an attack could start and I could
be the one to get killed.
-- Michelle B.


You don't know your own fate. Even though I'm
not a member of a gang or a drug group and I don't
possess a gun, and even try to stay out of conflicts
with other people, that doesn't say, "Well, yeah,
I'm safe." I may be an innocent bystander or a victim
of revenge. So I'm not safe.
-- Donna H.


I am not afraid, because the way I see it is that if
it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen. You can never
stop it.
-- Anthony P.


Yes, I'm afraid, but if it comes and I see it coming,
I'll definitely protect myself. The reason I'm afraid
is that I will have a big decision - either I kill or
I will be killed and it frightens me.
-- Leacroft T.


I know five people who have been killed and no
reason ... I had to go to five funerals one
after the other ... Sometimes I wish I could
just isolate myself from society but I can't
so I just have to face it.
-- Gillian C.

These comments were not collected in the aftermath
of the September 11th attacks or the recent
Anthrax exposures. These are excerpts from the
journal entries of students in an English
class I taught at a high school in the
Crown Heights section of Brooklyn in 1992.

from Nextdraft, 10.17.2001

"...and when we speak we are afraid
our words will not be heard
nor welcomed
but when we are silent
we are still afraid.
So it is better to speak
remembering
we were never meant to survive."

-- excerpt from A Litany for Survival Audre Lorde