Ady Barkan Quotes

Ady’s example is for all of us to follow. There is no act too small, no person too powerless, no moment too late to make a difference. The revolution rests in each of us.

And then another small minority, myself included, hoped to use our law degrees in pursuit of social justice.

Political change, I began to learn, was achievable only through sustained struggle, which required sustainable and powerful institutions that could continue pursuing their objectives for many years.

But I also knew that my field of vision was severely limited. I didn’t know people who had died young simply because upper-middle-class white folks in the United States didn’t die very often of opioid overdoses or gun violence or foreign combat. Poor people did. Black and brown people did.

The urgency is real. However, it is not oppressive—what Ady tells us is that we are not being asked to save the world in a day. We are simply being asked to Do Something, today. There is no “something” too small. Because when we all do something, we will change the world as a matter of course.

It showed that police officers were systematically making stops without even giving sufficient legal justification and that the justifications they were listing were often undermined by the evidence. The evidence also showed that the police targeted black and brown people for stops even when controlling for crime and geography, and treated black and brown people more harshly during stops.

Like it has a thousand times before, the cannabis is relaxing my muscles and sharpening my analysis. And like an astronomer gazing at the constellations above, I can now draw connections that give meaning to my day, uncovering the truths that have been hiding in plain sight. I begin to write an essay, or perhaps a speech, in my mind. My fingers will not let me jot down notes on paper or my phone, so I must try to remember my drug-induced insights until the morning.

And the lessons I learned about listening carefully, collaborating deeply, making bold demands, and acting decisively apply equally to