“We are not built to survive alone. Something that I’ve noticed in American culture is that you turn 18 and you’re on your own. You go figure it out. Pull yourself up by the bootstraps. But that’s just not how it works. We need each other. Now more than ever you fiscally can’t survive on your own. Let alone emotionally you shouldn’t have to either.”
-Raneem Salem
“I think the community, when it recognizes gifts, talents, and resources that it needs, suddenly realizes that it lives much more in abundance than it does in scarcity.”
“I remember seeing Public Enemy videos or The Fresh Prince of Bel Air or something like that. And just things resonating with me about 'we're different, but we're not bad people' or whatever else, you know? I never discount that kind of stuff because for me, that saved my life. Seeing stuff like that on TV when I was a kid, it made me feel not alien.”
-Alex York
“I’m looking at my neighbor’s house. I’ve never talked to them before but I feel like we are in this experience together. We’re people who live in Clifton. They probably feed the same stray cats that I do. Just because I’m not connected to that person conversationally or in a relationship, we are connected in the way that we live and the place that we live. We’re both experiencing this beautiful day today.”
“I can't make any firm judgments about anything. My assessment of the situation keeps coming back to the need for kindness. I can't spend too much time worrying about why we exist or anything because I'm just so overwhelmed with the need to practice better kindness. I feel like no matter how you do it, there's always ways to do it better. Just gotta be unassuming and gentle.”
-Patrick Zopff
“Humans are worth something. I’m enough of a cynical nihilist that any sort of humanist talking points just make my eyes glaze over. I tell them they’re full of shit. But they’re probably right.”
