What's Inside This Mental Breakdown of Writing? Here, you'll find my wandering thoughts on economics, geopolitics, culture, technology, and daily ideas. Plus, I'll be dropping little peeks behind the curtain on my novel and nonfiction projects.
The education justice movement and the prison justice movement have been operating separately in many places as though they're in silos. But the reality is we're not going to provide meaningful education opportunities to poor kids, kids of color, until and unless we recognize that we're wasting trillions of dollars on a failed criminal justice system. ~ Michelle Alexander
"Antiracism is not "my" campaign. I have been doing antiracism organizing, activism, educating and writing for 20 years, in one form or another, but it's not a personal crusade. My work is part of a larger tradition, and…
"Restorative justice says "No, the offense affected a relationship" and what you are seeking for is to restore the relationship, to heal the relationship." ~ Desmond Tutu
"Our current criminal justice system has no provision for restorative justice, in which an offender confronts the damage they have done and tries to make it right for the people they have harmed. [...] Instead, our system of "corrections" is about arm's-length revenge and retribution, all day and all night." ~ Piper Kerman
"We seek a restorative justice, not a retributive justice." ~ Desmond Tutu
Instead of immediately…
"An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics." ~ Plutarch
"The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal." ~ Aristotle
"Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged well-organized inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naive trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system." ~…
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
"If someone puts their hands on you make sure they never put their hands on anybody else again." ~ Malcolm X
Power is not exactly…
"A mentor is someone who sees more talent and ability within you, than you see in yourself, and helps bring it out of you." ~ Bob Proctor
"I think mentors are important and I don't think anybody makes it in the world without some form of mentorship. Nobody makes it alone. Nobody has made it alone. And we are all mentors to people even when we don't know it." ~ Oprah Winfrey
"A mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself." ~ Oprah Winfrey
The criminal system has never really been designed to rehabilitate the at-risk or the teenagers of colour. It jails in lieu of…
"I think it's important for us as a society to remember that the youth within juvenile justice systems are, most of the time, youths who simply haven't had the right mentors and supporters around them - because of circumstances beyond their control." ~ Q'orianka Kilcher
"Experts say that if children can't read by the end of the fifth grade, they lose self-confidence and self-esteem, making them more likely to enter the juvenile justice system." ~ Dirk Kempthorne
"My first two books, Letters to a Young Brother and Letters to a Young Sister, were... distributed pretty widely. Judges in…
"Good players want to be coached... Great players want to be told the truth" ~ Doc Rivers
"Sometimes you will hate me because I will tell you the truth about your game. And the truth can hurt/humble you" ~ Doc Rivers
"I'm looking for activity. I put players in and take them out based on effort and defense, not making or missing shots" ~ Doc Rivers
"If you're a great defensive player, you're a great defensive player 100% of the time. You can't be a great defensive player half of the time because you didn't get the ball once or twice. That can't sidetrack you. It's got to be 'I live for my…
"The reality of Canadian history is that we've been willing to do the important things the world demanded of us: fighting in World War II, in Korea, in the Balkans, where we were involved in offensive military operations, and in Afghanistan, where we have made disproportionate contributions." ~ Chris Alexander
Canadian-American relations for many years did not develop spontaneously. The example of accord provided by our two countries did not come about merely through the happy circumstance of geography. It is compounded of one part proximity and nine parts good will and common sense. ~…
"You can't build an adaptable organization without adaptable people - and individuals change only when they have to, or when they want to." ~ Gary Hamel
"The mind of an enlightened human being is flexible and adaptable. The mind of the ignorant person is conditioned and fixed." ~ Ajahn Sumedho
"Adaptability cushions the impact of change or disappointment." ~ Marvin J. Ashton
"A society which is mobile, which is full of channels for the distribution of a change occurring anywhere, must see to it that its members are educated to personal initiative and adaptability." ~ John Dewey
You will…
"The criminal justice system, like any system designed by human beings, clearly has its flaws." ~ Ben Whishaw
"I want to be a figure for prison reform. I think that the criminal justice system is rotten." ~ Henry Louis Gates
"Black people are dying in this country because we have a criminal justice system which is out of control, a system in which over 50% of young African American kids are unemployed. It is estimated that a black baby born today has a one in four chance of ending up in the criminal justice system." ~ Bernie Sanders
"Our current criminal justice system has no provision…
I'd want Puerto Rico to become the 51st state of America. ~ Ricky Rossello
I don't think that the Scots are happy to drift into Britain becoming the poorest of the poor, sub-American 51st state. ~ Irvine Welsh
"The truth is that neither British nor American imperialism was or is idealistic. It has always been driven by economic or strategic interests." ~ Charley Reese
"The essence of neo-colonialism is that the State which is subject to it is, in theory, independent and has all the outward trappings of international sovereignty. In reality its economic system and thus its political policy…
"Most people who fail in their dream fail not from lack of ability but from lack of commitment." ~ Zig Ziglar
"Most people fail, not because of lack of desire, but, because of lack of commitment." ~ Vince Lombardi
"Commitment doesn't guarantee success, but lack of commitment guarantees you'll fall far short of your potential." ~ Denis Waitley
"It is a lack of commitment, not a lack of talent, that damns you to mediocrity." ~ Roy H. Williams
"Individual commitment to a group effort - that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work." ~ Vince…
I love the flow of the game. There’s a certain fluidity to basketball. I don’t enjoy watching baseball or football in the same way. ~ Adam Yauch
Teamwork requires that everyone's efforts flow in a single direction. Feelings of significance happen when a team's energy takes on a life of its own. ~ Pat Riley
I try to play within the flow of the team's offense. ~ Paul Pierce
Basketball for me has always been a matter of rhythm - what you do bouncing the ball, how you bounce the ball, how you run, how you receive the ball to be in rhythm. ~ Earl Monroe
I know that once I get a good rhythm…
"Effort and courage are not enough without purpose and direction." ~ John F. Kennedy
"We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort." ~ Jesse Owens
"Overthinking is often a product of underdoing." ~ Yehuda Berg
"Sometimes you're overthinking, you convince yourself to get out of it and you're like, "Ah I shoulda did that!" You can't live life with regrets. Sometimes you just gotta indulge. But in the same breath, you gotta have restraint and self-control too." ~ Michael B. Jordan
You have…
"State capitalism is about more than emergency government spending, implementation of more intelligent regulation, or a stronger social safety net. It's about state dominance of economic activity for political gain." ~ Ian Bremmer
"Iraq is a manufactured conflict for the sake of geopolitical dominance in the area." ~ Janeane Garofalo
"Dominance in an adaptation to anarchy and it serves no purpose in a society that has undergone a civilising process or in an international system regulated by agreements and norms. Anything that deflates the concept of dominance is likely to drive down the…