Ana Maria Archila

"I found the courage in myself and I understood that courage is a currency that is contagious.  When you are in the presence of someone who is doing something difficult, something courageous, you feel invited to do the same.  When you are in a place where solidarity is being displayed, you find abundance in yourself and you, too, can participate in acts of solidarity.  And I think that's why I believe that even though we lost the fight around Kavanaugh, there was massive transformation happening in our country because people witnessed and participated in an act of courage and acts of solidarity that transformed their sense of their own power, and at the end of the day, that's how social change happens.  It resides not in the hands of politicians who failed, mostly, to lead with moral clarity.  It resides in the hearts of people who listen to the voice inside that says, I must do something."
--Ana Maria Archila, Co-Executive Director of the Center for Popular Democracy, September 26, 2019 on "The Takeaway," from National Public Radio.