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VOICES OF REBELLION

Sadly, injustice is all around us. Sometimes it might be in a faraway country where political prisoners are being held by an oppressive government, and sometimes it’s closer to home where individuals are being discriminated against because of their race, ethnicity, gender, religious affiliation, or sexual orientation. What do we do when we see, read about, or even directly face an injustice? Too often, people change the channel or look away, but some people speak out, reaching out to broad audiences and leading them to act.

It takes an astonishing amount of ambition to look at the world around you and decide that your voice will be the one to reshape it. And yet that’s exactly what the writers in this Conversation did. Through the power of their rhetoric they fought oppression, and through their words and deeds, they changed the world.

It has been said that the pen is mightier than the sword, but is that always true? Should the American Founding Fathers, for instance, have relied only on the pen to free the colonies from British rule? Is there a time when words fail and action is required? Is violence a necessary strategy in seeking justice, and if so, at what point does it become necessary? At what point is restraint called for? Is nonviolent resistance more effective than violent resistance?

In this Conversation, you’ll hear from people who have different views on the issue of restraint, some who chose violence, like Thomas Paine and Nelson Mandela, and some who chose nonviolence, who relied unreservedly on the power of language as their weapon, like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malala Yousafzai.