Quoted: James Baldwin on words

I really don't like words like "artist" or "integrity" or "courage" or "nobility." I have a kind of distrust of all those words because I don't really know what they mean any more than I really know what such words as "democracy" or "peace" or "peace-loving" or "warlike" or "integration" mean. And yet no one is compelled to recognize that all these imprecise words are attempts made by all of us to get to something which is real and which lives behind the words. -- from The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings

I had planned on writing about something I overheard yesterday, something so far beyond insensitive on a day when a father just asked to bury his son in peace. I planned on "anger blogging," justifiably, but instead I think I'll leave you with this quote from James Baldwin, who could express righteous anger with heart and compassion and piercing intellect more than I can ever dream of.