“Inability to love is the central problem, because that inability masks a certain terror. And that terror is the terror of being touched. And if you can’t be touched, you can’t be changed. And if you can’t be changed, you can’t be alive.” —James Baldwin

“Cynics build no bridges; they make no discoveries; no gaps are spanned by them. Cynics may pride themselves in being ‘realistic’ in their approach but progress and the onward march of civilization demand an inspiration and motivation that cynicism never affords.” —Paul L. McKay

“It is not okay in this culture to talk to friends about causes you believe in, much less to ask them to join in. It’s okay to blast perfect strangers with crass messages every hour of the day, but it’s a tinge embarrassing, it brings up some shyness, it seems an intrusion, it risks rejection to share real heartfelt commitments. It’s easier to share our cynicism with strangers than our dreams with friends. One is not allowed in the modern culture to speak about love except in the most romantic and trivial sense of the word. The deepest difference between optimists and pessimists is their position in the debate about whether human beings are able to operate collectively from a basis of love. Seek out and trust in the best human instincts in yourself and in everyone. Listen to the cynicism around you and pity those who believe it, but don’t believe it yourself.” —Dana Meadows

“To learn and to love, that is what we are here for. Any activity which is not grounded in one of these two is a waste of time.” —Anne Rice

Anguish in Connecticut
June 6, 2008, AP - Los Angeles Times

Hartford, Conn. - A 78-year-old man is tossed like a rag doll in a hit-and-run and lies motionless on a busy street as car after car goes by. Pedestrians gawk but appear to do nothing. One driver stops briefly, then pulls back into traffic. A man on a scooter slowly circles the victim, then zips away. The chilling scene—captured on video by a streetlight surveillance camera—has touched off a round of soul-searching in Hartford. “We no longer have a moral compass,” Hartford Police Chief Daryl Roberts said. “We have no regard for each other.”