The kind of problems we're facing now, no government can fix.
If Egypt were going to change, it is going to change through the young people.
Before you promise to change the world, it makes sense to do the hard work of changing your neighborhood.
change starts at the bottom. I think we're disempowered by the idea that it starts at the top, when really change is like a tree. It does start at the bottom.
This extraordinary arrogance that change must start at the top is a way of guaranteeing that change will not happen in most companies.
If our culture is to be transformed, it will happen from the bottom up - from ordinary believers practicing apologetics over the backyard fence or around the barbecue grill.
Change will not come from above, it will come from below, from the small and medium size businesspeople. They do dare to show their faces. They applaud us and help us financially.
Many of the wars we see around the world start as domestic conflicts that are fueled by external forces and powers. My view is that we can help peace if we help communities transform from the inside, on their own terms.
Social paralysis is strong and stands firmly in the way of change on the ground level. As allies, we have to prepare ourselves to step into the fire when necessary, even - and especially - when said fire is merely a still-lit cigarette tossed carelessly onto the street.
We mustn't assume that we are going to deinvent government solely from inside the Beltway or within one or two sessions of Congress. We will do it one step at a time, in one community at a time - at the local level and through local institutions like churches, nonprofit and volunteer organizations and families.
Reform and renewal come from below, not above. Do not await a reform messiah.
That's what's great about Howard Zinn. Here's a guy who says, "Look, democracy doesn't come from above - it comes from below." The only way change will ever happen is if we speak up, and we have to know that it actually has an impact. Because we have a lot more power than we think we do, I think.
If you believe in making change from the bottom up, if you believe the measure of change is how many people's lives are better, you know it's hard and some people think it's boring. Speeches like this are fun, actually doing the work is hard.
We all look up to these strong women who we see in magazines and on TV, but it's even more empowering to realize that change comes at the smallest level. It starts with us. It starts with me and my best friend, who I'm out on a walk with today, hearing about the amazing things she's doing for her kid's school. It can be everyday heroes and everyday women who work 9:00 to 5:00 and have kids and still balance a healthy social life.
I don't think you can impose a social order from the top down.
We think, fundamentally, that the future story of Latin America, not only of Mexico but for all of Latin America, will be constructed from the bottom - that the rest of what's happening, in any case, are steps.
