Barbara Deming (b. 1917) American author, activist, pacifist

Many oppressed people happen to be our oppressors. So how do we act? How are we to begin? ... I think the only choice that will enable us to hold to our vision without being scared into wanting to retreat is one that abandons the concept of naming enemies and adopts a concept familiar to the nonviolent tradition: naming behavior that is oppressive, naming abuse of power, that is held unfairly and must be destroyed, but naming no person one whom we are willing to destroy ...

¶ "To Fear Jane Alpert is to Fear Ourselves - A Letter to Susan Sherman" (1975)

http://homepage.mac.com/dmccabe/janealpert.html

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