*Editor’s Note: Elephant Journal articles represent the personal views of the authors, and can not possibly reflect Elephant Journal as a whole. Disagree with an Op-Ed or opinion? We’re happy to share your experience here.

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We’re at the start of a United States Civil War.

People around me are saying we should only focus on what we can control within our own circles, and that the more celestial (larger) problems are too big to confront.

I can’t think of a more horrifying thing to say in the midst of our oppressive government and its horde of misguided men with a desire for chaos and harm.

If we are supposed to follow Corinthians 16:14 and “Let all that you do be done in love,” we know that the U.S. Government and ICE are absolutely not leading with love in their hearts.

Publicly executing helpers and innocents, detaining families, and abusing people in ICE custody are acts entirely beyond anything defined as love.

They are also censoring content on TikTok, specifically independent journalists and creators who speak out against what is happening in Minnesota.

If you are sitting on the chair of neutrality right now, thinking you’re too small, that you’re not able to make a difference, or fight because of [insert whatever your reason is here], then here are some quotes that I hope will inspire you to get involved and speak out.

I know we are all afraid or even in denial. But please don’t look away or shut it all out.

What is happening is not normal. They thrive and grow on us being tired, desensitized, and shutdown. They thrive on our staying divided.

We must not let them bring down our energy to hope. We must continue to lead with love and soldier on in peaceful revolution.

16 Quotes to Inspire Your Resistance to U.S. Fascism:

1. “Evil begets evil. Shooting will only make it stronger.” ~ Vito Cornelius, The Fifth Element

2. “So me and mine gotta lay down and die… so you can live in your better world?” ~ Captain Malcolm Reynolds, Serenity

3. “What can men do against such reckless hate?” ~ King Theoden, Lord of the Rings

4. “So this is how liberty dies…with thunderous applause.” ~ Senator Padmé Amidala, Star Wars: Episode III

5. “People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.” ~ V, V for Vendetta 

6 “War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength.” ~ 1984

7. “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

8. “It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.” ~ Voltaire

9. “Hope. It is the only thing stronger than fear. A little hope is effective. A lot of hope is dangerous.” ~ President Snow, The Hunger Games

10. “The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.” ~ Charlie Chaplin, from The Great Dictator

11. “When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi

12. “Control. It’s all about control. Every dictatorship has one obsession, and that’s it. So in ancient Rome they gave the people bread and circuses. They kept the populace busy with entertainment, but other dictatorships use other…other strategies to control ideas and knowledge. How do they do that? Lower education. They limit culture. Censor information. They censor any means of individual expression, and it’s important to remember this. That this is a pattern that repeats itself throughout history. ” ~ The Enemy

13. “If we define an American fascist as one who in case of conflict puts money and power ahead of human beings, then there are undoubtedly several million fascists in the United States.” ~ Henry A. Wallace

14. “Are you a communist?”
“No I am an anti-fascist”
“For a long time?”
“Since I have understood fascism.”
~ Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls

15. “You see these dictators on their pedestals, surrounded by the bayonets of their soldiers and the truncheons of their police…yet in their hearts there is unspoken fear. They are afraid of words and thoughts: words spoken abroad, thoughts stirring at home — all the more powerful because forbidden — terrify them.” ~ Winston Churchill

16. “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”~ John Fitzgerald Kennedy

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