Attend me, hold me in your muscular flowering arms, protect me from throwing any part of myself away.

to that piece in each of us that refuses to be silent.

If our history has taught us anything, it is that action for change directed against the external conditions of our oppressions is not enough.

stoicism and silence does not serve us nor our communities, only the forces of things as they are.

So it is better to speak, remembering we were never meant to survive.

When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.

The failure of academic feminists to recognize difference as a crucial strength is a failure to reach beyond the first patriarchal lesson. In our world, divide and conquer must become define and empower.