I think any person who goes to Rikers is criminalized, even just for visiting. I go back every week to see my friends in there. When you go to see a criminal, you are by relation a criminal and subject to be treated like one.
Cecily McMillanI can be all pissed off at the oppression of the state, but what does that really mean? Well, it's the tacit consent of a public.
Cecily McMillanI think that by telling the truth and by attempting to be a good citizen, somehow I've ended up playing with fire. And that's really scary.
Cecily McMillanI felt like there wasn't a political discourse. I felt like there was just one set of values, and any one set of values was wrong; that there should at least be room for conversation.
Cecily McMillanMy town was all-white and shut down Section 8 housing because they didn't want black people to move into the town. And I thought that was wrong - duh.
Cecily McMillanI think the big turning moment was when I joined the student political action club and started studying nonviolent civil disobedience in response to the Iraq War. The first anti-Bush protest in Atlanta was the first protest that I'd ever been to, and I helped organize the school walkout when I was a junior. It was a really solidifying moment.
Cecily McMillan