not the motorcycle diaries

“Now I sit back and look at some of the things we did, and I say ‘what in the world came over us?’ But death had nothing to do with what we were doing. If somebody shot us, we would be dead. And when people died, we cried and went to funerals. And we went and did the next thing the next day, because it was really beyond life and death. It was really like sometimes you know what you’re supposed to be doing. And when you know what you’re supposed to be doing, it’s somebody else’s job to kill you.”

- Bernice Johnson Reagan on her 1960’s participation in actions to fight racial segregation in Georgia, USA

*Quoted in ‘Loving-Kindness’ by Sharon Salzburg, 1995, p.51*