"For all of its uncertainty, we cannot flee the future"
About this Quote
Barbara Jordan distills a paradox of democratic life: the future is both unsettling and unavoidable, and that is precisely why it demands our engagement. Uncertainty tempts people to retreat into nostalgia, cynicism, or passivity. Jordan counters that impulse by insisting on agency. If the future will arrive regardless, then the only meaningful question is whether we will help shape it or let it be shaped in our absence. Fleeing would not protect us; it would merely guarantee that others make the choices for us.
The line comes from her 1976 Democratic National Convention keynote, delivered after Watergate, Vietnam, and an economic slump had eroded public trust. Jordan, who had already become a moral voice during the Watergate hearings, spoke of a national community searching for direction. Her point was not naive optimism but disciplined responsibility. The Constitution, civic participation, and shared principles do not eliminate uncertainty; they provide a framework for navigating it. She asks citizens to replace despair with duty, to exchange the comfort of fatalism for the hard work of collective decision-making.
The phrase also reflects her biography. As a Black woman from Texas breaking barriers in law and politics, Jordan understood that progress rarely comes with guarantees. During the civil rights era and its aftermath, advances were won by those willing to act amid doubt. That history undergirds her appeal: courage is not the absence of ambiguity, but commitment in the face of it.
The message retains urgency today, with rapid technological change, climate risk, and polarization breeding paralysis. Jordan offers a standard for leadership and citizenship: meet uncertainty with preparation, participation, and principle. The future is not a fate but a field of choices. Refusing to flee means voting, deliberating, holding institutions accountable, and imagining a broader we. Hope, in her hands, is not a mood but a mandate to build what we cannot avoid.
The line comes from her 1976 Democratic National Convention keynote, delivered after Watergate, Vietnam, and an economic slump had eroded public trust. Jordan, who had already become a moral voice during the Watergate hearings, spoke of a national community searching for direction. Her point was not naive optimism but disciplined responsibility. The Constitution, civic participation, and shared principles do not eliminate uncertainty; they provide a framework for navigating it. She asks citizens to replace despair with duty, to exchange the comfort of fatalism for the hard work of collective decision-making.
The phrase also reflects her biography. As a Black woman from Texas breaking barriers in law and politics, Jordan understood that progress rarely comes with guarantees. During the civil rights era and its aftermath, advances were won by those willing to act amid doubt. That history undergirds her appeal: courage is not the absence of ambiguity, but commitment in the face of it.
The message retains urgency today, with rapid technological change, climate risk, and polarization breeding paralysis. Jordan offers a standard for leadership and citizenship: meet uncertainty with preparation, participation, and principle. The future is not a fate but a field of choices. Refusing to flee means voting, deliberating, holding institutions accountable, and imagining a broader we. Hope, in her hands, is not a mood but a mandate to build what we cannot avoid.
Quote Details
| Topic | Free Will & Fate |
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