what I learned again today

"Throughout my life somebody has always tried to set the boundaries of who and what I will be allowed to be...what is common to these boundary lines is that their most destructive power lies in what I can be persuaded to do to myself--the walls of fear, shame, and guilt I can be encouraged to build in my own mind.  I have learned through great sorrow that all systems of oppression feed on public silence and private terrorization."
  --"Killing Rage," by bell hooks