Awesome Women Speak on Social Issues

OSM! has compiled eloquent quotes from the women who have been featured in the magazine since its inception in 2012. The eloquence of their words come from the heart, shaped and tempered by experience. Society needs to listen to them, if only to make the world so much better. 

 

On racism

Racial discrimination is a product of ignorance. I have not encountered a lot of racial discrimination but the few that I’ve seen are from people who are so much less educated and so much less traveled with not a lot of culture and breeding.
– Gisela Doherty Bitz

On raising children in America

Kids in the US are immediately labeled as special when they become so hyperactive. Then they introduce drugs. That is not right. Kids will develop in their own pace. We have to just guide them and not label them.
-Lorlie Villanueva

On peace

Regardless of religion, ethnic background, cultural orientation, country of origin, the one principle of peace that we are one human family created by God will make us realize that we have to work in harmony and understanding.
-Esther Faith Batino

On creativity

I believe that we are all creative beings, that we all have a right to experience the act of creating. The lucky ones recognize this within themselves at an early age and just rolls with it. If you don’t exercise your creativity, life will eat you up in many ways.
-June Pascal

On the evolution of poets

We grow as humans do, through experience and those we love.
-Larissa Shmailo

 

On inspiring the youth

Five years from now, I want to be able to say that I have contributed simply by being an inspiration to the women and men of the future.
-Andrea Rachel

On English language

It is interesting that while a history of violence lies in my use of the English language, it is with a marked sense of pleasure that I play with the language of English. Whenever I read my novels to an audience, I encounter the question, why do you write in English? And the corollary question, wow, you speak English so well, how come? These common questions make it very clear that most Americans do not know their own history. The teaching of English was part of the articles of war that prosecuted the Filipino-American war. English is a language of aggression and capitulation, of delusion, collusion, expediency, obscenity. 

-Gina Apostol

On escaping domestic abuse

I shouldn’t allow any man to treat me like dirt. I learned that I am God’s masterpiece, a child of a king. I know now who I am in Christ. I lost my soul, my self-esteem, confidence in myself all those years.
-Grace Grande

On women’s rights movement

It took my grandmother’s generation 30 years to see a suffrage law passed, but after the first election of women, the Japanese came. We had to pick up the pieces and begin again. Taking the lesson from triathletes, you go through the whole length, and then again, until you are done, it’s not done. It’s the lesson for advocates of the Reproductive Health Law, and for gender and social justice activists.
-Anna Leah Sarabia

 

 

On running for public office

I am the first Latina to ever run for a high public office. It is difficult. But I am stepping up, as a labor leader, I am just stepping up. I am a woman and I believe that we have to represent women. In the nursing homes where I do my organizing work, I see them as my mother and sisters. I believe more women leaders must step up.
-Milly Silva

 

 

On domestic abuse as deterence to financial independence

At one time, a mother complained that her husband had broken all her trays of eggs when he was drunk. Another husband had stolen his wife’s income from peanut vending. These realities have opened my eyes to the fact that domestic violence has a lot to do with the economic impairment of (our) women.

-Teresa Banaynal-Fernandez

On visual arts

I believe that art is an essential tool to promote an impact for social change. Art can be the expression of the hidden tears and voices of marginalized peoples.
-Mona Lunot Kuker

On poverty and equality

When poverty takes the face of women, we understand that poverty is not just a class or income issue. Women’s choices, economic opportunity, health and access are disproportionately impacted. Transnational women demand respect and dignity. It is time to push for a more just society.
-Olivia Canlas

On motherhood and visioning a bright future

I would like to pave a way for my children to be able to think and deal with global agendas with local issues in mind. It’s about securing a strong foundation so that our legacy of love and peace can be inherited, practiced, and enjoyed by many more generations to come.
-Merly Barlaan