We are the least organized people in U.S. history, Nader said, and our biggest problem is a lack of human motivation. But if you have some sense of injustice, then you have a sense of justice, and everyone has something to give. Nader said that he'd gotten into activism in the same way that my friend and I had. He said he had taken up the question of auto safety because he'd lost a lot of friends on the highway and was determined to find out why.
And he did find out why and fix it. And those who dreamed of reforming tobacco policy, and beginning arms control talks, and expanding civil rights did so. The impossible can be made probable, and the probable can be made realistic. Nader said this so powerfully that I was tempted to think it might survive the next week of television viewing. I expect for some small number of young people in that room it will. And that may make all the difference in the world.
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