A message to activists...

...and radicals, idealists, and other crazy dreamers...

For so long as you continue to be a good person in a bad society, you will be vilified. Keep at it.

You will be slandered. Only during your lifetime.

You will be called the worst person on Earth by people rather nearly fitting that description themselves. Take pride in having the right enemies.

Don't let the bastards get you down.

And we might add some historical examples...

"Radical" -- Women who fought to end child-labor were called this
"Part of a Communist Conspiracy" -- Said about Martin Luther King
"Subversives" -- Said about working people and Labor leaders organizing for the right to strike, the right to unionize, the right to leaflet, and other things we take for granted today.
"Traitors" -- The ACLU and individuals who opposed and fought in court against the internment-camp rounting up of Japanese Americans during World War II -- who called it, at the time, an act of "War hysteria and Racism" -- Words echoed by Ronald Reagan -- FORTY YEARS AFTER the time when the Reagan/Bushes of those days called the ACLU "traitors" for their work.