On election day

Let no one be discouraged
by the belief there is nothing one man or woman
can do against the enormous array of the world’s ills --
against misery and ignorance, injustice and violence
… few will have the greatness to bend history itself,
but each of us can work to change a small portion of events,
and in the total of all those acts
will be written the history of the generation.
It is from numberless, diverse acts of courage
and belief that human history is shaped.

Each time a person stands up for an ideal,
or acts to improve the lot of others,
or strikes out against injustice,
he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope,
and, crossing each other from a million
different centers of energy and daring,
these ripples build a current
that can sweep down the mightiest of walls
of oppression and resistance.

By Robert F. Kennedy