"I deliberately did not read anything about the Vietnam War because I felt the politics of the war eclipsed what happened to the veterans. The politics were irrelevant to what this memorial was."
-Maya Lin
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"The definition of a modern approach to war is the acknowledgement of individual lives lost."
-Maya Lin
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"It was a requirement by the veterans to list the 57,000 names. We're reaching a time that we'll acknowledge the individual in a war on a national level."
-Maya Lin
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"I started studying what the nature of a monument is and what a monument should be. And for the World War III memorial I designed a futile, almost terrifying passage that ends nowhere."
-Maya Lin
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"When I was building the Vietnam Memorial, I never once asked the veterans what it was like in the war, because from my point of view, you don't pry into other people's business."
-Maya Lin
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"I really enjoyed hanging out with some of the teachers. This one chemistry teacher, she liked hanging out. I liked making explosives. We would stay after school and blow things up."
-Maya Lin
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"The whole system of society tells you what to do."
-Barry White
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"I want a society that provides decent jobs for those who can work and decent security for those can't."
-Frances O'Grady
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"That a society controls, to a greater or lesser extent, the behavior of its members is a universal but the methods, the particulars of that control, vary from one culture to another."
-Kenneth L. Pike
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"Europeans say they are proud of their social fabric, of strong rights for workers and the weak in society."
-David Korten
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"RFK was a compelling figure because he was willing to challenge his audiences, and in turn connect with them in a unique way. Kennedy showed that our values define us and can inspire others to believe in the possibility of change and a better society."
-Frances O'Grady
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"I think human society for tens of thousands of years has sent young men out in small groups to do things that are necessary but very dangerous. And they've always gotten killed doing it. And they've always turned it into a matter of honor and a way of gaining acceptance back into society if they survived."
-Sebastian Junger
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