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I'm the first one in my family born with all my rights. I'm a ninth generation American.

Van Jones

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Van Jones
Age: 56
Born: 1968
Born: September 20
Civil Rights Advocate
Environmentalist
Human Rights Activist
Lawyer
Motivational Speaker
Pundit
Jackson
Tennessee
Anthony Kapel Jones
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First
Ninth
Generation
Generations
Rights
American
Family
Born

More quotes by Van Jones

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There are some cities that are doing good stuff, but there aren't enough of them. If you don't fight for what you want, then you deserve what you get. And in politics, if you don't ask, you don't get at all.
Van Jones
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Will the new environmental leaders fight for eco-equity in this new green economy they are birthing?
Van Jones
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Listen, here's reality. It is completely unfair and absolutely necessary that people who have been oppressed and marginalized have to lead everybody. That is MLK, that is Dolores Huerta, that is Fannie Lou Hamer, that is Ella Jo Baker, that is Nelson Mandela. You walk down the line.
Van Jones
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The problem is that we didn't fight the way we should've fought. We made it be about [Donald Trump] and [Hillary Clinton] as opposed to making it be about us. If we had said this was a fight, not about I'm with Her but I'm with Us then maybe we would've had a different attitude toward her.
Van Jones
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America cannot be America in the new century until it deals with these new questions of gender, including the trans issues, and the questions around faith and Islam.
Van Jones
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The chief moral obligation of the 21st Century is to build a green economy that is strong enough to lift people out of poverty. Those communities that were locked out of the last century's pollution-based economy must be locked into the new, clean and renewable economy. Our youth need green-collar jobs, not jails.
Van Jones
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If the road to social transformation can be paved only by saints who never make mistakes, the road will NEVER be built.
Van Jones
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Environmentalists and clean energy champions should stop telling people that we are working for sustainability, which nobody understands.
Van Jones
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I think we have every reason to hope for the best but expect and prepare for the worst.
Van Jones
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We want to make sure people know deeply about the trans community and deeply about Black Lives Matter so that people can act in solidarity.
Van Jones
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A family-friendly eco-populism can mobilize and unite millions who, at this point, would be turned off by a more extreme set of demands. The momentum will build, through these early efforts, for more comprehensive solutions.
Van Jones
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The government built the grid to favor one industry over others. But I don't hear any conservatives screaming about that. Folks don't understand that the elite economic interests that are holding them down are also feeding them a bunch of lies.
Van Jones
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I'm excited about our rising generation.
Van Jones
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If you just say that, look at all the good stuff and you don't acknowledge the toxic stuff, you're wrong. If you're only looking at toxic stuff and don't recognize there's going to be some good stuff if you're for infrastructure or whatever, you're wrong.
Van Jones
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I don't like to comment on a specific local issue because there are plenty of people already working on the problem who know a lot more about it than I do.
Van Jones
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I think we were naive during the first two years of the [Barack] Obama Administration because the Republicans didn't fight us on this point during the 2008 Presidential Election. Obama and McCain both ran on a clean energy platform. But now, uncontested lies have eroded hard-won public understanding. So, we have to go back and make the case again.
Van Jones
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The time has come to move beyond eco-elitism to eco-populism. Ecopopulism. To change our laws and culture, the green movement justice, political solutions and social change.
Van Jones
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Sometimes we overemphasize the political system. There are other ways to make a difference. There's technology, there's media, there's business.
Van Jones
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People forget: solar panels don't put themselves up. Wind turbines don't manufacture themselves. Businesses don't retrofit themselves to waste less energy and water, nor do homes weatherize themselves.
Van Jones
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I do feel kind of like I have a split identity in that there's Van Jones, who has this big public role and tries to inspire millions of people to do new stuff together. And then there's just me: a pretty quiet, shy, retiring person.
Van Jones