“June 1, 2009 was the day that we were meant to go to the stadium and try and get the president's attention. It's a national holiday, it's broadcast across the country, and I showed up at the stadium. My friends did not show up. I found myself alone, and I didn't know what to do. I was scared, but I knew very well that that particular day, I had to make a decision. Was I able to live as a coward, like everyone else, or was I going to make a stand? And when the president stood up to speak, I found myself on my feet shouting at the president, telling him to remember the post-election violence victims, to stop the corruption. And suddenly, out of nowhere, the police pounced on me like hungry lions. They held my mouth and dragged me out of the stadium, where they thoroughly beat me up and locked me up in jail. I spent that night in a cold cement floor in the jail, and that got me thinking. What was making me feel this way? My friends and family thought I was crazy because of what I did, and the images that I took were disturbing my life. The images that I took were just a number to many Kenyans. Most Kenyans did not see the violence. It was a story to them. … That day in the stadium, I stood up as a smart coward. By that one action, I said goodbye to the 24 years living as a coward.”

— Boniface Mwangi

The day I stood up alone

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "June 1, 2009 was the day that we were meant to go to the stadium and try and get the president's attention. It's a nati…" by Boniface Mwangi?

Boniface Mwangi photo

Boniface Mwangi 7

Kenyan photojournalist 1983

Related quotes

“Don’t be scared to live your faith. When I was young and went on my first trip I was hesitant to speak up and say that I wanted to go to Mass. When I stuck to it and showed that I lived my faith I got respect from my teammates.”

Rebecca Dussault (1980) American cross-country skier

Faith, Family and the Slopes: An Interview with Rebecca Dussault https://catholicexchange.com/faith-family-and-the-slopes-an-interview-with-rebecca-dussault (4 May 2016)

“I go into the make-up chair one hour before my call. I get make up, hair, and costume all done up and then I sometimes have a bit of breakfast. We start filming, and go until around lunchtime. I am not used in every shot so when I have breaks I go in my room and do schoolwork. After lunch we go back work, I go on and off set a normal day. When we wrap for the day I go home and relax or go swimming or maybe to the movies.”

Julianna Rose Mauriello (1991) Nieta de. Tesla

Nicksplat: "Exclusive Interview with Julianna Rose Mauriello" http://www.nicksplat.com/Whatsup/200603/20000156.html (20 March 2006)

“I thought I was doing my duty for my country. I didn't know I was going to be treated like a convict. Did it make better soldiers of the callow youths we were then? I doubt it.”

Arnold Ridley (1896–1984) Playwright, actor

On his service during World War I
Biography on Spartacus

“I was here, there and everywhere, you never knew when I was going to show up. I was a traveler…. I was able to creep into every territory of our corner of Europe.”

Adolf Eichmann (1906–1962) German Nazi SS-Obersturmbannführer

Argentina Audiotapes (1957)

“I had many different assignments and I was doing things that I thought were important… no, I didn't either: I didn't think they were important. But I found out afterwards when I read up on my history that some of the things that I did were quite important.”

Frank Buckles (1901–2011) United States Army soldier and centenarian

Tampa Bay Online.

“I couldn't get the mood back; it was as if one of the kids had woken up just as Cindy and I were starting to make love. I hadn't changed my mind, and I still knew that I'd have to do it sometime. It's just that I knew I wasn't going to be able to do it in the next five minutes.”

Nick Hornby book A Long Way Down

A Long Way Down (2005)

“The other day [the President] said, I know you've had some rough times, and I want to do something that will show the nation what faith that I have in you, in your maturity and sense of responsibility. Would you like a puppy?”

Dan Quayle (1947) American politician, lawyer

cited to the Los Angeles Times (16 May 1989)

“At the end of the day and at the beginning of the day, I am a man who dresses up like a lady who is from outer space. Not everyone is going to get that. Not everyone is going to be on board with that. And not everyone is going to be able to swallow that.”

Alaska Thunderfuck 5000 (1985) American Drag queen

Advocate interview (2015)

“Who knew it? President Wilson knew it. Colonel House knew it. Other's knew it. Did I know it? I had a pretty good idea of what was going on: I was liaison to Henry Morgenthau, Sr., in the 1912 campaign when President Wilson was elected, and there was talk around the office there.”

Benjamin H. Freedman (1890–1984) American businessman

His opinion that there was a secret deal that resulted in the US entering the First World War on the side of the English.
Willard Hotel speech (1961)

“I know we live in troubled times, my friends, I know things which once stood up suddenly don't stand up anymore. I know that innocent people shopping or buying gas are often shot down, shot down for no reason. And it makes a nation nervous. Now, personally, I like the nation to be nervous. And in these nervous times, sometimes people come up to me, and they say, "Perhaps, Jack, you should tone down your rhetoric a bit. Perhaps, the stuff you say in between songs might be construed as, well, not very patriotic. Well, actually, Jack, you might get yourself in some big trouble." And I say to myself, "Oh! Trouble is my business, friend." In these uncertain times, it's not a good idea to give up on your values, and change your mind about the things you hold dear. It's not. I want to talk about someone who fell pretty damn hard, and this song is called "I Shot President Reagan, and I'm Gonna Do It Again and Again and Again and Again!"”

Jack Terricloth (1970)

Introducing "Secret Service Freedom Fighting U.S.A."
Live

Related topics