As a child I was taught that to tell the truth was often painful. As an adult I have learned that not to tell the truth is more painful, and that the fear of telling the truth -- whatever the truth may be -- that fear is the most painful sensation of a moral life.

  --June Jordan, writer, teacher, and activist (1936-2002)

(100:7.15) His watchword was, "Fear not."

(103:5.1) The early evolutionary mind gives origin to a feeling of social duty and moral obligation derived chiefly from emotional fear. The more positive urge of social service and the idealism of altruism are derived from the direct impulse of the divine spirit indwelling the human mind.

(140:4.7) Moral worth cannot be derived from mere repression - obeying the injunction "Thou shalt not." Fear and shame are unworthy motivations for religious living. Religion is valid only when it reveals the fatherhood of God and enhances the brotherhood of men.

(140:5.6) The faith and the love of these beatitudes strengthen moral character and create happiness. Fear and anger weaken character and destroy happiness.

(185:7.3) This last talk with Jesus thoroughly frightened Pilate. This moral coward and judicial weakling now labored under the double weight of the superstitious fear of Jesus and mortal dread of the Jewish leaders.

     June Millicent Jordan was a Jamaican American self-identified bisexual, poet, essayist, teacher, and activist. In her writing she explored issues of gender, race, immigration, and representation. Jordan's first published book, Who Look at Me (1969), was a collection of poems for children. It was followed by 27 more books in her lifetime, and one (Some of Us Did Not Die: Collected and New Essays) of which was in press when she died. Two more have been published posthumously: Directed By Desire: The Collected Poems of June Jordan (Copper Canyon Press, 2005), and the 1970 poetry collection SoulScript, edited by Jordan, has been reissued.