“Because as each person speaks, you’re learning from and empathizing with another person. After all, we don’t learn from sameness, we learn from difference. So by sharing that experience or understanding that experience, we can communicate better.  Regular experience of circles, talking circles, empathy, the ability to express oneself, is fundamental to our humanity, our development, our health. They are not just the basis of personal and communal expression, but the beginning of democracy. I mean, that is where democracy is based.”

– Gloria Steinem

Gloria Marie Steinem (born March 25, 1934) is an American feminist journalist and social political activist who became nationally recognized as a leader and a spokeswoman for the American feminist movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Steinem was a columnist for New York magazine, and a co-founder of Ms. magazine. Wikipedia