M.B. Dallocchio > Quotes

“Stigma's power lies in silence. The silence that persists when discussion and action should be taking place. The silence one imposes on another for speaking up on a taboo subject, branding them with a label until they are rendered mute or preferably unheard.”
― M.B. Dallocchio

“Indifference is the worst kind of response when love is expressed. Hate is not the antithesis of love; it’s the nonexistence of feeling, a pervasive apathy. When hate is present, so is love. It’s passion gone sour and fueled by pain, but, nonetheless, it’s passion and love is apparently still alive. Yet when indifference seeps into our spirits, an emotional numbness and permitted scotoma takes the place of any passion – whether it’s love or hate – and resigns in a new state of being.”
― M.B. Wilmot

“That’s what imperialism is all about, shoving your language, religion, culture, and race down others’ throats and telling them that they’re beneath you – and it’s not unique to the West either.”
― M.B. Wilmot

“Someone can tell you all your life that you’re inferior, but it doesn’t matter until you accept it and allow for validation. Once validation takes place, it’s then that the colonial malaise sets in like smallpox.”
― M.B. Wilmot

“If anyone thinks interracial "anything" is a big deal, they're probably inbred.”
― M.B. Wilmot

“The open road. Seemingly my only friend for years upon end since leaving war. The road embraced me, let me breathe, and more importantly, did not judge me.”
― M.B. Wilmot

“A wave of saudade swept over me as I realized home never existed at all. The concept of home felt far from my reach, and I felt sick with longing.”
― M.B. Dallocchio, The Desert Warrior

“Adversity has the remarkable ability of introducing the real you to yourself.”
― M.B. Dallocchio, The Desert Warrior

“There were waves of genocide that overcame indigenous populations of Oceania and do we have a library of books or films to tell our story? No. We have tourist hula shows and commercials where the “natives” tend to tourists like indentured servants with plastic, lifeless smiles. It’s not such a charming picture, is it? The truth is ugly, but so is ignorance or denial of such atrocities and pain.”
― M.B. Dallocchio, Quixote in Ramadi: An Indigenous Account of Imperialism

“I have been cheated out of being treated like a human being. In my reflection I saw an empty vessel. They had cheated me and I was desperate to make the sharp pain in my head stop.”
― M.B. Wilmot, Quixote in Ramadi: An Indigenous Account of Imperialism

“With even the slightest upset, detachment soon followed. I didn’t lose sleep over men, and I was too restless to be tied down. The grass didn’t even have time to grow around my feet before I was planning my next escape – whether it was to another state or out of someone’s life.”
― M.B. Dallocchio

“I really can't stress this enough. If you want to make an impact, don't simply sit idly by and 'hope' for courage. Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the decision made in determining what is more important than fear.”
― M.B. Wilmot

“She smiled, and said, “Take care that the voice of God and the Devil sound one in the same in the desert. Trust your instincts. You were not put on this earth to be naïve, blindly optimistic, or passive; you are here to be vigilant, to survive.”
― M.B. Dallocchio, The Desert Warrior

“There are people who come home from war and want to talk about the pain, but no one wants to listen; there are others who want to keep silent and repress the memories, and all their family and friends want is to talk about it. I call this the war veteran reintegration paradox.”
― M.B. Dallocchio, The Desert Warrior

“I wasn’t a person after all. I was simply this exotic thing for people to observe and investigate, an alien in any environment I was in.”
― M.B. Wilmot, Quixote in Ramadi: An Indigenous Account of Imperialism

“Get acquainted with your shadow, or find yourself surprised when a crisis emerges.”
― M.B. Dallocchio

“It was a frightening metaphor for what the United States was becoming – a Titanic of rich, proud dimwits heading for the iceberg of anti-colonialist backlash.”
― M.B. Dallocchio, The Desert Warrior

“I left a piece of my soul that will always rightfully belong in the desert.”
― M.B. Dallocchio, The Desert Warrior

“Whether it’s an Iraqi widow mourning her dead loved ones standing helplessly in the rubble of her former home or a dying soldier in an Iraqi city street asking, “Why, God? Why is this happening? Where are you?” I can’t help but wonder the same. You realize that there is no justice, no karmic retribution swift enough, and that happy endings are a terrible, terrible lie. We are all subject to the same blind boot stomp and our luck is merely where we happen to be standing when death inevitably comes roaring down upon us.”
― M.B. Dallocchio, The Desert Warrior

“To my surprise, it was a place where my thoughts were the most lucid. I wasn’t bogged down in random trivial details or the luxury of time-consuming over-analysis. This place forced you to live because at any moment, life could be lost. Ramadi forced me to die unto myself.”
― M.B. Wilmot, Quixote in Ramadi: An Indigenous Account of Imperialism

“Fine art is the discipline of breaking rules.”
― M.B. Dallocchio

“Ramadi’s sky was generously filled with stars. Celestial ornaments set against a banner of a deep blue velvet sky. It was a place where hell, death, and heaven were so clear and the closest I’ve felt to all three in my life.”
― M.B. Wilmot, Quixote in Ramadi: An Indigenous Account of Imperialism

“Travel can sometimes push us to lose ourselves and find ourselves at once. The shedding of old prejudices, dead skin, and the opening of one’s eyes is far better than what any mainstream news outlet could ever tell you.”
― M.B. Dallocchio, The Desert Warrior

“Everyone around me was allowed, permitted to fall apart; yet I had to think twice. I couldn't bear to take another dip into an ocean of solitude for another taste of ostracization. I felt I would die.”
― M.B. Dallocchio, The Desert Warrior

“Home.” This was my mantra, my four-letter savior.”
― M.B. Dallocchio, The Desert Warrior

“The most insidious of our country, the greediest and highest rung of our socioeconomic ladder, line their pockets with misappropriated funds as military personnel and hordes of civilians are maimed or killed. It’s not their children out there, blinded by manufactured patriotism or lured into the service with the promise of economic stability, all with the sanctimonious blessings of misguided public consent by way of corporate, state-sponsored media. It won’t be their children who are terrorized by Wahabbist insurgents tearing through city blocks and rural areas as only an ever-devouring plague could. It won’t be any of their loved ones watching thousands of years of civilization unraveling like an old sweater as each thread of wool is lit on fire or stolen to sell on the black market for greedy consumers with a fetish for hijacked Mesopotamian artifacts.”
― M.B. Dallocchio, The Desert Warrior

“When you’re persistently deleted from history, media, and any other channel to access information – or that information is distorted – it’s far worse than physically killing someone. It, instead, induces a form of psychological death. How can you truly be alive, how can you genuinely breathe, when everyone around you believes that you either don’t exist or are dead?”
― M.B. Dallocchio, The Desert Warrior

“Veterans being sent into unjust wars for corporate profit is a perversion of trust, at best. I found the emotional manipulation of both sides, the propaganda at play so incredibly revolting that I couldn't stand to idly wave a flag or flaunt yellow ribbons without asking serious questions regarding motive.”
― M.B. Dallocchio, The Desert Warrior

“In movies, war only looks romantic. “Tell my gal I love her…” close-up shot, and fade out. It doesn’t work as beautifully and neat in real life. Flying chunks of human flesh and screaming orphans really put that Hollywood take into perspective and there is nothing clean or sterile about any of it. When people die, it’s fucking horrible.”
― M.B. Dallocchio, The Desert Warrior

“A woman in combat? Yes. Since when? Since Native American warrior Buffalo Calf Road Woman knocked that prick General George Custer off of his horse. Since Pantea Arteshbod propelled herself to become one of the greatest Persian commanders during the reign of Cyrus the Great. Since Hua Mulan disguised herself as a male to engage in combat and became one of China’s most respected heroines.”
― M.B. Dallocchio, The Desert Warrior