"You don't need money or weapons or a big platform to change the world. Sometimes, something as simple as a pen and a bit of imagination can alter the course of history." Who in real life do you think best exemplifies this sentiment?

In her author's note, on page 384, Kristin Harmel says, "You don't need money or weapons or a big platform to change the world. Sometimes, something as simple as a pen and a bit of imagination can alter the course of history." Are there people—either famous or not—who you believe best exemplify this sentiment?

Book authors and news reporters certainly exemplify this statement. What they write can contribute to good or twist the truth to indoctrinate others. There is power in the written word and to those who provide it.

I think I disagree about the "big platform." I think people who "change the world" can really only do so by reaching a large audience. That doesn't mean they don't start off small. I think about young people like Greta Thunberg raising environmental awareness or the high school students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas protesting gun violence. They saw a problem and they used their voices to try to make a change.

I always think of journalists as people who go out with pad and pen and report on the truth of what's happening in the world. I also agree with kimk. It's all the little voices speaking together that can make a profound difference.

Whistleblowers.

Well the gentlemen who gathered in Philadelphia in July 1776 to write the Declaration of Independence certainly changed the trajectory of what is now the United States. I also agree with all of the folks who mentioned journalists - over many years they have changed our world - think about Woodward and Bernstein in 1973 for example. I also think about all of the people who covered the Civil Rights movement or today the Black Lives Matter movement and specifically the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent trial of his murderer. I also agree with the person who mentioned Greta Thurnburg and the Marjory Stoneman High School students. So yes, there are numerous people who embody this.

It is unimaginable that there can be such evil in the world and that others do nothing. At the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum, a holocaust survivor speaks to groups and encourages them to an “Upstander”. That is what Eva and the resistance were doing, if only people had been Upstanders during the rise of Hitler.

My first thought was Malala Yousafzi. She started with absolutely nothing and now she is a force for educating girls. She displayed so much courage.