"This is what happens with a breakthrough.  The first ones through the door often get bruised if not broken.  Eventually, with a little political acumen and racial sensitivity and a lot of hard work, a smooth new place can emerge."

Previous Quote

Critical acumen is exerted in vain to uncover the past; the past cannot be presented; we cannot know what we are not. But one veilhangs over past, present, and future, and it is the province of the historian to find out, not what was, but what is. Where a battle has been fought, you will find nothing but the bones of men and beasts; where a battle is being fought, there are hearts beating.

— Henry David Thoreau