Gloria Steinem, the iconic feminist activist and founder of Ms. magazine, told a story from a college geology field trip. She spotted a giant mud turtle crawling up a dirt road toward an asphalt highway, so she picked up the enormous, snapping, angry creature and carried it back to the river. As she watched it swim away, her professor appeared and said: 'You know, that turtle has probably spent a month crawling up that path to lay its eggs in the muddy embankment, and you have just put it back in the river.' Steinem felt terrible, but the turtle was already gone. Years later, as a traveling organizer, she realized the profound lesson: even well-meaning interventions can be destructive when you don't consult the people you're trying to help. The turtle knew where it was going; she didn't bother to ask.