Blog Catalog

Showing posts with label Revolution. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Revolution. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Quotes of the Day -- On Presidential Treason and Why We Must Speak Up and Out


Image result for trump putin

"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing." --Albert Einstein

"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." --Thomas Jefferson

"Softest on the people who need discipline, hardest on people who need compassion." --Unknown
"He who does not oppose evil, commands it to be done." --Leonardo Da Vinci

"What you allow, you encourage." --Carrie Heinze-Musgrove

"Your silence is consent." --Plato

"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor." --Desmond Tutu

"Silence in the face of injustice is complicity with the oppressor." --Ginette Sagan

"Every social injustice is not only cruel, but it is economic waste." --William Feather

"Standing up to bullies is the hallmark of a civilized society." --Robert Reich

"One does not have to operate with great malice to do great harm. The absence of empathy and absence of understanding are sufficient." --Charles M. Blow

"I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever humans endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormenter, never the tormented." --Elie Wiesel

"There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest it." --Elie Wiesel

"You think that your silence on certain topics, perhaps in the face of injustice, or unkindness, or mean-spiritedness, causes others to reserve judgement of you. Far otherwise; your silence utters very loud: you have no oracle to speak, no wisdom to offer, and your fellow people have learned that you cannot help them. Doth not wisdom cry, and understanding put forth her voice? We would be well to do likewise." --Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." --Martin Luther King Jr.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." --Martin Luther King Jr.

"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." --Martin Luther King Jr.

"There are times when silence becomes an accomplice to injustice." --Ayaan Hirsi Ali

"I chose to defend human rights because I cannot maintain my silence in the face of injustice."  --Chen Guangcheng

"The more you answer the injustice of others, the more you heal your own soul."  --Julia Post

"If you are silent about your pain, they’ll kill you and say you enjoyed it." --Zora Neale Hurston

"I have come to believe that the one thing people cannot bear is a sense of injustice. Poverty, cold, even hunger, are more bearable than injustice."  --Milicent Fenwick

"The glaring injustice is there for all who are not blinded by prejudice, to see." --Bram Fischer

"Real love cannot be silent in the face of injustice." --Mel White

"I always wondered why somebody doesn’t do something about that. Then I realized I was somebody." --Lily Tomlin

"Do not tolerate brilliant jerks, the cost to teamwork is too high." --Reed Hastings, Netflix CEO

"It takes a village to raise a child, and it also takes a village to allow the abuse of one."  --Unknown

"As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, and one for helping others." --Audrey Hepburn

"The first step in the evolution of ethics is a sense of solidarity with other human beings." --Albert Schweitzer

"What does it mean to hold space for someone else? It means that we are willing to walk alongside another person in whatever journey they’re on without judging them, making them feel inadequate, trying to fix them, or trying to impact the outcome. When we hold space for other people, we open our hearts, offer unconditional support, and let go of judgment and control."   --Heather Plett

"Remember: Oppression thrives off isolation. Connection is the only thing that can save you. Remember: Oppression thrives on superficiality. Honesty about your struggles is the key to your liberation. Remember: Your story can help save someone’s life. Your silence contributes to someone else’s struggle. Speak so we can all be free. Love so we all can be liberated. The moment is now. We need you." --Yolo Akili

"It is precisely because of my love for humanity that I get enraged at systems that prevent people from flourishing and being free. It’s frustrating to see my righteous anger at unjust systems misinterpreted as hatred for individuals, but it’s more frustrating to see the oppressed suffer while those maladjusted to injustice remain silent. I won’t be silent. Silence is violence. "--Nyle Fort

"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out for I was not a socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists and I did not speak out for I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out for I was not a not a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me."  --Martin Niemöller

"Whether you give a man a fish or teach him how to fish, your job hasn’t changed. Your job is fish. It is not to make value judgments about whether the person is deserving of fish. It is not to criticize the person for not knowing how to fish already. And it is certainly not your job to stand around and debate the relative efficacy of fish charity vs. fish education while the person in front of you goes hungry. This person is your fellow human. Your job is fish   --Unknown

"Have you ever wondered what you would do during the civil rights movement? Stop wondering. It is the civil rights movement. What are you doing?"  --Chris Savage

"Certainly, I think there is a lot to be gained from people gathering together to show solidarity. But in a world where the institutions that we’re protesting in front of are losing their legitimacy and their power, I’m not sure that this has the impact that it once did. If we think of evil as this one person, this one big event, then we tend to want to match that with one big display of resistance. But actually, if evil is banal — a set of ordinary, mundane decisions day by day — then maybe we have to start living differently day by day."  --Pollack


Friday, July 27, 2012

Prophetic words from decades back


“I believe that there will be ultimately be a clash between the oppressed and those who do the oppressing. I believe that there will be a clash between those who want freedom, justice and equality for everyone and those who want to continue the system of exploitation. I believe that there will be that kind of clash, but I don't think it will be based on the color of the skin.” ―-Malcolm X

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Quote of the day

"Only a crisis—actual or perceived––produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. . . . Our basic function is to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes the politically inevitable." --Milton Friedman, 1962

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

A great way to spend 7 minutes of your time

Let's do this. Let's make this May 1st the largest labor movement march and rally across the planet, ever. Let's make this the "American Spring." Let's take back our governments from the corporations and wealthy. Let's no longer allow Americans to be killed by our own government. Let's end the "Patriot Act." Let's end NDAA. Let's get back habeus corpus. Let's get back our justice system, too, of the people, by the people and for the people. "Let's roll!"

Saturday, February 4, 2012

They αre αɴoɴyмoυѕ.

They αre αɴoɴyмoυѕ. They αre leɢιoɴ. They do ɴoт ғorɢιve. They do ɴoт ғorɢeт. But are they tedious? And tiresome? Are they effective? Are they achieving anything?

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Quote of the day

"Without a global revolution in the sphere of human consciousness, nothing will change for the better in the sphere of our being as humans, and the catastrophe for which the world is headed — be it ecological, social, demographic, or a general breakdown of civilization — will be unavoidable." --Czecholslavakian President Vaclav Havel, 1990 to U.S. Congress Link:

Monday, December 19, 2011

On Vaclav Havel's passing

Yesterday, Czechoslavakia's "shy and bookish" former leader died. As he was both a reluctant leader and a person who pushed his country to be humanitarians and helped end the Cold War, it reminded me, yet again, of the famous quote from Margaret Mead: "A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." May he rest in well-earned peace. Link: http://news.yahoo.com/havel-hero-anti-communist-revolution-died-140546433.html Link: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/margaret_mead.html#ixzz1gxRvXwF1

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Happy Guy Fawkes Day

Rather suddenly, a bit more British history has resonance for America and Americans: "Guy Fawkes was an Englishman who tried to blow up the House of Parliament in the early 17th century as part of a plot to give Catholics more power amid a Protestant monarchy. He failed, then killed himself to avoid execution, but became a British folk hero whose effigy is burned each Nov. 5, Guy Fawkes Day, a rough British counterpart to Halloween." Links: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/fashion/guy-fawkes-mask-is-big-on-wall-street-and-halloween.html?_r=1; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_fawkes

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

We say we want a revolution

Actually, it's long overdue. And we need it.

Yet more on the October, Washington protest

No graphic language this time. Food for thought, I hope. Link: http://october2011.org/welcome

The October Washington protest

Caution: occasional graphic language. To make more aware.

And then another protest, next month, from "the people"

 
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Last post, I told of an effort by "Anonymous" to organize people to occupy Wall Street in New York this month. This is being followed next month by another organization--October 2011--to protest, also. They are asking people to take the following pledge: "I pledge that if any U.S. troops, contractors, or mercenaries remain in Afghanistan on Thursday, October 6, 2011, as that occupation goes into its 11th year, I will commit to being in Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., with others on that day or the days immediately following, for as long as I can, with the intention of making it our Tahrir Square, Cairo, our Madison, Wisconsin, where we will NONVIOLENTLY resist the corporate machine by occupying Freedom Plaza to demand that America's resources be invested in human needs and environmental protection instead of war and exploitation. We can do this together. We will be the beginning." They also express their goals as the following: --Tax the rich and corporations; --End the wars, bring the troops home, cut military spending; --Protect the social safety net, strengthen Social Security and improved Medicare for all; --End corporate welfare for oil companies and other big business interests; --Transition to a clean energy economy, reverse environmental degradation; --Protect worker rights including collective bargaining, create jobs and raise wages; --Get money out of politics. I have said, time and again, that if we don't do that last one, that is, get "campaign contributions" (read: legal bribes) out of our political system, nothing will likely change. It seems the American electorate--some of us, anyway--are finally waking up. Let's see if we can do constructive, positive and so, non-violent but changing, improving things for the country with all this. "You say you want a revolution?" Link to their site: http://october2011.org/welcome