The Cost of Liberty “The laws serve the vigilant, not those who sleep upon their rights. Vigilantibus et non dormientibus serviunt leges.” — Maxim of law “He who does not prevent what he can, seems to commit the thing. Qui non obstat quod obstare potest facere videtur.” — Maxim of law “He who does not forbid what he can forbid, seems to assent. Qui non prohibit quod prohibere potest assentire videtur.” — Maxim of law “He who does not repel a wrong when he can, induces it. Qui non propulsat injuriam quando potest, infert.” — Maxim of law “He who is silent appears to consent. Qui tacet consentire videtur.” — Maxim of law “You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our Founding Fathers used in the great struggle for independence.” — Charles Austin Beard, 1874 -1948 “Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little.” — Edmund Burke “When bad men combine, the good must associate else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.” — Edmund Burke “A nation of lemmings and sheep, unwilling to learn what the laws say and mean, deserves the tyranny it tolerates.” — C.F. Charpentier “In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce man brave, hated, and scorned. When his cause succeeds, however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.” — Samuel Clemens, author writing under the pen name "Mark Twain" “The world is a dangerous place to live; not only because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.” — Albert Einstein We must be involved in politics! Now more then ever before, the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness and corruption. If it be intelligent, brave and pure, it is because the people demand these high qualities to represent them in the national legislature... If the next centennial does not find us a great nation... it will be because those who represent the enterprise, the culture, and morality of the nation do not aid in controlling the political forces. — James Garfield 1877 “I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.” — Edward Everett Hale “A politician looks to the next election. A statesman looks to the next generation. The AARP look to the pocketbooks of the next generation and in doing so enslave their own grandchildren.” — Christopher Holloman Hansen “The best way to kill time is to work it to death.” — Ryan Oliver Hansen “The high office of President has been used to foment a plot to destroy American’s freedom, and before I leave office I must inform the citizen of his plight.” — John F. Kennedy; Columbia University, 10 days prior to his assassination. “The Bill of Rights, in the eyes of its framers, was a catalogue of immunities, not a schedule of claims. It was, in other words, a Bill of Liberties. When civil rights are seen as claims and civil liberties as immunities, the government’s differing responsibilities become clear. For the security of rights the energy of government is essential. For the security of liberty restraint is indispensable.” — John F. Kennedy “A man who won’t die for something is not fit to live.” — Martin Luther King Jr. “We the People are the rightful masters of both Congress and the Courts” — not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution. -Abraham Lincoln “Let it [the Constitution] be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges. Let it be written in primers, in spelling books, and almanacs. Let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice. In short, let it become the political religion of the nation.” — David O. McKay, former Commissioner of Education. “War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling, which thinks that nothing is worth war, is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.” — John Stuart Mill 1868 But the Lord in the gospel, and our Founding Fathers as well, were idealistic. They set very high standards for us and they tried to meet them themselves, and they expect us to try to meet them together as well. The Declaration of Independence does say to citizens: Be idealists! Live idealistically! The gospel says to believers: Be idealists! Live idealistically! Good laws and programs and agencies are important, but individual citizens will always have to work to make sure those programs and agencies are good, that they stay good, and, if necessary, that they get better. If we follow the example of our Founding Fathers we are committed to service together, to God and neighbor and country, over the long haul, for life. — The Most Reverend George Niederauer, Roman Catholic Bishop “In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.” — Rev. Martin Niemoeller “What we obtain too cheaply, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a price upon its goods, and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated.” — Thomas Paine, 1776 “One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.” — Plato “Blandishments will not fascinate us, nor will threats of a "halter" intimidate. For, under God, we are determined that wheresoever, whensoever, or howsoever we shall be called to make our exit, we will die free men.” — Josiah Quincy, 1774. “Constitutional Rights cannot be denied simply because of hostility to their assertions and exercise; vindication of conceded Constitutional Rights cannot be made dependent upon any theory that it is less expensive to deny them than to afford them.” — Watson vs. Memphis, 375 US 526. “Who can protest and does not, is an accomplice in the act.” — The Talmud, Sabbath, 54 b
Posted on: Tue, 11 Jun 2013 01:27:26 +0000
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