Friday, February 2, 2007
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Monday, January 29, 2007
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Today in History
January 28 in History
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814-Death of Emperor Charlemagne, king of the Franks 768-814.
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814-Death of Emperor Charlemagne, king of the Franks 768-814.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Friday, January 26, 2007
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Monday, January 22, 2007
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Saturday, January 20, 2007
A Free Society Versus A Fear Society
There are two types of governments. There are two types of nations. There are two types of states. There are two types of regimes. There are two types of civilizations. A fearful one, or a free one.
Sure there are different cute names for the various forms of governments. Examples such as oligarchy, democracy, anarchy, monarchy, and any other "archy's" in the book. But there is an underlying trait that influences the rule of any form of government- its moral condition.
In a free society, the ruling authorities are elected by the citizens and are thus dependent and accountable for bringing them what they deserve- freedom.
In a fear society, the ruling authorities elect themselves and the citizens are thus independent and unable to have a say in what they deserve. Instead of freedom, they recieve fear. Instead of liberty, they recieve restriction. Instead of justice they recieve judgement. The leaders control and coerce every aspect of their lives.
Nathan Sharansky authored a book titled, The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror he states, "that free societies, democratic societies, are clearly superior to fear societies, nondemocratic societies. And it is a lack of moral clarity that prevents the democratic societies from realizing their superiority and therefore serving as instruments in helping free the people of the fear societies.There are four questions to ask in order to determine if a society is democratic or non democratic: Can people in that country speak their minds? Can they publish their opinions? Can they practice their faith? Can they learn the history and culture of their people? If the answer to most of those questions is no, then the people are living in a fear society."
We as a democracy, as a free state, as a state where we can speak our minds, publish our opinions, practice our faith, and learn the history and culture of our people, we have a moral obligation to bestow to the best of our abilities this priviledge to other nations who are ruled by a dictator.
Some people ask, "How would we like it if some nation intruded our nation and overtook our leader and then stayed in our nation for long periods after?" The difference is, Iraq led by Saddam Hussein, had crippled morality in that nation. We as a free society are morally obliged to rid the world of evil. Im not saying our precious America is glowing in morality. But our form of government allows freedom, and allows for justice.
Sure there are different cute names for the various forms of governments. Examples such as oligarchy, democracy, anarchy, monarchy, and any other "archy's" in the book. But there is an underlying trait that influences the rule of any form of government- its moral condition.
In a free society, the ruling authorities are elected by the citizens and are thus dependent and accountable for bringing them what they deserve- freedom.
In a fear society, the ruling authorities elect themselves and the citizens are thus independent and unable to have a say in what they deserve. Instead of freedom, they recieve fear. Instead of liberty, they recieve restriction. Instead of justice they recieve judgement. The leaders control and coerce every aspect of their lives.
Nathan Sharansky authored a book titled, The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror he states, "that free societies, democratic societies, are clearly superior to fear societies, nondemocratic societies. And it is a lack of moral clarity that prevents the democratic societies from realizing their superiority and therefore serving as instruments in helping free the people of the fear societies.There are four questions to ask in order to determine if a society is democratic or non democratic: Can people in that country speak their minds? Can they publish their opinions? Can they practice their faith? Can they learn the history and culture of their people? If the answer to most of those questions is no, then the people are living in a fear society."
We as a democracy, as a free state, as a state where we can speak our minds, publish our opinions, practice our faith, and learn the history and culture of our people, we have a moral obligation to bestow to the best of our abilities this priviledge to other nations who are ruled by a dictator.
Some people ask, "How would we like it if some nation intruded our nation and overtook our leader and then stayed in our nation for long periods after?" The difference is, Iraq led by Saddam Hussein, had crippled morality in that nation. We as a free society are morally obliged to rid the world of evil. Im not saying our precious America is glowing in morality. But our form of government allows freedom, and allows for justice.
January 20 in History
In 1945, President Roosevelt was sworn into office for an unprecedented fourth term.
n 1957, President Eisenhower and Vice President Nixon were sworn in for their second terms of office in a private Sunday ceremony (a public ceremony was held the next day).
Ten years ago: President Clinton and Vice President Gore were sworn in for second terms of office. In his inaugural address, Clinton called for an end to the politics of petty bickering and extreme partisanship.''
n 1957, President Eisenhower and Vice President Nixon were sworn in for their second terms of office in a private Sunday ceremony (a public ceremony was held the next day).
Ten years ago: President Clinton and Vice President Gore were sworn in for second terms of office. In his inaugural address, Clinton called for an end to the politics of petty bickering and extreme partisanship.''
Friday, January 19, 2007
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Edgar Allan Poe- born this day in 1809 in Boston
A Dream
by: Edgar Allen Poe
In visions of the dark night
I have dreamed of joy departed-
But a waking dream of life and light
Hath left me broken-hearted.
Ah! what is not a dream by day
To him whose eyes are cast
On things around him with a ray
Turned back upon the past?
That holy dream- that holy dream,
While all the world were chiding,
Hath cheered me as a lovely beam
A lonely spirit guiding.
What though that light, thro' storm and night,
So trembled from afar-
What could there be more purely bright
In Truth's day-star?
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Monday, January 15, 2007
Martin Luther King, Jr.: "I Have a Dream"
I thought it was only appropriate on this holiday, to show MLKJ's most famous speech.
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
We cannot walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.
We cannot turn back.
There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. *We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by a sign stating: "For Whites Only."* We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."¹
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."²
This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:
My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,
From every mountainside, let freedom ring!
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.
And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of
Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.
But not only that:
Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!³--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Text within asterisks was added on 3/31/06. Credit Randy Mayeux for bringing the omissions to my attention.
¹ Amos 5:24 (rendered precisely in The American Standard Version of the Holy Bible)
² Isaiah 40:4-5 (King James Version of the Holy Bible). Quotation marks are excluded from part of this moment in the text because King's rendering of Isaiah 40:4 does not precisely follow the KJV version from which he quotes (e.g., "hill" and "mountain" are reversed in the KJV). King's rendering of Isaiah 40:5, however, is precisely quoted from the KJV.