Lift your lamp beside the golden door, Break not the golden rule, avoid well the golden calf, know; not all that glitters is gold, and laissez faire et laissez passer [let do and let pass] but as a shining sentinel, hesitate not to ring the bell,
defend the gates, and man the wall
sir:—After thanking you for your comprehensive tabular chart of the governments of the United States, I must give you the answer which I am obliged to give to all who propose to me to replunge myself into political speculations, 'Senez sum, et levissimis curit' imparl I abandon politics, and accommodate "myself cheerfully to things as they go, confident "in the wisdom of those who direct them, and that they will be better and better directed in the progressive course of knowledge and experience. Our successors start on our shoulders. They know all that we know, and will add to that stock the discoveries of the next fifty years; and what will be their amount we may estimate from what the last fifty years have added to the "science of human concerns. The thoughts of others, as I find them on paper, are my amusement and delight; but the labors of the mind; in abstruse investigations are irksome and writing itself is become a slow and painful operation, occasioned by a stiffened wrist, the consequence of a former dislocation. I will however, essay the two definitions which you say are more particularly interesting at present: I mean those of the terms Liberty and Republic, aware, however, that they have been so multifariously applied as to convey no precise idea to the mind. Of Liberty, then, I would say, that in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is unobstructed action according to our will; but rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within the limits drawn around us by the equal "rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law,' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of an individual. I will add, seoondly, that a pure Republic is "a state of society in which every member of ****re and sound mind, has an equal right of participation;, personally, in the direction of the affairs of the Society. Such a regimen is obviously impracticable beyond the limits of an encampment, or of a very small village. When numbers, distance, or force, oblige them to act by deputy, then their government continues republican in proportion only as the functions they still exercise in person are more or fewer, and as in those exercised by deputy the right of appointing their deputy is pro hac vice only, or for more or fewer purposes, or for shorter or longer terms. If by the word Government you mean a classification of its forms, I must refer you for the soundest which has ever been given, to Tracey's Review of Montesquieu, the ablest political work which the last century of years has given us. It was translated from the original MS., and published by Duane, a few years ago, and "is since published in the original French at Paris. With my thanks for your chart accept the assurance of my great respect.
-Thomas Jefferson
The Historical Magazine and Notes and Queries, concerning the antiquities, History and Biography of America Vol II 1867 Pages 250-251
-- Your favour of July 31, was duly received, and was read with peculiar pleasure. The sentiments breathed through the whole do honor to both the head and heart of the writer. Mine on the subject of slavery of negroes have long since been in possession of the public, and time has only served to give them stronger root. The love of justice and the love of country plead equally the cause of these people, and it is a moral reproach to us that they should have pleaded it so long in vain, and should have produced not a single effort, nay I fear not much serious willingness to relieve them & ourselves from our present condition of moral & political reprobation. From those of the former generation who were in the fulness of age when I came into public life, which was while on paper only, I soon saw that nothing was to be hoped. Nursed and educated in the daily habit of seeing the degraded condition, both bodily and mental, of those unfortunate beings, not reflecting that that degradation was very much the work of themselves & their fathers, few minds have yet doubted but that they were as legitimate subjects of property as their horses and cattle. The quiet and monotonous course of colonial life has been disturbed by no alarm, and little reflection on the value of liberty. And when alarm was taken at an enterprize on their own, it was not easy to carry them to the whole length of the principles which they invoked for themselves. In the first or second session of the Legislature after I became a member, I drew to this subject the attention of Col. Bland, one of the oldest, ablest, & most respected members, and he undertook to move for certain moderate extensions of the protection of the laws to these people. I seconded his motion, and, as a younger member, was more spared in the debate; but he was denounced as an enemy of his country, & was treated with the grossest indecorum. From an early stage of our revolution other & more distant duties were assigned to me, so that from that time till my return from Europe in 1789, and I may say till I returned to reside at home in 1809, I had little opportunity of knowing the progress of public sentiment here on this subject. I had always hoped that the younger generation receiving their early impressions after the flame of liberty had been kindled in every breast, & had become as it were the vital spirit of every American, that the generous temperament of youth, analogous to the motion of their blood, and above the suggestions of avarice, would have sympathized with oppression wherever found, and proved their love of liberty beyond their own share of it. But my intercourse with them, since my return has not been sufficient to ascertain that they had made towards this point the progress I had hoped. Your solitary but welcome voice is the first which has brought this sound to my ear; and I have considered the general silence which prevails on this subject as indicating an apathy unfavorable to every hope. Yet the hour of emancipation is advancing, in the march of time. It will come; and whether brought on by the generous energy of our own minds; or by the bloody process of St Domingo, excited and conducted by the power of our present enemy, if once stationed permanently within our Country, and offering asylum & arms to the oppressed, is a leaf of our history not yet turned over. As to the method by which this difficult work is to be effected, if permitted to be done by ourselves, I have seen no proposition so expedient on the whole, as that as emancipation of those born after a given day, and of their education and expatriation after a given age. This would give time for a gradual extinction of that species of labour & substitution of another, and lessen the severity of the shock which an operation so fundamental cannot fail to produce. For men probably of any color, but of this color we know, brought from their infancy without necessity for thought or forecast, are by their habits rendered as incapable as children of taking care of themselves, and are extinguished promptly wherever industry is necessary for raising young. In the mean time they are pests in society by their idleness, and the depredations to which this leads them. Their amalgamation with the other color produces a degradation to which no lover of his country, no lover of excellence in the human character can innocently consent. I am sensible of the partialities with which you have looked towards me as the person who should undertake this salutary but arduous work. But this, my dear sir, is like bidding old Priam to buckle the armour of Hector "trementibus aequo humeris et inutile ferruncingi." No, I have overlived the generation with which mutual labors & perils begat mutual confidence and influence. This enterprise is for the young; for those who can follow it up, and bear it through to its consummation.It shall have all my prayers, & these are the only weapons of an old man. But in the mean time are you right in abandoning this property, and your country with it? I think not. My opinion has ever been that, until more can be done for them, we should endeavor, with those whom fortune has thrown on our hands, to feed and clothe them well, protect them from all ill usage, require such reasonable labor only as is performed voluntarily by freemen, & be led by no repugnancies to abdicate them, and our duties to them.The laws do not permit us to turn them loose, if that were for their good: and to commute them for other property is to commit them to those whose usage of them we cannot control. I hope then, my dear sir, you will reconcile yourself to your country and its unfortunate condition; that you will not lessen its stock of sound disposition by withdrawing your portion from the mass. That, on the contrary you will come forward in the public councils, become the missionary of this doctrine truly christian; insinuate & inculcate it softly but steadily, through the medium of writing and conversation; associate others in your labors, and when the phalanx is formed, bring on and press the proposition perseveringly until its accomplishment. It is an encouraging observation that no good measure was ever proposed, which, if duly pursued, failed to prevail in the end. We have proof of this in the history of the endeavors in the English parliament to suppress that very trade which brought this evil on us. And you will be supported by the religious precept, "be not weary in well-doing."
That your success may be as speedy & complete, as it will be of honorable & immortal consolation to yourself, I shall as fervently and sincerely pray as I assure you of my great friendship and respect.
I never took up my pen with more hesitation or felt more embarrassment than I now do in addressing you on the subject of this letter. The fear of appearing presumptuous distresses me, and would deter me from venturing thus to call your attention to a subject of such magnitude, and so beset with difficulties, as that of a general emancipation of the Slaves of Virginia, had I not the highest opinion of your goodness and liberality, in not only excusing me for the liberty I take, but in justly appreciating my motives in doing so.
I will not enter on the right which man has to enslave his Brother man, nor upon the moral and political effects of Slavery on individuals or on Society; because these things are better understood by you than by me. My object is to entreat and beseech you to exert your knowledge and influence, in devising, and getting into operation, some plan for the gradual emancipation of Slavery. This difficult task could be less exceptionably, and more successfully performed by the revered Fathers of all our political and social blessings, than by any succeeding statesmen; and would seem to come with peculiar propriety and force from those whose valor wisdom and virtue have done so much in meliorating the condition of mankind. And it is a duty, as I conceive, that devolves particularly on you, from your known philosophical and enlarged view of subjects, and from the principles you have professed and practiced through a long and useful life, preeminently distinguished, as well by being foremost in establishing on the broadest basis the rights of man, and the liberty and independence of your Country, as in being throughout honored with the most important trusts by your fellow-citizens, whose confidence and love you have carried with you into the shades of old age and retirement. In the calm of this retirement you might, most beneficially to society, and with much addition to your own fame, avail yourself of that love and confidence to put into complete practice those hallowed principles contained in that renowned Declaration, of which you were the immortal author, and on which we bottomed our right to resist oppression, and establish our freedom and independence.
I hope that the fear of failing, at this time, will have no influence in preventing you from employing your pen to eradicate this most degrading feature of British Colonial policy, which is still permitted to exist, notwithstanding its repugnance as well to the principles of our revolution as to our free Institutions. For however highly prized and influential your opinions may now be, they will be still much more so when you shall have been snatched from us by the course of nature. If therefore your attempt should now fail to rectify this unfortunate evil—an evil most injurious both to the oppressed and to the oppressor—at some future day when your memory will be consecrated by a grateful posterity, what influence, irresistible influence will the opinions and writings of Thomas Jefferson have on all questions connected with the rights of man, and of that policy which will be the creed of your disciples. Permit me then, my dear Sir, again to intreat you to exert your great powers of mind and influence, and to employ some of your present leisure, in devising a mode to liberate one half of our Fellowbeings from an ignominious bondage to the other; either by making an immediate attempt to put in train a plan to commence this goodly work, or to leave human Nature the invaluable Testament—which you are so capable of doing—how best to establish its rights: So that the weight of your opinion may be on the side of emancipation when that question shall be agitated, and that it will be sooner or later is most certain—That it may be soon is my most ardent prayer—that it will be rests with you.
I will only add, as an excuse for the liberty I take in addressing you on this subject, which is so particularly interesting to me; that from the time I was capable of reflecting on the nature of political society, and of the rights appertaining to Man, I have not only been principled against Slavery, but have had feelings so repugnant to it, as to decide me not to hold them; which decision has forced me to leave my native state, and with it all my relations and friends. This I hope will be deemed by you some excuse for the liberty of this intrusion, of which I gladly avail myself to assure you of the very great respect and esteem with which I am, my dear Sir, your every sincere and devoted friend
Hello, please please sit down. I don't wanna have to be in this city longer than I have to. I''m thrilled to be here tonight i will tell you that percentage on that stage after listening to him, you couldn't stop just a little so i didn't have to perform so hard? um... I, actually listening to my feel a little like Nancy Pelosi now yeesh. Um I am not a-um-a joyner of organizations I uh, despite what it looks like in the last few years of my life. I'm not an activist I'm not a guy who speaks out. I'm a guy who watches NASCAR or sits on the couch in my underpants and eats dorritos. I've always been a lazy American. Unfortunately the uh... the times uh... are different. I have joined two organizations in my life. I have joined my Church and, uh, I have joined the NRA. I guess that makes me a guy with God and Guns. But last night i occurred there were seven hundred thousand calling themselves members of christians united for israel and tonight iI would like to make that seven hundred thousand and one
*Cheers*
And David, I not only um, heard your challenge uh... for the campus project that you're working on um at GBTV we're working on something similar and we're not going to, we're not going to repeat the effort that you have. Instead i'd like to join you and my wife and i would like to donate ten thousand dollars to your effort tonight. This is a worthwhile clause. This may even be the cause of our lifetime. Fourteen days ago I did something I've never ever wanted to do in my life, fourteen days ago i spent two days in-Auschwitz in Birkenau.It profoundly changed me as a human being. You can watch over me movies you want. You can read what you want in books and on internet, but until you in the gas chamber you don't have any real idea of what this is all about. As i was walking down the tracks going from Auschwitz
1 to Auschwitz
2, Birkenau I thought to myself there is got to be some way to make sure this doesn't happen. A museum is not good enough. A bus trip to Washington DC is not enough. Our students don't understand it there must be somewhat a but then he asked still linger schindler's list. There must be some other way, and as I was walkingdown the tracks these words came to me 'we all know that it makes sense that we are all different yet we are all the alike.' What makes us alike what makes us the same is our humanity not our rights but our rights coupled with our responsibilities. Jews and gentiles alike have a basic right to live.You cannot round people up in the middle of the night. You cannot breakdown people's doors and just snatch them. You cannot treat people like animals just because of who they are. No matter who we are all of us have a right to practice peacefully our religion, to raise a family, and to use our God-given talents to create something of value and conduct an honest business.We have these rights, I thought to my self 'there should be some sort of declaration' as I was walking on those tracks 'there ought to be some universal bill of rights' and then I thought, 'the only one that would do that is the united nations' and I realized nothing useful comes out of the united nations and I dismissed that idea. *cheers* But as I continued to walk, ever growing closer to birkenau, the site where more people were murdered and any of their place on the entire planet, a fear began to grow in me, a fear that should have been eradicated, when the Nazis were defeated, a fear that was growing more and more intense as I came to that opening that the train went through. The fear was caused by the understanding that the world is yet again turning a blind eye, to evil. The same kind of evil. It was laser focused. What is the answer Lord, what is the answer? How do we protect one another? In America there is a growing attempts in the political media an academic classes to dismiss our founders and more important their God inspired to work. Maybe this is why millions of Americans today are sending themselves back to school, they are educating themselves on the words of our founders, educating themselves on the things that are on the edge of being lost. For some reason those ideas burn in the hearts of most Americans but most Americans can't really identify why. If I may, I'd like to see if I can clearly states why this old dusty outdated document that chartered a new course for mankind what you have brought us into world war [two*] earlier and blown up the tracks to Auschwitz when we first saw them from the sky, *cheers* it is the answer for Israel it is the answer for the Jewish people it is the answer for America and for the entire world! 'We hold these truths to be self-evident that all man are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights among these, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The founders had the answer one hundred and fifty years before Hitler showed up! *applause*But as our founders new there is more than just stating the obvious or self-evident, you must be able to guard those rights, this is what the Jewish people have not then able to do. They have had no home base. The thirteenth century BC, slaves, run out of their homeland, then the crusades start. I don't need to tell you that history, but the Jewish people around the world need to know that Christians know their history. They must know we have seen it, we understand it is too much this we can and we are appalled by it. Crusades, Crusades from the eleventh to fourteenth century, and then the black plague happens. And because of the ritual cleansings the black plague does not effect Jews in Europe, like it does non-jews, and because of that the black plague must be some sort of a Jewish plot. And so they are hunted again. Infourteen hundred in poland in krakow, there was a fire in the city and of course, it was blamed on the Jews, but the king at the time was a friend and so he gave them a parcel of land had built the great wall and a moat around it, he would protect them. It was good for a while, until he died. It didn't last long. Two days before queen Isabella dispatched the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria, to find the new world, as the world was about to open up,. it was dragged into darkness! Two days before she ordered the rounding up of all of the Jews. The edict of expulsion, two hundred thousand Jews run out of Spain this began the expulsion out of Europe. Any idea when that was officially ended? December sixteenth sixty eighty. In sixteen forty eight Ukrainian massacre sixty five thousand dead, eighteen eighty one to nineteen twenty, and I could go on all night, I'm hitting some of the low points of human history, eight hundred Jewswe're decapitated in an assembly line fashion, in one of the Russian progroms. Nineteen thirty-nine the English white-paper limits immigration to Palestine. WHY!? In heaven's name why!? Why would THIS nation turn the St. Louis around? In Almighty God's Name WHY!? Germany, Russia, the Olympics and teby. Today. It never seems to end.
The Jewish people have been chased out of almost every country, and every corner of this planet they have been smeared for years they have been maligned but to our shame is human beings most of all may have been for gotten in times of need. This is why the nation of Israel is vital. Helen Thomas and all those like her both left and right have been saying that the same thing for thousands of years 'go back to where you came from', and when they do, there told go someplace else. Enough is enough, the Jewish people have gone back to where they came from, they are the ones who stacked the stones on the Temple Mount and those same stones being dropped on their heads today as they peacfully assemble just to pray. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. *Raucous Cheers*The Jewish people have wisely learned not to trust anyone. Not to trust anyone but themselves to be guardians of their God given rights. I hope my fellow countrymen learn that lesson before our rights are taken as well! No one can protect your rights better than you. No one else will, no one else can. To rely on the others is to ensure economic slavery at best and death camps at worst. Not a single American, not a single man in China, not even the Frenchy French, would allow rockets to be fired into their neighborhoods, schoolchildren to be shot on their own playground, or families brutally murdered in their sleep by murderous teenagers who claim to be neighbors. Love thy neighbor, not murder thy neighbor. We hold These truths to be self evident. No one should. No one should, or ever would compromise and give up a safety barrier between themselves and the neighbor that would shout, that would whisper that would teach their children to hate you and kill you. Which one of us, which one of us would give up more of our backyard to a neighbor that would look over the fence that every time you walk by said 'I'm going to kill you!'. Which one? I contend no one, in their right mind. With that being said there is enormous amounts of room. This is a planet with an awful lot of space. As long as you want to be a part of the family of mankind, there is space for all of us who believe this declaration, that all men are created equal, and we have a right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And states can be establishedbut not at the expense of another state. We must and can work together but only with honest brokers who will admit the truth, and here it is 'Israel, historically is the land of the Jews'. I can't believe I'm the one assigning legitimacy by saying they're legitimate, check with the UN. When? When, has there been another State that has been declared a State by the global body? When? When did we start calling land that was won in a war, by the non-aggressor, when did we start calling that land occupied? Do we condemn North Vietnam over occupied South Vietnam? cashmere Azerbaijan those aren't occupied territories those are disputed it seems to me that the jury is out on those, but Israel? NO. Are we going to begin, do you hear anybody saying that California Texas Arizona is occupied Mexico? Wait a minute that's a bad example yes i do hear that. It seems there's only two countries that are having this problem what a coincidence it's the great Satan, and the little Satan. What are the odds. Now let me ask this, and anybody who says we can have honest negotiations, they can, they can. But not somebody who's calling you great Satan or little Satan. Especially people who believe in things so much they will blow themselves up because god tells them to, look i'm talking to a room full of religious wackos! The media would tell me. None of which, as crazy, out of control dangerous all of you are, I don't see any of you willing to strap on a suicide vest onto either you or your children because in your deranged mind god told you to do it. And yet they'd call us the great Satan and the little Satan. Okay you won't strap the suicide vest to yourself but are any of you going to negotiate with Satan? *Shouts of 'No'* No, I wouldn't either. Why are we negotiating with people who we know are religious zealots andthey believe we're Satan? We're not Satan but it does start with an S, We're stupid! Americans must reconnect with common sense. We are reconnecting what our founding documents for the first time in about a hundred years. *Cheers* Hopefully we will do it this time and repair some of the mistakes that we've made in the last hundred years because we have made mistakes because we've unpegged from self-evident truths. Hopefully this time we will not forget the real source of power A. The people but more importantly our God, the God of Abraham that we all have in common. I am an inadequate messenger. I am a man that is compelled to stand. I am a father who doesn't want to spend any more time away from my children but again I am compelled to stand because I love my children. I have a smaller role at the table than most of you. I am new to the game of Standing up and speaking out, I am trying to make up for lost time. *cheers* And the thing that I learned after I sobered up, from Thomas Jefferson "fix reason firmly in her seat and question even the very existence of God, for if there be a God, he must surely rather honest questioning over blindfolded fear". I have no fear because I have questioned God, I know what is true, I know what saves, I know what destroyes, I have learned this much, and if I may be bold and make this declaration, in regards to the Jewish people and Israeluntil you have been chased and killed in country after country until you are truly friendless, even those who claim to be your friends, most of which will night here in the back for the side or turn away, until that is you, you have no idea what it's like to finally have a place to rest your head while someone in exactly the same position takes the night watch and watches for you and your family. It is time that the world declares clearly in a unified voice that Israel not only have the right to exist but exist as a Jewish stage the Jewish people who have no right to live, they have a right to defend themselves against all threats foreign and domestic and for once and for all the good people of the world must remembered there is a difference between good and evil and we must choose. *Individual shouts: "We Love You Glenn Beck"* --*Cheers* That's somewhat disturbing coming from a man, but come on look at me, I'll take it. I know you feel the same way. You cannot believe what others can see, evil is becoming so clear, evil is taking the mask off. Evil always wears a hood like the KKK. It rarely comes in, in a nice a snappy uniform, but it has in the past. Only when it has scared everyone else into the shadows does it take the mask off. In Iran the mask is off. There is no amount of cloaking after a while. Nothing, no mask can hide it from those people who have the courage to open their eyes and to stare truth in the face and the great thing is, evil is terrified of those people. There are so many reasons for us to link arms one with another across all denominations, all colors all creeds all nations, link arms with one another. One of which, and the least of which is Israel is the canary in the coal mine, as Israel goes so goes the western way of life. Do you really think that the peope in Iran, that the leadership, that the wackos are going to say oh we have the little Satan lets relax? It will embolden them. That is the least of the reasons. I would point out another reason for anyone who follows, truly tries to follow the one God of Abraham that each of us will be judged, each of us will be judged as a people and as a nation, on how we treat Israel. But for me this is the easy answer. This is the answer that quite honestly if you go no further, leads again to the inquisition. It leads again to you committing the crime. Why did Ruth not leave Naomi's side? Because she loved her. She loved her. Christians must not stand up because the Messiah is coming. We must not stand up because we want another baptism. We must not as free citizens of the world rise up because our freedom will be lost. We must stand together because enough is enough, we as a people said, we promised, ourselves, our planet and our God, we would never forget. We didn't promise because there was going to be some written test, but the test of our lives, and the test of our civilization. Our test is not whether or not we will stand but also why we stand! Self interest? Because we get something out of it? Because of personal salvation? Or because we love our fellow man? And we have finally learned our lessons that millions have died for over four thousand years to teach? *Cheers + Applause* We must love one another. When we stop seeing Israelis, as a part from us, and instead as us, we can move to the next level as human beings. Life is like a really cool three dee version of Angry Birds, you cannot move to the next level until you get it right. How many times is the Lord going to give us the opportunity to get it right? Lets get it right this time! *cheers* And to my Jewish friends, I beg of you, entreat me not to leave you, where you go I will go, where you lodge, I will lodge, your people shall be my people, your God shall be my God, where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. *Cheers*
I met a, I met a wonderful woman, in Krakow, she's one of the righteous among the nations. She's this sweet angelic woman. She as a sixteen year old began to save Jewish neighbors simply. In the ghettos you were allowed to have two hundred and thirty calories a day, as a Jew. Someone asked her, 'please? do you have anything to eat? She said, 'meet me back here tomorrow, I'll give you soup', the next day, four people showed up, the next day she told her parents, the next day more showed up, and they provided bigger bowls of soup. Before you knew it they were hiding people, ferreting them out. Putting them under floorboards of a barn, keeping them safe. I asked her before we parted, I said, 'I am desperately seeking the answer, as a righteous among the nations, we all have that righteous tree in us, we all have that seed, please? How do we water it?' How do we water it?' before the translator could even finish the question, she said 'God', then she said something amazing, 'remember the righteous among the nations didn't become righteous, we just held the line as the rest of society went over the cliff' Its not as hard of a job as we think it is. We don't have to become superhuman, we just must remain human! And it ends. *Applause* Darkness cannot be defeated by darkness only light, hatred cannot be defeated by hatred, only love. Let us be people of light and love. These are the answers, and they are the answers of a civilized world. They were Dietrich Bonhoeffer's answers, but he failed. In studying Dietrich Bonhoeffer over the last eighteen months, I can tell you I believe I know why he failed. Because there is a tipping point in society. Where the ideas of Gandhi no longer work. We must not get to that point, before we wish to stand. Those unfortunately when we struggle against an unhuman and uncivilized foe, those are the times that only a well informed, God fearing, vigilant, well armed society will stand and succeed. A people that long before declared that they had a right, and then seized the opportunity to have the ability to protect themselves. God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak, not to stand is to stand. I as a single individual have made my choice. I am trying to teach my children courage. I am trying to water the seed of righteousness within them. So God forbid the winds begin the blow, the roots are deep in them. I and my family will stand against anyone trying to erase, liquidate, any group of people because of race or creed. If the world goes down this path again, and we begin to define being human as someone who casts out the Jew or the Gentile, or the Muslim, just because of who they are, then I declare I no longer wish to be called a human. If the world again accepts silently that the idea that a despotic regime has the right to kill the Jews, and use fear and muscle and intimidation to frighten others away from their side, then today I declare, count me a Jew and come for me first! *Cheers* When we all, When we all stand together, and say 'I'm one', 'show me the Jews', 'I'm one', when we all raise our hand, we change the world. They cannot kill all of us, let us declare I am a Jew! *Raucous Applause + Cheers* Our Jewish friends and Neighbors, they must all know, and those who wish them harm anywhere in the world they must be warned, this is not Spain fourteen ninety two, or Germany nineteen thirty nine, this still is America two thousand and eleven. We are not the 'Christians' of the Crusades. We are the Christians United For Israel. *Audience Loses Is' Mind--Cheering* And these are the things that we find Self Evident! and in support of this declaration we mutually pledge our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor! God bless you. God bless the US and God bless Israel. *Audience Still Cheering* http://www.theblaze.com/stories/%E2%80%98count-me-a-jew-and-come-for-me-first%E2%80%99-video-of-becks-moving-keynote-address-at-christians-united-for-israel-summit/
Hello: I'm very interested in opening a business in your beautiful city and have a couple of questions and requests.
If it's not too much trouble, could you please send me the official list of political and social opinions that I must hold in order to open a business in Chicago.
It's recently become clear that merely expressing an "incorrect" opinion could lead to me being barred from doing business there...or at least having to fight Mayor Emanuel’s disapproval every step of the way. It's hard enough to start a business and create jobs without that kind of resistance!
I'm sure you understand. I would just try to guess which opinions the government requires that I hold, but in a recent case, you folks made clear that an opinion held by half of Americans was completely unacceptable. Guessing which other opinions the government doesn't permit would be tough! In the case I alluded to (involving the folks from Chick-fil-A) the "illegal" opinion was the same one held by the President of the United States until very recently.
Perhaps you could put out a "government-approved beliefs" newsletter on a regular basis so no one engaged in unacceptable speech or thought. Those who repeatedly expressed views contrary to the government could be given special training and re-education so that they wouldn't make silly mistakes anymore!
Again, thanks for your assistance. I look forward to being in compliance with all acceptable beliefs so that I will be permitted to earn a living.
"If some sort of crazy right wing government takes hold they'll ban YOUR thoughts and put YOUR friends out of business if we let the Government have this power."
"So you think that money is the root of all evil?" said Francisco d'Anconia. "Have you ever asked what is
the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can't exist unless there are goods produced and
men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with
one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who
claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible
only by the men who produce.
Is this what you consider evil?
"When you accept money in payment for your effort, you do so only on the conviction that you will
exchange it for the product of the effort of others. It is not the moochers or the looters who give value to
money. Not an ocean of tears nor all the guns in the world can transform those pieces of paper in your
wallet into the bread you will need to survive tomorrow. Those pieces of paper, which should have been
gold, are a token of honor—your claim upon the energy of the men who produce. Your wallet is your
statement of hope that somewhere in the world around you there are men who will not default on that
moral principle which is the root of money. Is this what you consider evil?
"Have you ever looked for the root of production? Take a look at an electric generator and dare tell
yourself that it was created by the muscular effort of unthinking brutes. Try to grow a seed of wheat
without the knowledge left to you by men who had to discover it for the first time. Try to obtain your
food by means of nothing but physical motions—and you'll learn that man's mind is the root of all the
goods produced and of all the wealth that has ever existed on earth.
"But you say that money is made by the strong at the expense of the weak? What strength do you mean?
It is not the strength of guns or muscles. Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think. Then is money
made by the man who invents a motor at the expense of those who did not invent it? Is money made by
the intelligent at the expense of the fools? By the able at the expense of the incompetent? By the
ambitious at the expense of the lazy? Money is made—before it can be looted or mooched—made by
the effort of every honest man, each to the extent of his ability. An honest man is one who knows that he
can't consume more than he has produced.
"To trade by means of money is the code of the men of good will.
Money rests on the axiom that every man is the owner of his mind and his effort. Money allows no
power to prescribe the value of your effort except the voluntary choice of the man who is willing to trade
you his effort in return. Money permits you to obtain for your goods and your labor that which they are
worth to the men who buy them, but no more. Money permits no deals except those to mutual benefit by
the unforced judgment of the traders. Money demands of you the recognition that men must work for
their own benefit, not for their own injury, for their gain, not their loss—the recognition that they are not
beasts of burden, born to carry the weight of your misery—that you must offer them values, not
wounds—that the common bond among men is not the exchange of suffering, but the exchange of goods.
Money demands that you sell, not your weakness to men's stupidity, but your talent to their reason; it
demands that you buy, not the shoddiest they offer, but the best that your money can find. And when
men live by trade—with reason, not force, as their final arbiter—it is the best product that wins, the best
performance, the man of best judgment and highest ability—and the degree of a man's productiveness is
the degree of his reward. This is the code of existence whose tool and symbol is money. Is this what you
consider evil?
"But money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver. It
will give you the means for the satisfaction of your desires, but it will not provide you with desires.
Money is the scourge of the men who attempt to reverse the law of causality—the men who seek to
replace the mind by seizing the products of the mind.
"Money will not purchase happiness for the man who has no concept of what he wants: money will not
give him a code of values, if he's evaded the knowledge of what to value, and it will not provide him with
a purpose, if he's evaded the choke of what to seek. Money will not buy intelligence for the fool, or
admiration for the coward, or respect for the incompetent. The man who attempts to purchase the brains
of his superiors to serve him, with his money replacing his judgment, ends up by becoming the victim of
his inferiors. The men of intelligence desert him, but the cheats and the frauds come flocking to him,
drawn by a law which he has not discovered: that no man may be smaller than his money. Is this the
reason why you call it evil?
"Only the man who does not need it, is fit to inherit wealth—the man who would make his own fortune
no matter where he started. If an heir is equal to his money, it serves him; if not, it destroys him.
But you look on and you cry that money corrupted him. Did it? Or did he corrupt his money? Do not
envy a worthless heir; his wealth is not yours and you would have done no better with it. Do not think
that it should have been distributed among you; loading the world with fifty parasites instead of one,
would not bring back the dead virtue which was the fortune. Money is a living power that dies without its
root. Money will not serve the mind that cannot match it. Is this the reason why you call it evil?
"Money is your means of survival. The verdict you pronounce upon the source of your livelihood is the
verdict you pronounce upon your life. If the source is corrupt, you have damned your own existence. Did
you get your money by fraud? By pandering to men's vices or men's stupidity? By catering to fools, in the
hope of getting more than your ability deserves? By lowering your standards? By doing work you
despise for purchasers you scorn? If so, then your money will not give you a moment's or a penny's
worth of joy. Then all the things you buy will become, not a tribute to you, but a reproach; not an
achievement, but a reminder of shame. Then you'll scream that money is evil. Evil, because it would not
pinch-hit for your self-respect? Evil, because it would not let you enjoy your depravity? Is this the root of
your hatred of money?
"Money will always remain an effect and refuse to replace you as the cause. Money is the product of
virtue, but it will not give you virtue and it will not redeem your vices. Money will not give you the
unearned, neither in matter nor in spirit. Is this the root of your hatred of money?
"Or did you say it's the love of money that's the root of all evil?
To love a thing is to know and love its nature. To love money is to know and love the fact that money is
the creation of the best power within you, and your passkey to trade your effort for the effort of the best
among men. It's the person who would sell his soul for a nickel, who is loudest in proclaiming his hatred
of money—and he has good reason to hate it. The lovers of money are willing to work for it.
They know they are able to deserve it.
"Let me give you a tip on a clue to men's characters: the man who damns money has obtained it
dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it.
"Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil.
That sentence is the leper's bell of an approaching looter. So long as men live together on earth and need
means to deal with one another—their only substitute, if they abandon money, is the muzzle of a gun.
"But money demands of you the highest virtues, if you wish to make it or to keep it. Men who have no
courage, pride or self-esteem, men who have no moral sense of their right to their money and are not
willing to defend it as they defend their life, men who apologize for being rich—will not remain rich for
long. They are the natural bait for the swarms of looters that stay under rocks for centuries, but come
crawling out at the first smell of a man who begs to be forgiven for the guilt of owning wealth. They will
hasten to relieve him of the guilt—and of his life, as he deserves.
"Then you will see the rise of the men of the double standard—the men who live by force, yet count on
those who live by trade to create the value of their looted money—the men who are the hitchhikers of
virtue. In a moral society, these are the criminals, and the statutes are written to protect you against them.
But when a society establishes criminals-by-right and looters-by-law—men who use force to seize the
wealth of disarmed victims—then money becomes its creators' avenger.
Such looters believe it safe to rob defenseless men, once they've passed a law to disarm them. But their
loot becomes the magnet for other looters, who get it from them as they got it. Then the race goes, not to
the ablest at production, but to those most ruthless at brutality. When force is the standard, the murderer
wins over the pickpocket. And then that society vanishes, in a spread of ruins and slaughter.
"Do you wish to know whether that day is coming? Watch money.
“I hear all this ‘well this is class warfare’ well whatever. No, there is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there? Good for you, but I wanna be clear, you moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that murauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did. Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea, God bless, keep a good hunk of it, but part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next gent who comes along.”
“So I”m going to reduce the deficit in a balanace way. We’ve already made a trillion dollars worth of cuts. We can make anotheter trillion or trillion two, and what we then do is and what we then do is ask the wealthy to pay a little bit more. And by the way we’ve tried that before, a guy named Bill Clinton did it, we created twenty three million new jobs, turned a deficit into a surplus and rich people did just fine. We created a lot of millionaires. And you know there are a lot of wealthy successful Americans who agree with me, cuz they wanna give something back. They know they didn’t.. uuh,If you’ve been successful you, you didn’t get there on your own.You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something – there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. If you were successful somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive.Somebody invested in roads and bridges—If you’ve got a business, that-–you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together. There’s some things, like fighting fires we don’t do on our own. I mean, imagine if everybody had their own fire service. That’d be a hard way of fighting fires. And so we say to ourselves, ever since the founding of this country, ‘you know, there’re some things we do better together’. That’s how we funded the GI bill, that’s how we created the middle class, that’s how we built the golden gate bridge, The hoover dam, that’s how we invented the internet, thaat’s how we sent a man to the moon. We rise or fall together as one nation, and as one people. And that’s the reason I’m running for president, because I still believe in that idea. Your not on your own, we’re in this together.”
Good morning. Thank you, thank you. I do love that music. I tell you, I do love listening to that organ music. and the piano, during the prayer hearing, the sweet hour of prayer, being played that was a wonderful thing. Good morning all of you members of the N Double A C P.
[Crowd shouts]
And thank you to Bishop Graves for his generous introduction
and thank you also to President Ben Jealous and Chairman Roslyn Brock
for the opportunity to be here this morning, and for your hospitality.
This is an honor to address you and one I had not expected, and one I value very highly.
I appreciate the chance to speak first – even before the Vice President.
Well, Vice President Biden will get his turn tomorrow.
I just hope the Obama campaign doesn’t think you’re playing favorites.
[laughter]
[video freezes from here to 0:47]
... Republicans. You have to make your case to every single voter.
We don’t count anybody out, and we sure don’t make a habit of presuming anyone’s support.
Support is asked for and earned – and that’s why I’m here today.
Now, with 90 percent of African-Americans who typically vote for Democrats, you may wonder, or some may wonder,
why a Republican would bother to campaign in the African American community, and to address the NAACP.
One reason of course is that I hope to represent all Americans, of every race, creed and sexual orientation,
[applause]
from the poorest to the richest and everyone in between.
But there is another reason:
I believe that if you understood who I truly am in my heart,
and if it were possible to fully communicate what I believe is in the real,
enduring best interest of American - African American families, you would vote for me for president.
I want you to know that if I did not believe that my policies and my leadership would help families of color
and families of any color - more than the policies and leadership of President Obama,
I would not be running for president.
Now, of course, you know, the opposition charges
that I and people in my party are running for office to help the rich.
Nonsense. The rich will do just fine whether I am elected or not.
The President wants to make this a campaign about blaming the rich.
I want to make this a campaign about helping the middle class.
I am running for president because I know that my policies and vision will help hundreds of millions of middle class Americans of all races,
will lift people from poverty, and will help prevent people from becoming poor.
My campaign is about helping the people who need help.
The course the President has set has not done that – and will not do that. My course will.
When President Obama called to congratulate me on becoming the presumptive Republican nominee,
he said that he, “looked forward to an important and healthy debate about America’s future.”
To date, I’m afraid that his campaign has taken a different course than that.
But, in campaigns at their best, voters can expect a clear choice, and candidates can expect a fair hearing –
only more so from a venerable organization like this one.
So, it is that healthy debate about the course of the nation that I want to discuss with you today.
If someone had told us in the 1950s or 1960s that a black citizen would serve as the forty-fourth president of the United States
we would have been proud and many would have been surprised.
Picturing that day, we might have assumed that the American presidency would be the very last door of opportunity to be opened.
Before that came to pass, every other barrier on the path to equal opportunity would surely have come down.
Of course, it hasn’t happened quite that way.
Many barriers remain. Old inequities persist.
In some ways, the challenges are even more complicated than before.
And across America — and even within your own ranks — there are serious, honest debates about the way forward.
If equal opportunity in America were an accomplished fact, then a chronically bad economy would be equally bad for everyone.
Instead, it’s worse for African Americans in almost every way.
The unemployment rate, the duration of unemployment, average income, and median family wealth are all worse for the black community.
In June, while the overall unemployment rate remained stuck at 8.2 percent, the unemployment rate for African Americans actually went up, from 13.6 percent to 14.4 percent.
Americans of every background are asking when this economy will finally recover – and you, in particular, are entitled to an answer.
If equal opportunity in America were an accomplished fact, black families could send their sons and daughters to public schools that truly offer the hope of a better life.
Instead, for generations, the African-American community has been waiting and waiting for that promise to be kept.
Today, black children are 17 percent of students nationwide – but they are 42 percent of the students in our worst-performing schools.
Our society sends them into mediocre schools and expects them to perform with excellence, and that is not fair.
Frederick Douglass observed that, “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”
Yet, instead of preparing these children for life, too many schools set them up for failure.
Everyone in this room knows that we owe them better than that.
The path of inequality often leads to lost opportunity.
College, graduate school, and first jobs should be milestones marking the passage from childhood to adulthood.
But for too many disadvantaged young people, these goals seem unattainable – and their lives take a tragic turn.
Many live in neighborhoods filled with violence and fear, and empty of opportunity.
Their impatience for real change is understandable.
They are entitled to feel that life in America should be better than this.
They are told even now to wait for improvements in our economy and in our schools, but it seems to me that these Americans have waited long enough.
The point is that when decades of the same promises keep producing the same failures, then it’s reasonable to rethink our approach – and consider a new plan.
I’m hopeful that together we can set a new direction in federal policy, starting where many of our problems do – with the family.
A study from the Brookings Institution has shown that for those who graduate from high school,
get a full-time job, and wait until 21 before they marry and then have their first child,
the probability of being poor is two percent.
And if those factors are absent, the probability of being poor is 76 percent.
Here at the NAACP, you understand the deep and lasting difference the family makes.
Your former executive director, Dr. Benjamin Hooks, had it exactly right.
The family, he said, “remains the bulwark and the mainstay of the black community.
That great truth must not be overlooked.”
Any policy that lifts up and honors the family is going to be good for the country, and that must be our goal.
As President, I will promote strong families – and I will defend traditional marriage.
As you may have heard from my opponent, I am also a believer in the free-enterprise system.
I believe it can bring change where so many well-meaning government programs have failed.
I’ve never heard anyone look around an impoverished neighborhood and say,
“You know, there’s too much free enterprise around here. Too many shops, too many jobs, too many people putting money in the bank.”
What you hear, of course, is how do we bring in jobs?
How do we make good, honest employers want to move in and stay?
And with the shape this economy is in, we’re asking that more than ever.
Free enterprise is still the greatest force for upward mobility, economic security, and the expansion of the middle class.
We have seen in recent years what it’s like to have less free enterprise.
As President, I will show the good things that can happen when we have more – more business activity, more jobs,
more opportunity, more paychecks, more savings accounts.
On Day One, I will begin turning this economy around with a plan for the middle class.
And I don’t mean just those who are middle class now – I also mean those who have waited so long for their chance to join the middle class.
I know what it will take to put people back to work, to bring more jobs and better wages.
My jobs plan is based on 25 years of success in business. It's job recovery plan and it has five key steps.
First, I will take full advantage of our energy resources, and I will approve the Keystone pipeline from Canada. Low cost, plentiful coal, natural gas, oil, and renewables will bring over a million manufacturing jobs back to the United States.
Second, I will open up new markets for American goods.
We are the most productive major economy in the world, so trade means good jobs for Americans.
But trade must be free and fair, so I’ll clamp down on cheaters like China
and make sure that they finally play by the rules and don't steal our jobs. [applause].
And third, I'm going to reduce government spending.
I hope everyone understands that high levels of debt slow down the rate of growth of the GDP, of the economy.
And that means fewer jobs are created.
If our goal is jobs, we must stop spending over a trillion dollars more than we take in every year..
And so [applause] And so too do that, I going to eliminate every non-essential expensive programs I can find
that includes Obamacare, and I am gonna work to reform and save...[boo]
you know there was a survey, there was a survey of the chamber of commerce
They carried out a survey of their members, about 1500 survey.
and they asked them what effect that Obamacare would have on their plans
and three quarters of them said it made them less likely to hire people.
So I say again if our priority is jobs, and that's my priority, that's something I'd change,
and I'd replace with some of wise people, something they need in health care,
which is lower cost, good quality, a capacity to deal with people who have pre-existing conditions and I'd put that in place.
And I'll also work to reform and save Medicare and Social Security.
People keep talking about the fact that those programs are their pathway and yet nothing is done to fix it.
I will fix them and make sure there permanent and secure for seniors today and seniors tomorrow.
And I'll do that in part by means-testing the benefits, meaning higher benefits for lower income people and lower benefits for higher income folks.
[Applause]
Fourth, I mean to focus on nurturing and developing the skilled workers that our economy so desperately needs today, and the future demands.
This is the human capital with which tomorrow’s bright future will be built.
By the way, too many homes and too many schools are failing to provide our children
with the skills and education that are essential for anything other than a minimum-wage job. [Applause]
And finally and perhaps most importantly, I'll restore economic freedom.
This nation’s economy runs on freedom, on opportunity, on entrepreneurs, on dreamers who innovate and build businesses.
These entrepreneurs are being crushed by high taxation, unnecessary burdensome regulation, hostile regulators,
excessive healthcare costs, and destructive labor policies
I will go to work to make America the best place in the world for innovators, for entrepreneurs and businesses large and small.
Do these five things
open up energy, expand trade, cut the growth of government, focus on better educating tomorrow’s workers today, and restore economic freedom –
and jobs will come back to America, and wages will rise again. We have got to do it. [Applause]
And I know the President will say he is going to do those things, but he has not, he will not, he cannot, [booings]
and his last four years in the White House prove it definitively. [booings]
If I am president, job one for me will be creating jobs.
Let me say that again: my agenda is not to put in place a series of policies that get me a lot of attention and applause,
my policy will be, number one create jobs for the American people. I do not have a hidden agenda. [Applause] You take a look.
And I'm submitting to you this: if you want a president who will make things better in the African American community,
you are looking at him. [Booing and applause]
Finally, I will address the institutionalized inequality in our education system.
And I know something about this from my time as governor.
In the years before I took office our state’s leaders had come together
to pass bipartisan measures that were making a difference.
In reading and in math, our students were already among the best in the nation – and during my term, they took over the top spot.
Those results revealed what good teachers can do if the system will only let them.
The problem was, this success wasn’t shared.
A significant achievement gap between students of different races remained. So we set out to close it.
I urged faster interventions in failing schools, and the funding to go along with it.
I promoted math and science excellence in schools, and proposed paying bonuses to our best teachers.
I refused to weaken testing standards, and instead raised them.
To graduate from high school, students had to pass an exam in math and English, and I added a science requirement as well.
And I put in place a merit scholarship for all those students who excelled:
the top 25 percent of students in each high school of Massachusetts were awarded a John and Abigail Adams Scholarship:
four years tuition-free at any Massachusetts public institution of higher learning. [Applause]
And when I was governor, not only did test scores improve – we also narrowed the achievement gap.
Now, the teachers unions were not happy with a number of these reforms.
They especially did not like our emphasis on choice through charter schools,
which is a great benefit for inner city kids trapped in under-performing schools.
Accordingly, the legislature passed a moratorium on any new charter schools.
As you know, in Boston, in Harlem, in Los Angeles, and all across the country,
charter schools are giving children a chance, children that otherwise could be locked in failing schools.
I was inspired just a few weeks ago by the students in one of Kenny Gamble’s charter schools in Philadelphia.
And right here in Houston. there is another success story: the Knowledge Is Power Program,
which has set the standard, thanks to the groundbreaking work of the late Harriet Ball.
These charter schools are doing a lot more than closing the achievement gap.
They are bringing hope and opportunity to places where for years there has been none.
Charter schools are so successful that almost every politician can find something good to say about them.
But, as we saw in Massachusetts, true reform requires more than talk.
As Governor, I vetoed the bill blocking charter schools.
But my legislature was 87% Democrat, and my veto could have easily been over-ridden.
So I joined with the Black Legislative Caucus, and their votes helped preserve my veto,
which meant that new charter schools, including some in urban neighborhoods, would be opened. [Applause]
When it comes to education reform, candidates can't have it both ways
– talking up education reform, while indulging the same groups that are blocking reform.
You can be the voice of disadvantaged public-school students,
or you can be the protector of special interests like the teachers unions,
but you can’t be both.
I have made my choice:
As president, I will be a champion of real education reform in America,
and I won’t let any special interest get in the way. [Applause]
I will give the parents of every low-income and special needs student
the chance to choose where their child goes to school.
For the first time in history, if I'm president, federal education funds will be linked to a student,
so that parents can send their child to any public or charter school they choose.
And I'll make that a true choice, because I am going to ensure there are good options available for every child.
Should I be elected President, I’ll lead as I did when I was governor.
I am pleased today to be joined today by the Reverend Jeffrey Brown,
who was a member of my kitchen cabinet in Massachusetts.
That cabinet helped guide my policy and actions that affected the African American community in particular.
I'll look for support wherever there is good will and shared conviction.
And I'll work with you to help our children attend better schools
and help our economy create good jobs with better wages.
I can’t promise that I'll agree on every issue.
But I do promise that your hospitality to me today will be returned.
We will know one another [Applause] and we will work to common purpose.
I will seek your counsel.
And if I am elected president, and you invite me to next year’s convention,
I will count it as a privilege, and my answer will be yes. [Applause]
You know, the Republican Party’s record, by the measures you rightly apply, is not perfect.
Any party that claims a perfect record doesn’t know history the way you know it. [Applause]
Yet always, in both parties, there have been men and women of integrity, decency, and humility
who've called injustice by its name.
For every one of us a particular person comes to mind,
someone who set a standard of conduct and made us better by their example.
For me, that man is my father, George Romney. [Applause]
It wasn’t just that my Dad helped write the civil rights provision for the Massachusetts - excuse me - for the Michigan Constitution, though he did.
It wasn’t just that he helped create Michigan’s first civil rights commission,
or that as governor he marched for civil rights on the streets of Detroit – though he did those things, too.
More than these public acts, it was the kind of man he was, and the way he dealt with every person, black or white.
He was a man of the fairest instincts, and a man of faith who knew that every person was a child of God. [Applause]
I’m grateful to him for so many things, and above all for the knowledge of God,
whose ways are not always our ways, but whose justice is certain and whose mercy endures forever. [Applause]
Every good cause on this earth relies in the end on a plan bigger than ours.
“Without dependence on God,” Dr. King said, “our efforts turn to ashes and our sunrises into darkest night."
Unless His spirit pervades our lives, we find only what G. K. Chesterton called
"cures that don’t cure, blessings that don’t bless, and solutions that don’t solve.” End of quote.
Of all that you bring to the work of today’s civil rights cause,
no advantage counts for more than this abiding confidence in the Name above every name.
Against cruelty, arrogance, and all the foolishness of man,
this spirit has carried the NAACP to many victories.
More still are up ahead,so many victories are ahead, and with each one of them, we will be a better nation.
Thank you so much, and God bless you everyone of you. Thank you. Thank you [Applause, harmonium]
In the consistent development of our previous efforts toward the saving and safeguarding of our national life, I have continued to recognize three related steps. The first was relief, becausethe primary concern of any Government dominated by the humane ideals of democracy is the simple principle that in a land of vast resources no one should be permitted to starve.
Relief was and continues to be our first consideration. It calls for large expenditures and will continue in modified form to do so for a long time to come. We may as well recognize that fact. It comes from the paralysis that arose as the after-effect of that unfortunate decade characterized by a mad chase for unearned riches and an unwillingness of leaders in almost every walk of life to look beyond their own schemes and speculations.
In our administration of relief we follow two principles: First, that direct giving shall, wherever possible, be supplemented by provision for useful and remunerative work
GOVT. SUBSIDY IS SOCIALISM
and, second, that where families in their existing surroundings will in all human probability never find an opportunity for full self-maintenance, happiness and enjoyment, we will try to give them a new chance in new surroundings.
FDR has just promised here, that its the Govt. duty to not only secure the happiness of those ill off, but deliver them to it.
The second step was recovery, and it is sufficient for me to ask each and every one of you to compare the situation in agriculture and in industry today with what it was fifteen months ago.
At the same time we have recognized the necessity of reform and reconstruction --reform because much of our trouble today and in the past few years has been due to a lack of understanding of the elementary principles ofjustice and fairness
Sound Familiar? There is no Fairness where property RIGHTS are not held equal by equal taxation, there is no Justice where govt. subsidy, regulation, and central planning interfere with citizens prosperity and failures.
by those in whom leadership in business and finance was placed -- reconstruction because new conditions in our economic life as well as old but neglected conditions had to be corrected.
FROM THE COMMISSIONERS TO JOHN JAY. Grosvenor Square, March 28, 1786. Sir, Soon after the arrival of Mr. Jefferson in London, we had a conference with the Ambassador of Tripoli at his house. The amount of all the information we can obtain from him was, that a perpetual peace was in all respects the most advisable, because a temporary treaty would leave room for increasing demands upon every renewal of it, and a stipulation for annual payments would be liable to failures of performance, which would renew the war, repeat the negotiations, and continually augment the claims of his nation; and the difference of expense would by no means be adequate to the inconvenience, since 12,500 guineas to his constituents, with ten per cent. upon that sum for himself, must be paid if the treaty was made for only one year. That 30,000 guineas for his employers, and £3,000 for himself, was the lowest terms upon which a perpetual peace could be made; and that this must be paid in cash on the delivery of the treaty, signed by his Sovereign; that no kind of merchandizes could be accepted. That Tunis would treat upon the same terms, but he could not answer for Algiers or Morocco. We took the liberty to make some enquiries concerning the ground of their pretensions to make war upon nations who had done them no injury, and observed that we considered all mankind as our friends who had done us no wrong, nor had given us any provocation. The Ambassador answered us that it was founded on the laws of their Prophet; that it was written in their Koran; that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners; that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners; and that every Mussulman who was slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise. That it was a law that the first who boarded an enemy's vessel should have one slave more than his share with the rest, which operated as an incentive to the most desperate valor and enterprize; that it was the practice of their corsairs to bear down upon a ship, for each sailor to take a dagger in each hand and another in his mouth, and leap on board, which so terrified their enemies that very few ever stood against them; that he verily believed the devil assisted his countrymen, for they were almost always successful. We took time to consider, and promised an answer; but we can give him no other than that the demands exceed our expectation and that of Congress so much that we can proceed no further without fresh instructions. There is but one possible way that we know of to procure the money, if Congress should authorize us to go to the necessary expense; and that is to borrow it in Holland. We are not certain it can be had there, but if Congress should order us to make the best terms we can with Tunis, Tripoli, and Morocco, and to procure this money wherever we can find it, upon terms like those of the last loan in Holland, our best endeavor shall be used to remove this formidable obstacle out of the way of the prosperity of the United States. Enclosed is a copy of a letter from Paul R. Randall, Esq., at Barcelona. The last from Mr. Barclay was dated Bayonne. It is hoped we shall soon have news from Algiers and Morocco, and we wish it may not be made more disagreeable than this from Tunis and Tripoli. JOHN ADAMS, THOS. JEFFERSON.
The diplomatic correspondence of the United States of America Volume 1 [1788] page 605
Well, what Representative Cummings said was quite interesting because he said it’s a basic tenet of government that it’s not your money. It’s the taxpayers’ money.
But he is missing the point. It’s a basic tenet of human nature that if you are spending other people’s money you will be less careful than with your own. And that is the central argument against big government. Apart from the content of the program or the objective of the programs, it’s the fact that the government exists parasitically on the money of the taxpayers, and everything it spends is something that has been sucked out of the private economy. And intrinsically, that money being spent by a bureaucrat, rather than by the person who originally had the money, will be spent with more disregard for the ultimate good than if it were in the hand of the private citizens.
That’s why Obama will suffer. The Obama administration isn’t responsible for what happened in 2010 [the GSA Las Vegas extravaganza]. This undoubtedly happened in Bush years and other years…. It’s intrinsic.
However, Obama and the Democrats are the party of government who believe in expanding it, have expanded it, and want it to continue to expand. The Republicans are the party of smaller government. And as a result, when government does crazy things that are offensive to the people who support it, it will hurt the party of government. It will hurt Obama.
“As soon as A observes something which seems to him to be wrong, from which X is suffering, A talks it over with B, and Aand B then propose to get a law passed to remedy the evil and help X. Their law always proposes to determine what C shall do for X, or in the better case, what A, B, and C shall do for X… What I want to do is to look up C. I want to show you what manner of man he is. I call him the Forgotten Man. perhaps the appellation is not strictly correct. He is the man who never is thought of… He works, he votes, generally he prays—but he always pays….”
-William Graham Sumner, Yale University, 1883
Attributed to George Washington speech of Jan. 7, 1790 in the Boston Independent Chronicle
“A free people ought not only to be armedand disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status ofindependence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government.”
George Washington’s First State of the Union Address
“Among the many interesting objects, which will engage your attention, that of providing for the common defence will merit particular regard.— To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.—
A free people ought not only to be armed, butdisciplined;— to which end a uniform and well digested plan is requisite: And their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories, as tend to render themindependent others, for essential, particularly for military supplies.”
