Be
a Hero for a Better World ... Every Act of Kindness Makes
a Difference!
POLITICS
“Always
vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you
may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is
never lost.”
-- John Quincy Adams
*
It's crucial to understand that as a society, we
can reorganize. We can reorganize socially, politically,
and economically, and we can reorganize according
to our values.
-- Rebecca
Adamson
Our
government is never what it seems,
Making secret deals behind the scenes.
Selling favors, guns and oil deeds,
It's supposed to serve its governed people's needs!
-- Robert
Alan Silverstein
Why
are they the ones that get to say what is right and wrong?
The profits before people way makes it hard to get along.
We want a world that's fair and just with peace for everyone.
We've got to go on now, we must, before our world is done.
We want our world back!
--
Robert
Alan Silverstein
*
“I
believe there should be a part of society that conscientiously
works as a ‘critical partner’ of the government.”
-- Dewi
Rana Amir
Different
men seek after happiness in different ways and by
different means, and so make for themselves different
modes of life and forms of government.
-- Aristotle
(384-322 BC)
*
No piecemeal solution is going to prevent the collapse
of whole societies and ecosystems ... a radical
re-thinking of our values, priorities and political
systems is urgent.
-- Maude
Barlow
When
you become active in the system and communicate
to your representatives, and they don't vote in
accordance with your values, your responsibility
is to support candidates who will.
-- Joan
Blades
Every citizen of this country should be guaranteed
that their vote matters, that their vote is counted,
and that in the voting booth, their vote has a much
weight as that of any CEO, any member of Congress,
or any President.
-- Barbara
Boxer
“There
is no private domain of a person's life that is
not political, and there is no political issue that
is not ultimately personal.”
-- Charlotte
Bunch
...
the 20th century has been characterized by three developments
of great political importance: The growth of democracy,
the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate
propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against
democracy.
-- Alex Carey, Australian social scientist
There
is a higher law than the law of government. That's the
law of conscience.
-- Stokely Carmichael
"Most
Americans have never seen the ignorance, degradation,
hunger, sickness, and futility in which many other
Americans live...They won't become involved in economic
or political change until something brings the seriousness
of the situation home to them."
-- Shirley
Chisholm
Representative
democracy, as in, say, the United States or Great
Britain, would be criticized by an anarchist of
this school on two grounds. First of all because
there is a monopoly of power centralized in the
State, and secondly -and critically - because
representative democracy is limited to the political
sphere and in no serious way encroaches on the
economic sphere. Anarchists of this tradition
have always held that democratic control of one's
productive life is at the core of any serious
human liberation, or, for that matter, of any
significant democratic practice. That is, as long
as individuals are compelled to rent themselves
on the market to those who are willing to hire
them, as long as their role in production is simply
that of ancillary tools, then there are striking
elements of coercion and oppression that make
talk of democracy very limited, if even meaningful.
-- Noam
Chomsky
Ten thousand times has the labor movement stumbled
and bruised itself. We have been enjoined by the
courts, assaulted by thugs, charged by the militia,
traduced by the press, frowned upon in public opinion,
and deceived by politicians. 'But notwithstanding
all this and all these, labor is today the most
vital and potential power this planet has ever known,
and its historic mission is as certain of ultimate
realization as is the setting of the sun.
-- Eugene
V. Debs
You
have got to unite in the same labor union and in the same
political party and strike and vote together, and the
hour you do that, the world is yours.
-- Eugene
V. Debs
"We
ask justice, we ask equality, we ask that all the civil
and political rights that belong to citizens of the United
States, be guaranteed to us and our daughters forever."
-- Declaration of Rights for Women, July 1876
“We
have a complete void of progressive politics in this
country right now. The will of the people goes ignored
and unrealized. I'm searching for the people that
can enter the political system, a strong third party.
We need to consolidate.” -- Ani
DiFranco
"I
realized that public affairs were also my affairs. I became
active in politics because I saw the possibility, if we
all sat back and did nothing, of a world in which there
would no longer be any stages for actors to act on."
-- Helen Gahagan Douglas (1900-1980)
*
I think that people want peace so much that one of
these days governments had better get out of the way
and let them have it. -- Dwight
D. Eisenhower
I think that people want peace so much that one
of these days governments had better get out of
the way and let them have it."
-- Dwight
D. Eisenhower
In
the councils of government, we must guard against the
acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or
unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential
for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and
will persist. -- Dwight
D. Eisenhower
The
arts can bring the heart to the aid of the head, the
personal to the political.
-- Scilla
Elworthy
“Those
who stay away from the election think that one vote
will do no good: 'Tis but one step more to think
one vote will do no harm.”
~ Ralph
Waldo Emerson
"Children
organizing for political rights will probably be treated
initially with ridicule and derision, and then with misunderstanding
and perhaps eventually violence if the experience of the
struggle for women's suffrage is any precedent. Undoubtedly
the greatest obstacle to be overcome is the adult refusal
to acknowledge that children suffer political discrimination
and exclusion. Adults do not perceive children as a minority
group but as helpless, inexperienced, defenseless young
people who need protection. Adult paternalism seeks to
protect and if in this process it curtails freedom, truncates
potential and destroys civil liberties this is taken to
be incidental. The belief in the legitimacy of paternalism
justifies and cements the existing power relationships
between adults and young people. This attitude must be
confronted, challenged and refuted if young people are
to secure their political rights..."
-- Bob Franklin "The Rights of Children"
Every
time that religion has identified itself or entangled
itself with a particular political movement or a particular
government, religion has been harmed by that. I see
religion as a powerful positive healing force for
this nation and the world. But that force is blunted,
weakened, compromised inestimably, if we turn religion
into a tool for advancing political strategy; if we
make it a matter of how to win political office; if
we treat it as anything other than a sacred part of
life from which we ought to draw sustenance and values
and strength for living courageously as good citizens.
-- C.
Welton Gaddy
Promoting
active liberty does not mean allowing the majority
to run roughshod over minorities. It calls for taking
special care that all groups have a chance to fully
participate in society and the political process.
-- Ruth
Bader Ginsburg
The
best government is that which teaches us to govern ourselves.
-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The
Universal Declaration... as a common standard of
achievement for all peoples and all nations...it
not only crystallizes the political thought of our
times on these matters, but it has also influenced
the thinking of legislators all over the world.
-- Dag
Hammarskjöld, Second UN Secretary-General, 1953-1961
Genuine
politics -- even politics worthy of the name -- the
only politics I am willing to devote myself to --
is simply a matter of serving those around us: serving
the community and serving those who will come after
us. Its deepest roots are moral because it is a responsibility
expressed through action, to and for the whole.
-- Vaclav
Havel
"America
is a country ready to be taken—in fact, longing
to be taken—by political leaders ready to restore
democracy and trust to the political process."
-- Arianna
Huffington
”In
politics, an organized minority is a political majority.
-- Jesse
Jackson
When the people fear their government, there is
tyranny; when the government fears the people, there
is liberty.
~ Thomas
Jefferson
The
care of human life and happiness, and not their
destruction, is the first and only object of good
government.
~ Thomas
Jefferson
The
spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain
occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.
~ Thomas
Jefferson
The
legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only
as they are injurious to others.
~ Thomas
Jefferson
That
government is the strongest of which every man feels himself
a part.
~ Thomas
Jefferson
“People
often say that, in a democracy, decisions are made by
a majority of the people. Of course, that is not true.
Decisions are made by a majority of those who make themselves
heard and who vote - a very different thing.”
-- Walter H. Judd
"The vision I see is not only a movement of direct
democracy, of self- and co-determination and non-violence,
but a movement in which politics means the power
to love and the power to feel united on the spaceship
Earth... In a world struggling in violence and dishonesty,
the further development of non-violence - not only
as a philosophy but as a way of life, as a force
on the streets, in the market squares, outside the
missile bases, inside the chemical plants and inside
the war industry - becomes one of the most urgent
priorities."
-- Petra
Kelly
I
believe in an America where the separation of church
and state is absolute -- where no Catholic prelate
would tell the president (should he be Catholic)
how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell
his parishoners for whom to vote -- where no church
or church school is granted any public funds or
political preference -- and where no man is denied
public office merely because his religion differs
from the president who might appoint him or the
people who might elect him.
-- John
F. Kennedy
*
We must recognize that we can't solve our problems
now until there is a radical redistribution of economic
and political power.... a radical restructuring
of the architecture of American society. --
Martin
Luther King, Jr
Cowardice
asks the question: is it safe? Expediency asks the question:
is it politic? Vanity asks the question: is it popular?
But conscience asks the question: is it right? And there
comes a time when one must take a position that is neither
safe, nor politic, nor popular- but one must take it simply
because it is right. --
Martin
Luther King, Jr.
It's
very important to vote. People died for this right.
-- Lenny
Kravitz
“Politics
determines who has the power, not who has the truth."
-- Paul Krugman (Nobel Prize-winning economist)
*
Citizens
across the United States are now uniting in a great
cause to establish a Department of Peace, seeking
nothing less than the transformation of our society,
to make non-violence an organizing principle, to
make war archaic through creating a paradigm shift
in our culture for human development, for economic
and political justice and for violence control.
-- Dennis
Kucinich
Some
believe that the only way to remove the authoritarian
regime and replace it with a democratic one is through
violent means. I would like to set the precedent of
political change through political settlement, not
through violence.
-- Aung
San Suu Kyi
“To
make democracy work, we must be a notion of participants,
not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right
to complain.”
-- Louis L'Amour
*
There
can be no better measure of our governance than
the way we treat our children, and no greater
failing on our part than to allow them to be subjected
to violence, abuse or exploitation.
-- Jessica
Lange
Yes,
and you should question your government.
--
Jessica
Lange
*
…in
place of the Old Bottom Line of money and power, a
New Bottom Line of Love and Generosity is possible.
People of all faiths need to shape a political and
social movement that reaffirms the most generous,
peace-oriented, social justice-committed, and loving
truths of the spiritual heritage of the human race.
-- Rabbi
Michael Lerner
It
is easy to think the State has a lot of different objects
-- military, political, economic, and what not. But in
a way things are much simpler than that. The State exists
simply to promote and to protect the ordinary happiness
of human beings in this life. A husband and wife chatting
over a fire, a couple of friends having a game of darts
in a pub, a man reading a book in his own room or digging
in his own garden -- that is what the State is there for.
And unless they are helping to increase and prolong and
protect such moments, all the laws, parliaments, armies,
courts, police, economics, etc., are simply a waste of
time.
-- C. S. Lewis
*
“Democracy is the government of the people, by the
people, for the people”
-- Abraham
Lincoln
The
prophecy of a world moving toward political unity is the
light which guides all that is best, most vigorous, most
truly alive in the work of our time.
-- Walter Lippman
Whatever
the immediate gains and losses, the dangers to our safety
arising from political suppression are always greater
than the dangers to the safety resulting from political
freedom. Suppression is always foolish.
-- Neil A. McDonald
A
lot of political people, especially people on the
left, have forgotten the importance of humor as an
incredible weapon, and a vehicle through which to
affect change.
-- Michael
Moore
Once you don't vote your ideals... that has serious
undermining affects. It erodes the moral basis of
our democracy.
~ Ralph
Nader
However
difficult it may be to bring it about, some form of world
government, with agreed international law and means of
enforcing the law, is inevitable.
-- John B. Orr
People are very hungry for something new. I think
they are interested in being called to be a part
of something larger than the sort of small, petty,
slash-and-burn politics that we have been seeing
over the last several years.
-- Barack
Obama
The
environmental movement has led some of the most
successful global campaigns in terms of raising
public and political consciousness about the relationship
of environment and development and offering alternatives
for better governance at all levels from community
to the international arena.
~ Michele
Perrault
"The
Greek word for idiot, literally translated, means one
who does not participate in politics. That sums up my
conviction on the subject."
Gladys Pyle, Senator (1890-1989)
"'If
democracy and self-rule are the fundamentals, then why
should people give up these rights when they enter their
workplace? In politics we fight like tigers for freedom,
for the right to elect our leaders, for freedom of movement,
choice of residence, choice of what work to pursue - control
of our lives, in short. And then we wake up in the morning
and go to work, and all those rights disappear. We no
longer insist on them. And so for most of the day we return
to feudalism. That is what capitalism is - a version of
feudalism in which capital replaces land, and business
leaders replace kings. But the hierarchy remains. And
so we still hand over our lives' labor, under duress,
to feed rulers who do no real work.... 'So. We must challenge.
It is time. If self-rule is a fundamental value, if simple
justice is a value, then they are values everywhere, including
in the workplace where we spend so much of our lives'...."
-- Kim Stanley Robinson
I
believe that government is the servant of the people and
not their master.
-- David Rockefeller
On
account of being a democracy and run by the people,
we are the only nation in the world that has to
keep a government four years, no matter what it
does.
-- Will
Rogers
The
liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate
the growth of private power to a point where it becomes
stronger than their democratic state itself. That,
in its essence, is fascism - ownership of government
by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private
power.
~ Franklin
D. Roosevelt
Let
us never forget that government is ourselves and not an
alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy
are not a President and senators and congressmen and government
officials, but the voters of this country.
~ Franklin
D. Roosevelt
The government is us; we are the government, you
and I.
~ Theodore
Roosevelt
But
remember that if the struggle were to resort to violence,
it will lose vision, beauty and imagination. Most
dangerous of all, it will marginalize and eventually
victimize women. And a political struggle that does
not have women at the heart of it, above it, below
it, and within it is no struggle at all.
-- Arundhati
Roy
The whole basis of the United Nations is the right
of all nations - great or small - to have weight,
to have a vote, to be attended to, to be a part
of the twentieth century.
-- Adlai
Stevenson
Democracy
and capitalism have very different beliefs about the proper
distribution of power. One believes in a completely equal
distribution of political power, 'one man, one vote',
while the other believes that it is the duty of the economically
fit to drive the unfit out of business and into economic
extinction. 'Survival of the fittest' and inequalities
in purchasing power is what capitalist efficiency is all
about. Individuals and firms become efficient to be rich.
To put it in its starkest form, capitalism is perfectly
compatible with slavery. The American South had such a
system for more than two centuries. Democracy is not comparable
with slavery.
-- Lester Thurow
"The
government in which I believe is that which is based
on mere moral sanction...the real law lives in the
kindness of our hearts. If our hearts are empty, no
law or political reform can fill them." -- Leo
Tolstoy
“Where
every man in a state has a vote, brutal laws are
impossible.”
-- Mark
Twain
Patriotism
is supporting your country all the time, and your
government when it deserves it.
-- Mark
Twain
The
government is merely a servant -- merely a temporary servant;
it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right
and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who
isn't. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them.
-- Mark
Twain
“Fifty
percent of people won't vote, and fifty percent don't
read newspapers. I hope it's the same fifty percent.”
-- Gore Vidal
As
societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent,
too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action:
you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse,
so that at election time people will solemnly vote against
their own interests.
-- Gore Vidal
The only way to change is to vote. People are responsible.
-- Paul
Wellstone
When
too many Americans don't vote or participate, some
see apathy and despair. I see disappointment and
even outrage. And I believe that out of this frustration
can come hope and action.
-- Paul
Wellstone
“There
are three critical ingredients to democratic renewal
and progressive change in America: good public policy,
grassroots organizing and electoral politics.”
-- Paul
Wellstone
And
political parties, overanxious for vote catching,
become tolerant to intolerant groups.
-- Wendell
Wilkie
*
Politics: “Poli” a Latin word meaning "many" and "tics"
meaning "bloodsucking creatures".
-- Robin
Williams
The
uses of government should be to foster, protect
and promote the possession of equality.
-- Victoria
Woodhull
The
women of the country have the power in their own
hands, in spite of the law and the government being
altogether of the male order.
-- Victoria
Woodhull
A free America... means just this: individual
freedom for all, rich or poor, or else this system
of government we call democracy is only an expedient
to enslave man to the machine and make him like
it.
-- Frank
Lloyd Wright
Government
can't completely take care of people by making a bunch
of promises and programs. Organize your communities
-- Neil
Young
*
"We need to rethink our position in the world. We
need to stop sending weapons to countries that oppress
other people. We need to decide that we will not
go to war, whatever reason is conjured up by the
politicians or the media, because war in our time
is always indiscriminate, a war against innocents,
a war against children. War is terrorism, magnified
a hundred times."
-- Howard
Zinn
