| Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule -- and both commonly succeed, and are right. -- H. L. Mencken Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve. -- George Bernard Shaw None of us is a smart as all of us. -- Phil Condit One man's word is no man's word; we should quietly hear both sides. -- Johann Wolfgang van Goethe The test of our progress is not whether we add to the abundance of those who have much. It is whether we provide enough to those who have little. -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt No culture can live, if it attempts to be exclusive. -- Mahatma Gandhi Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. -- Rev. Marin Luther King, Jr. There must be no pulling in opposite ways. We must hang together. -- John Hancock, on signing the Declaration of Independence Nothing is more dangerous than an idea when it is the only one we have. -- Alain In times when the passions are beginning to take charge of the conduct of human affairs, one should pay less attention to what men of experience and common sense are thinking than to what is preoccupying the imagination of dreamers. -- Alexis de Tocqueville The surest way to corrupt a young person is to teach them to esteem more highly those who think alike than those who think differently. -- Nietzsche What sets worlds in motion is the interplay of differences, their attractions and repulsions; life is plurality, death is uniformity. -- Octavio Paz We have all come here in different ships, but we're in the same boat now. -- Dr. Martin Luther King Democracy is cumbersome, slow and inefficient, but in due time, the voice of the people will be heard and their latent wisdom will prevail. -- Thomas Jefferson. REMEMBER THE FOURTH OF JULY There were 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence. This was a act of rebellion against their own government's tryanny and their signatures on the historic document immediately place their lives, families and property at great and imminent risk. They signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured. Ever wonder what happened to them? They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. What kind of men were they? Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured. Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War. Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated. Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags. Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward. Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton. At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson Jr, noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt. Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months. John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later he died from exhaustion and a broken heart. Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates. These courageous Declaration of Independence signers were not wild-eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians. They were soft-spoken men of means and education. They had security, but they valued liberty more. Standing tall, straight, and unwavering, they pledged: "For the support of this declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of the divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor." They gave us a free and independent America. And they paid a price that should be remembered, and honored. -- Happy Independence Day If mankind minus one were of one opinion, then mankind is no more justified in silencing the one than the one -- if he had the power -- would be justified in silencing mankind. -- John Stuart Mill |
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