“Great republics do not last …
Vast wealth and power corrupt.
It incites dangerous ambitions and will bring the republic down.
It will run down the Congress and crush the people’s voice.
This has been a strange panic.
It’s like a blight, a paralysis, in which a mighty machine has slipped its belt, and is still running and accomplishing nothing.
A creepy and awful stillness has given us an atmosphere of apprehension.
The phrase ‘lay-off’ has become common.
The laying off of two and three thousand men has become familiar.
But there’s a far greater and disastrous laying off all over this land – the discharging of one out of three employees in all the humble and small shops and industries across America.
A blight has fallen upon us.
And the monarchy of the rich and the powerful (is) author of it.”
-- Mark Twain, as quoted (and performed) by the great Hal Holbrook
This is pretty good:
In the words of Abraham Lincoln, uttered on the first of December, 1862,
We can succeed only by concert... The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty; and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves.
Posted by: jcw | September 22, 2011 at 02:37 AM
Wow. That passage could have been written ten minutes ago.
Posted by: Dianne | September 22, 2011 at 02:39 AM