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On Justice, Power and Individual Responsibility

Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak; and that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws.

John Adams

The preservation of government depends on the faithful discharge of this Duty; if the citizens neglect their Duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made, not for the public good so much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the Laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizen will be violated or disregarded.

Noah Webster

If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.

Bishop Desmond Tutu

Yes, we did produce a near-perfect Republic. But will they keep it? Or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom?  Material abundance without character is the path of destruction.

Thomas Jefferson (from correspondence to Samuel Adams)

The enjoyment of power inevitably corrupts the judgment of reason...

Immanuel Kant

I do not hesitate one second to state clearly and unmistakably: I belong to the American resistance movement which fights against American imperialism, just as the resistance movement fought against Hitler.

Paul Robeson

The civilized have created the wretched, quite coldly and deliberately, and do not intend to change the status quo; are responsible for their slaughter and enslavement; rain down bombs on defenseless children whenever and wherever they decide that their 'vital interests' are menaced, and think nothing of torturing a man to death: these people are not to be taken seriously when they speak of the 'sanctity' of human life, or the 'conscience' of the civilized world.

James Baldwin ( The Devil Finds Work, Ch. 1,  1976 )

Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of government. The history of liberty is the history of resistance. The history of liberty is a history of the limitation of governmental power, not the increase of it.

Woodrow Wilson

I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in.

George McGovern

The ability and inclination to use physical strength is no indication of bravery or tenacity to life. The greatest cowards are often the greatest bullies. Nothing is cheaper and more common than physical bravery.

Clarence Darrow

A free press is not a privilege but an organic necessity in a great society.

Walter Lippmann 

URL:  www.thecitizenfsr.org                                                  SM 2000-2011

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