"The strength of the Constitution lies entirely in the determination of each citizen to defend it. Only if every single citizen feels duty bound to do his share in this defense are the constitutional rights secure. " --Albert Einstein (1875-1955)
"We, the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts - not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow men who pervert the Constitution. " --Abraham Lincoln
We, as American citizens, should not be sitting around, waiting to see what the government is going to do to us next. We are the government, and it is time to remind our representatives in Congress of that fact. James Madison (Father of the Constitution) made that clear:
"[A]ll power is originally vested in, and consequently derived from, the people. That government is instituted and ought to be exercised for the benefit of the people; which consists in the enjoyment of life and liberty and the right of acquiring property, and generally of pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety. That the people have an indubitable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to reform or change their government whenever it be found adverse or inadequate to the purpose of its institution. "
"The freemen of America did not wait till usurped power had strengthened itself by exercise and entangled the question in precedents. They saw all the consequences in the principle, and they avoided the consequences by denying the principle. We revere this lesson too much ...to forget it. "
The big question now is have we waited too long. Is it already too late? Have our elections become so corrupt that it doesn 't even matter if we vote or not? I don 't think so--not yet; but our time to act is running out. Right now, patriotic Americans are fighting to save the American Dream, but they cannot do it without our help.
"One of the illusions [of life] is that the present hour is not the critical, decisive hour. " --Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that numbers of people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience. . . Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running the country. That 's our problem. " --Howard Zinn
"If you join the battle, not in your hundreds of thousands, but in your millions, you will be greeted joyously by the rest of the world. And you will see how beautiful it is to be gentle instead of brutal, safe instead of scared. Befriended instead of isolated. Loved instead of hated ....Yours is by no means a great nation. But you could be a great people. History is giving you the chance. Seize the time. " --Arundhati Roy, 5/13/03
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