January 18th, 2010
Tagged: equity, justice, peace, quote, racism, speech
Don’t be distracted by the vision; focus on the problem statement:
When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the “unalienable Rights” of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.”
From I have a Dream. Have a just Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
October 20th, 2007
Tagged: do-gooding, quote
Heard this quote I liked from NAMAC keynote speaker Gary Chapman of the LBJ School of Public Affairs. He was paraphrasing John Gardner:
The nation is filled with opportunities disguised as insoluble problems.
September 24th, 2007
Tagged: language, latin, quote, speech
Sic transit gloria mundi
Thus passes the glory of the world
Noticed in The Sportswriter by Richard Ford (p. 284)
September 11th, 2007
Tagged: fear, history, politics, quote
There are so many overlapping assumptions and statements in this congressman’s statement it’s amazing. It’s also amazing how 40 years of history inures you to something viciously contested by minds great and small.
On September 21st [1964], Congressman Donald C. Bruce of Indiana lashed out at the Daisy and Ice Cream ads at a Republican Ward dinner. He suggested that the spots aided Soviet political goals by “repeating as fact a Communist-sponsored lie which for years has been Kremlin-directed propaganda aimed at neutralizing the American will to resist the Communist program for world conquest by promoting fear of ‘the bomb.’”
William Bernbach himself defended the Daisy spot in no uncertain terms to the New York Times in October of 1964:
“The little girl commercial was deplored on absolutely erroneous grounds. The central theme of this campaign—whether you like it or not—is nuclear responsibility. Perhaps that theme is not a tasteful one; there is no way to make death pleasant.”
The divisiveness of the ad seems understandable considering the studies of mortality awareness.
from CONELRAD’s history of Lyndon Johnson’s atomic responsibility, anti-Goldwater Daisy Ad. (via BoingBoing)
