as long as rights are defended, foundations of freedom are secure
In an interview by Kingsley Martin, published in the New Statesman on January 7, 1939, Winston Churchill said:
The essential aspects of democracy are the freedom of the individual, within the framework of laws passed by Parliament, to order his life as he pleases, and the uniform enforcement of tribunals independent of the executive.
The laws are based on Magna Carta, Habeas Corpus, the Petition of Right and others.
Without this foundation there can be no freedom or civilisation, anyone being at the mercy of officials and liable to be spied upon and betrayed even in his own home.
As long as these rights are defended, the foundations of freedom are secure.
Mr. Churchill was responding to a question asking if there were any contradictions in a drive to rearm in defense of democracy.
The question was asked as democracy in Great Britain was threatened by the rise of Nazi Germany.
Today we ask the question as the threat is within.
I am not sure that Mr. Churchill could have handled such a thing.
I know I have trouble.
As long as these rights are defended, the foundations of freedom are secure.
Without this foundation there can be no freedom or civilisation, anyone … ANYONE … being at the mercy of officials and liable to be spied upon and betrayed even in his own home.
he made the Lord seem … so real … after a long pause he just said amen
Re-reading … well, listening to the audio book as I drive to work, the book Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Burns, I was again struck by the bit of dialogue between the hero, Will Tweedy (Yes, this is where I got Boy! Howdy!) and his Grandpa when Will has a near death experience after being run over (he lay low in the tracks) by a train.
Ms. Burn’s writes, picking up the story here where Will has told his Grandpa what happened – (The dialect is rural Georgia, to the east of Atlanta of the early 1900’s):
With the way he took it so casual, and the relief of getting it told, I felt like I’d been stuck back together. But one thing worried me. “Grandpa, you think I’m alive tonight cause it was God’s will?”
“Naw, you livin’ cause you had the good sense to fall down ‘twixt them tracks.”
“Maybe God gave me the idea.”
“You can believe thet, son, if’n you think it was God’s idea for you to be up on thet there trestle in the first place. What God give you was a brain. Hit’s His will for you to use it—p’tickler when a train’s comin’.”
Resting my chin in my hand, I thought about that while Grandpa finished up his pie. I felt awful tired. “Sir, do you think it was God’s will for Bluford Jackson to get lockjaw and die?”
Grandpa spoke kindly. “The Lord don’t make firecrackers, son. Hit’s jest too bad pore Blu didn’t be more careful when he was shootin’m off.”
“You don’t think God wills any of the things that happen to us?”
“Maybe. Maybe not. Who knows?”
“Mama and Papa think He does.”
Grandpa licked some meringue off his fork while he pondered.
Finally he said, “Life bullies us, son, but God don’t.
He had good reasons for fixin’ it where if’n you git too sick or too hurt to live, why, you can die, same as a sick chicken.
I’ve knowed a few really sick chickens to git well, and lots a-folks git well thet nobody ever thought to see out a-bed agin cept in a coffin.
Still and all, common sense tells you this much: everwhat makes a wheel run over a track will make it run over a boy if’n he’s in the way.
If’n you’d a-got kilt, it’d mean you jest didn’t move fast enough, like a rabbit that gits caught by a hound dog.
You think God favors the dog over the rabbit, son?”
I shook my head.
“I don’t neither. When it comes to prayin’, we got it all over the other animals, but we ain’t no different when it comes to livin’ and dyin’.
If’n you give God the credit when somebody don’t die, you go’n blame Him when they do die?
Call it His will? Ever noticed we git well all the time and don’t die but once’t?
Thet has to mean God always wants us to live if’n we can.
Hit ain’t never His will for us to die—cept in the big sense.
In the sense He was smart enough not to make life eternal on this here earth, with people and bees and elephants and dogs piled up in squirmin’ mounds like Loma’s dang cats tryin’ to keep warm in the wintertime.
Does all this make any sense, Will Tweedy?”
They’s a heap more to God’s will than death, disappointment, and like thet.
Hit’s God’s will for us to be good and do good, love one another, be forgivin’….”
He laughed. “I reckon I ain’t very forgivin’, son.
I can forgive a fool, but I ain’t inner-rested in coddlin’ hypocrites.
Well anyhow, folks who think God’s will jest has to do with sufferin’ and dyin’, they done missed the whole point.”
Grandpa had made the Lord seem so real, I wouldn’t of been surprised if he’d said good night to Him. But after a long pause he just said a-men.
Finally he said, “Life bullies us, son, but God don’t.
Well anyhow, folks who think God’s will jest has to do with sufferin’ and dyin’, they done missed the whole point.”
know they’re dishonest almost always think there’s a good reason for it
From the movie, The Big Chill where Michael and Sam discuss life comes this bit of dialogue.
Michael: Nobody thinks they’re a bad person. I’m not even claiming that people always think they’re doing the right thing; they may know that they’re doing something dishonest or insensitive or manipulative but they almost always think that there’s a good reason for doing it. They almost always think it will turn out for the best in the end, even if it just turns out best for them, because by definition what’s best for them is what’s best.
Sam Weber: Why is it what you just said strikes me as a massive rationalization?
Michael: Don’t knock rationalization. Where would we be without it? I don’t know anyone who could get through the day without two or three juicy rationalizations. They’re more important than sex.
Sam Weber: Ah, come on. Nothing’s more important than sex.
Michael: Oh yeah? Ever gone a week without a rationalization?
I first saw this movie 40 years in Ann Arbor at a special screening for film students at the University of Michigan.
I got invited through the luck of just being there.
It was the line on rationalization that I was searching for.
Don’t knock rationalization. Where would we be without it? I don’t know anyone who could get through the day without two or three juicy rationalizations.
It stuck in my mind as I seek to explain folks who I know who support the current guy in office.
I tell my wife that for many, its playing the lottery and for the state of their career, they rationalize that if they can get close to this guy, maybe … just maybe when he dies, he might remember them in his will with a nice tip.
You know, like Charles Foster Kane and Jed Leland.
Anyone for where they are in life, cozying up to the that guy is about they best bet they can make for their future financial security so the rationalization that they are selling out their integrity of the present can be justified.
Then I came across the line leading up to the rationalization statement.
Nobody thinks they’re a bad person. I’m not even claiming that people always think they’re doing the right thing; they may know that they’re doing something dishonest or insensitive or manipulative but they almost always think that there’s a good reason for doing it. They almost always think it will turn out for the best in the end, even if it just turns out best for them, because by definition what’s best for them is what’s best.
Read that again, slowly and out loud.
Nobody thinks they’re a bad person.
I’m not even claiming that people always think they’re doing the right thing;
they may know that they’re doing something dishonest or insensitive or manipulative but they almost always think that there’s a good reason for doing it.
They almost always think it will turn out for the best in the end, even if it just turns out best for them, because by definition what’s best for them is what’s best.
Now ask yourself.
How can folks support that guy in office?
Ask them.
They will tell you they are doing the right thing and they have a good reason for it.
What makes the country unique is that even as the economy hums along and the wealthiest prosper as never before, a party calling itself conservative is actively conspiring to cut the sinews of the fiscal state.
This isn’t normal. And markets are finally, slowly waking up to this fact.
belongs to a church … on certain Sundays enjoys chanting Nicene creed
This is the Nicene Creed …
I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.
I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.
I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.
Amen.
This may be the key phrase …
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.
Onion Days in Chicago Poems by Carl Sandburg, (1916)
Mrs. Gabrielle Giovannitti comes along Peoria Street every morning at nine o’clock With kindling wood piled on top of her head, her eyes looking straight ahead to find the way for her old feet.
Her daughter-in-law, Mrs. Pietro Giovannitti, whose husband was killed in a tunnel explosion through the negligence of a fellow-servant, Works ten hours a day, sometimes twelve, picking onions for Jasper on the Bowmanville road.
She takes a street car at half-past five in the morning, Mrs. Pietro Giovannitti does, And gets back from Jasper’s with cash for her day’s work, between nine and ten o’clock at night.
Last week she got eight cents a box, Mrs. Pietro Giovannitti, picking onions for Jasper, But this week Jasper dropped the pay to six cents a box because so many women and girls were answering the ads in the Daily News.
Jasper belongs to an Episcopal church in Ravenswood and on certain Sundays He enjoys chanting the Nicene creed with his daughters on each side of him joining their voices with his.
If the preacher repeats old sermons of a Sunday, Jasper’s mind wanders to his 700-acre farm and how he can make it produce more efficiently And sometimes he speculates on whether he could word an ad in the Daily News so it would bring more women and girls out to his farm and reduce operating costs.
Mrs. Pietro Giovannitti is far from desperate about life; her joy is in a child she knows will arrive to her in three months.
And now while these are the pictures for today there are other pictures of the Giovannitti people I could give you for to-morrow, And how some of them go to the county agent on winter mornings with their baskets for beans and cornmeal and molasses.
I listen to fellows saying here’s good stuff for a novel or it might be worked up into a good play.
I say there’s no dramatist living can put old Mrs. Gabrielle Giovannitti into a play with that kindling wood piled on top of her head coming along Peoria Street nine o’clock in the morning.
I repeat, this is the key phrase …
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.
The Jasper’s of this world can hear if they want to.
No Haiku For You 