March 23, 2007. Aside from my sisters birthday, it's also known as "Liberty Day". It is a day set aside to commemorate Patrick Henry's "Give me Liberty or give me death" speech.
*"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined."
*Patrick Henry at the Virginia Convention, 1788, as quoted by Thomas M. Moneure, Jr., in "Virginia's Great Dissenters", printed in the March, 1999, issue of American Guardian,:
"You are not to inquire how your trade may be increased, nor how you are to become a great and powerful people, but how your liberties can be secured; for liberty ought to be the direct end of your government."
*Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!
*I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know no way of judging of the future but by the past.
*Caesar had his Brutus-Charles the First, his Cromwell-and George the Third-('Treason,' cried the Speaker) . . . may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of it.
Patrick Henry was born in 1736 and died in 1799. His words of over 200 years ago should be ringing from the mountain tops today. People should be listening. They are not. They have not headed his warnings. They have gladly given up liberties for the illusion of security. They have forged ahead, lead by fear and greed.
Earlier this week, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said if Western countries "want to treat us with threats and enforcement of coercion and violence, undoubtedly they must know that the Iranian nation and authorities will use all their capacities to strike enemies that attack."
In February, President Bush said: "The Iranian people are good, honest, decent people and they've got a government that is belligerent, loud, noisy, threatening — a government which is in defiance of the rest of the world and says, 'We want a nuclear weapon.'"
On a day that our government has set aside to honor and remember Patrick Henry and his "give me liberty..." speech, we once again have been slapped in the face by a man and an administration that would dearly love to remove them all and wage more illegal wars of aggression.
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7 comments:
Happy Liberty Day! Glad to see ya back!
In your absence, I started to wonder if you really were as good as I thought? This wonderful piece wiped out all the doubts.
I am barely cognizant of Patrick Henry, but this short history lesson by you demonstrates his enermous gift of thought. There is just one thing, how on God's earth did he know about W.Bush almost two centuries before his birth?
Sorry to hear that you have sister who was born March 23rd! It's not easy to deal with us, hot head Arieses!
Why thank you Fade, it's so nice to be back.
Pekka, what a sweet thing to say!
I do admit that the history lesson on Henry was brief. He was the governor of Virginia, he wrote and delivered the speech that caused all but one rep from the 13 colonies to sign the Declaration of Independance, New York.
He was in my fathers lineage. My second claim to fame I suppose.
No worries about Aries. I'm a Sag and we get along great! ;o)
"He was in my fathers lineage. My second claim to fame I suppose".
The first one being?
The first? Shameless plug ensues here...
During my first solo art show, fresh out of college, I sold several painting and three sculptures. I made enough cash in those three days to cover my last years tuition and books. One of the paintings, I found out later, was purchased by Mick Jagger.
Thank you for answering my nosy question, Ziem! It left me kind of breathless in respect and envy. I am an arts lover and, I suppose, do have a good taste but absolutely no gift/skill to create anything of my own.
The lippy Englisman you mentioned about, if I recall it right, dabbles in painting, too?
So I've heard, but nothing I've ever seen, unfortunately.
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