It doesn't matter if right or wrong All ideas politely put do belong In the public market for all to hear This is the way of liberty and not of fear
Speak up for the sake of true diversity To do otherwise is an uncivil perversity No one is done a favor through suppression It will, in fact, being the death of our nation
Everyone has their tale to tell The truth lives in hinted details And all words needed to say Should be allowed to be said anyway
“The foundation on which all [constitutions] are built is the natural equality of man, the denial of every preeminence but that annexed to legal office, and particularly the denial of a preeminence by birth.” – Thomas Jefferson (1784)
“Lots of times you have to pretend to join a parade in which you’re not really interested in order to get where you’re going.” – Christopher Morley, writer (5 May 1890-1957)
Life broke our hearts And filled it with sorrow Life killed our hope By filling us with promised tomorrows
There inside our broken smiles Are the tatters, we won't leave behind Even for a sacred shot at sanity That is, after all, naught but vanity
We live for love but often find none It would be nice to win at what can't be won We are who we are because of our care It's a hard price but just about fair
We'd choose no other way if we could There between the good and bad is the should Of all that we would seek to be In the eyes of our children, we find immortality
We lost 10,000 years when Alexandria burned All of the stories and lessons well learned Things of beauty lost inside those flames When the match was struck in that shame
The core of the old world is shaken By the first steps of the new world taken It's easy to get lost inside the darkness Until you learn to see ahead through the harshness
Who it is that we need to be to stay alive This is the secret pain through which we survive The only way we win is in opening our eyes Sighing from sleep into yet another sunrise
“We don’t have an option of living with inflation and its attendant tragedy. We have an alternative, and that is the program for economic recovery.” – Ronald Reagan
“I proceed … to inquire what mode of education we shall adopt so as to secure to the state all of the advantages that are to be derived from the proper instruction of the youth; and here I beg leave to remark that the only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid on the foundation of religion. … Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments. But the religion I mean to recommend in this place is that of the New Testament” – Dr. Benjamin Rush – Dr. Benjamin Rush
To Donne’s feigned scorn the murderer was dead Only to reappear as an apparition inside his head All the spiritualism to be had inside one’s bed From the nightmares and seances, and things said
The black cat looks on somehow very quizzical Puzzled by the clairvoyance clinging metaphysical Beliefs in the ghostly and ghastly ghosts of the past In a cat’s meow it dismisses things that do not last
With all the due that is due that which is but neglect The seekers of truth offer up their sense of respect To the haunted houses that have lived and died And all the homely groans believed those who have died
The feet shuffling and chains are impossible to ignore Yet scarier still is the floating table up from the floor Passages and impressions fill the dank, dark air All of this in passing as if some kind of fantasy faire
There are more wandering guests than there are hosts All wishing as they will for what they wish for the most To be part of those who are being invisible yet seen I suppose that is the wish for all human beings?
Somewhere and somehow with that bridge of light We hope beyond hope to connect with spirits in the night Our sorrows beg questions for answers we seek Hoping against hope for maybe just another peek
“[America’s] glory is not dominion, but liberty. Her march is the march of the mind. She has a spear and a shield: but the motto upon her shield is Freedom, Independence, Peace. This has been her declaration: this has been, as far as her necessary intercourse with the rest of mankind would permit, her practice.” –John Adams, Speech on Independence Day to the House of Representatives, 1821
“Henceforward we must do a little civil thinking every day And not pass up the front page for the sports page as we did before. Vigilance pays interest and compounds into peace.” – Norman Corwin
Heading out of Australia to escape this Aussie winter. First stop Japan, then UK/Ireland and if work doesn't call me back, onto Chicago. I will make it up as I go along
