Quote of the Day -- Thomas Paine

Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered,” Paine wrote, “yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.

-- Thomas Paine

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According to Wikipedia, Thomas Paine (1737- 1809) was an English-born American political activist, philosopher, and revolutionary. He authored Common Sense and The American Crisis, two of the most influential pamphlets at the start of the American Revolution.

Quote of the Day -- Ted Kennedy

Robert Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, Blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of the Government, and the doors of the Federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens for whom the judiciary is—and is often the only—protector of the individual rights that are the heart of our democracy….

-- Ted Kennedy, 1987 hearing for Robert Bork (who was not confirmed)

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According to the Biography web site, Ted Kennedy (1932 - 2009) was the youngest brother of John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy. He was elected to the Senate when he was 30, and continued to work in Congress throughout his life. Though marked by scandal, Kennedy was viewed as an icon of political progressivism and liberal thought by the time of his death, on August 25, 2009.

Nobel Prize Lecture -- Maria Ressa, Co-Winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize

I heard Maria Ressa interviewed this morning as part of an International Women's Day event. The bad news (the embarrassing news) is that I've never heard of her before. Somehow, the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to two journalists last fall didn't hit my radar screen. The good news is that now I have heard of her and listened to her impassioned plea for truth in journalism, destruction of the disinformation machine, and reining in of social media.

After the brief and impressive interview this morning, I went in search of her Nobel lecture to learn more. Wow!! She is articulate, impassioned, and persuasive. And she is courageous. It is one thing to plead for the protection of truth in journalism in "the West," where you might suffer significant bullying both online and IRL. It is a whole different thing to make that plea in a society where going to jail for what you write and say is a reality. 

Ressa is of course critical of countries like her native Philippines that regularly threaten journalists with imprisonment or government sanctioned violence. She tearfully listed fellow journalists who have recently died or been imprisoned around the world. But Ressa reserves her strongest criticism for the tech algorithms that come out of Silicon Valley. She calls it a behavior modification system that encourages fear, hate, and bigotry in the service of surveillance capitalism than monetizes our clicks.

I can't begin to do justice to her powerful speech. I plan to come back to it here whenever I find myself wondering if Facebook is really so bad. 

Quote of the Day -- Richard Powers

Earth had two kinds of people: those who could do the math and follow the science, and those who were happier with their own truths. But in our hearts' daily practice, whatever schools we went to, we all lived as if tomorrow would be a clone of now.

-- Richard Powers, Bewilderment

Quote of the Day -- Alanis Obamsawin

When the last tree is cut, the last fish is caught, and the last river is polluted; when to breathe the air is sickening, you will realize, too late, that wealth is not in bank accounts and that you can’t eat money.

-- Alanis Obamsawin

Quote of the Day -- Paul Ehrlich

There are substitutes for oil; there is no substitute for fresh water.

-- Paul Ehrlich

Quote of the Day -- Audre Lorde

When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard nor welcomed, but when we are silent we are still afraid, so it is better to speak.

-- Audre Lorde

Quote of the Day -- Barbara Ward

We have forgotten how to be good guests, how to walk lightly on the earth as its other creatures do.

-- Barbara Ward

Quote of the Day -- Bryan Stevenson

My work with the poor and the incarcerated has persuaded me that the opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice.

-- Bryan Stevenson

Quote of the Day -- Lisa Mensah

Money scattered in a dark place brings light.

-- Lisa Mensah quoting Ghanian proverb

Quote of the Day -- Thomas Donahue

The only effective answer to organized greed is organized labor.

-- Thomas Donahue

Quote of the Day -- Greta Thunberg

I have a dream that the people in power, as well as the media, start treating this crisis like the existential emergency it is.

-- Greta Thunberg

Quote of the Day -- Dorothy Day

People say, what is the sense of our small effort? They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time, take one step at a time. A pebble cast into a pond causes ripples that spread in all directions. 

-- Dorothy Day

Quote of the Day -- Rachel Carson

Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature — the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.

But man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself. 

-- Rachel Carson

Quote of the Day -- Paul Ehrlich

In pushing other species to extinction, humanity is busy sawing off the limb on which it perches. 

-- Paul Ehrlich

Quote of the Day -- Sandra Day O'Connor

It’s not enough to understand; you’ve got to do something. 

-- Sandra Day O'Connor