quotes – Page 2 – Hank Kalet

Quote of the day: On ‘blowback’

A quote from Arundhati Roy, the Indian novelist and activist, in the March issue of The Progressive that I thought was worth passing along. She was talking about the unintended consequences — often called “blowback” — of unholy alliances of convenience. In particular, she was referring to American encouragement for the Afghan Mujadeen in the 1980s:

Once you’ve released these Frankenstein monsters into the world, you can’t whistle and hope they will come back like trained mastiffs and say, “Yes, sir, did you call?”

They do come back, however, but rarely bearing gifts.

Quote of the day: Thanking Bush

I know readers of this blog will be surprised by the title of this blog, but the quotation from a piece by Jacob Heilbrunn in Sunday’s Week In Review section of The New York Times on President George W. Bush’s impact on the conservative movement should explain:

“Bush was never a conservative. He’s the guy responsible for blowing up the movement.”

— Michael D. Tanner
senior fellow at the Cato Institute
author of “Leviathan on the Right,”

Quotes of the day: From the readings

I’m reading a fine book by David Halberstam called “The Children” about the civil rights movement and have allowed myself to get behind on my magazine reading. Nonetheless, I’ve been able to read a few pieces here and there. Today’s quotations come from recent readings.

1. Howard Zinn, writing in the March issue of The Progressive (a piece that, as you’ll see, ties in nicely to the Halberstam book):

Historically, government, whether in the hands of Republicans or Democrats, conservatives or liberals, has failed its responsibilities, until forced to by direct action: sit-ins and Freedom Rides for the rights of black people, strikes and boycotts for the rights of workers, mutinies and desertions of soldiers in order to stop a war.

Voting is easy and marginally useful, but it is a poor substitute for democracy, which requires direct action by concerned citizens.

2. From “Winter Soldiers Speak,” by Laila Al-Arian, in the April 7 edition of The Nation:

“It’s criminal to put such patriotic Americans…in a situation where their morals are at odds with their survival instincts,” said Adam Kokesh, who served as a Marine sergeant in the raid on Fallujah in 2004.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

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Quote of the day: Debate edition

I mentioned Tom Shales’ column in an earlier post, but I wanted to highlight this quotation, which sums up my criticism of the current state of political coverage:

But candor is dangerous in a national campaign, what with network newsniks waiting for mistakes or foul-ups like dogs panting for treats after performing a trick. The networks’ trick is covering an election with as little emphasis on issues as possible, then blaming everyone else for failing to focus on “the issues.”

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

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Quote of the day: Patriotism

This is from Howard Zinn’s latest book, A Power Governments Cannot Suppress:

Patriotism in a democratic society cannot possibly be unquestioning support of the government, not if we take seriously the principles of democracy as set forth in the Declaration of Independence, our founding document. The Declaration makes a clear distinction between the government and the people. Governments are artificial creations, the Declaration says, established by the people with the obligation obligation to protect certain ends: the equal rights of all to “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” And “whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to “alter or abolish it….”

Surely, if it is the right of the people to “alter and abolish,” it is their right to criticize, even severely, policies they believe destructive of the ends for which government has been established. This principle, in the Declaration of Independence, suggests that true patriotism lies in supporting the values the country is supposed to cherish: equality, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness. When our government compromises, undermines, or attacks those values, it is being unpatriotic.

Sound familiar?

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

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