In Search of Truth, Wisdom, and the American Way

Sometimes I just love to read quotes. Something about the neat succinctness of those aphorisms and insights just cuts right through the bullshit like a zen koan. This morning David Brooks' typical half-assed history lesson on Abraham Lincoln sent me off in search of something to set the record straight, but in that way the internet has, it sucked me down an information wormhole into a different universe, and I found the Everett Peace Action site, and these gems:

"Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose—and you allow him to make war at pleasure." - Abraham Lincoln

"Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices. - Voltaire

"There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people." - Howard Zinn

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross." - Sinclair Lewis

"News is what powerful people don’t want you to hear; everything else is just publicity." - Bill Moyers

"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt..... If the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake." - Thomas Jefferson, 1798"

And for you ironic juxtaposition fans:

"But you’ve got to kill the terrorists before the killing stops. And I’m for the president to chase them all over the world. If it takes 10 years, blow them all away in the name of the Lord." - Jerry Falwell, CNN Late Edition, October 24, 2004

"Don't let anybody make you think that God chose America as his divine, messianic force to be a sort of policeman of the whole world. God has a way of standing before the nations with judgment, and it seems that I can hear God saying to America, "You're too arrogant, and if you don't change your ways, I will rise up and break the backbone of your power, and I'll place it in the hands of a nation that doesn't even know my name." - Martin Luther King, Jr., April 30, 1967

Amen.