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{ Saturday, December 29, 2001 }

11:28 AM | link

My boyfriend bought me Dead Man Walking for Christmas and a third of the way into it, I already have plenty of favorite quotes:
Before, I had asked God to right the wrongs and comfort the suffering. Now I know -- really know -- that God entrusts those tasks to us.

...Jesus Christ, whose way of life I try to follow, refused to meet hate with hate and violence with violence. I pray for the strength to be like him. I cannot believe in a God who metes out hurt for hurt, pain for pain, torture for torture. Nor do I believe that God invests human representatives with such power to torture and kill. The paths of history are stained with the blood of those who have fallen victim to "God's Avengers." Kings and Popes and military generals and heads of state have killed, claiming God's authority and God's blessing. I do not believe in such a God.
And I wish I could have articulated this back when Dubya was my governor and his reason for not pardoning death row inmates was that his job was to just "carry out the law":
I realize that the governor has found a moral niche in this process, a position from which he can make decisions and still lay his head on the pillow at night and go to sleep. He is a public official. His job is to carry out the law. He subordinates his conscience to the "will of the people." The law speaks for itself: if it is the law, it must be right, it must be true. [Governor] Edwards is not "personally" responsible if he simply "does his job" within the law.
Sister Helen Prejean also quotes Camus:
Resist, do not collaborate in any way with a deed which you believe is evil...resist.

{ Friday, December 21, 2001 }

2:54 PM | link

I found my quote of the day in a great article from a couple years ago. Read the whole thing -- I promise it's worth it!
"You do not do the things you do because others will necessarily join you in the doing of them, nor because they will ultimately prove successful. You do the things you do because the things you do are right."

{ Thursday, December 20, 2001 }

9:36 AM | link

Want to show you love this country, but hate this war? Get a peace flag bumper sticker or t-shirt! Here's a preview:

{ Tuesday, December 04, 2001 }

12:51 PM | link

I heard this commentary from Ellen David Friedman on Morning Edition today. Here's a sample:
I have wondered whether the startlingly high poll numbers for Bush's policy don't reflect a kind of mass mourning, a hope for solace in presidential strength. Yes, our shock and sadness are great. Our losses feel unfathomable. But we serve our democracy poorly if we act solely from these raw emotions. It is our ability, instead, to examine fully, debate freely and to agree democratically... Especially now, we can't afford the luxury of silence. If these [alternative views on the war] reflect only three percent or ten percent of American opinion, then certainly they pose no danger to the conduct of foreign and domestic policy. But if they reflect, in any measure, a broader yearning for peace and for the rule of law over the rule of the jungle…then they need to be spoken aloud throughout our communities in the coming days.