A FEW
THINGS TO REMEMBER...
It seems to be a universal fact that minorities, especially when
their individuals are recognizable because of physical differences,
are treated by majorities among whom they live as an inferior class.
The tragic part of such a fate, however, lies not only in the
automatically realized disadvantage suffered by these minorities in
economic and social relations, but also in the fact that those who
meet such treatment themselves for the most part acquiesce in the
prejudiced estimate because of the suggestive influence of the
majority, and come to regard themselves as inferior.
This second and more important aspect of the evil can be met through
closer union and conscious educational enlightenment among the
minority, and so an emancipation of the soul of the minority can be
attained. The determined effort of the American Negroes in this
direction deserves every recognition and assistance.
Albert Einstein, 1931
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Our society doesn't promote self acceptance and it
never will.
First of all, self-acceptance doesn't sell products. Capitalism would
fall if we liked ourselves the way we are now. Also, people who feel
shamed and inadequate themselves tend to pass it on. I'm sure
you've noticed that many individuals and groups try to enhance
their self-esteem by diminishing others.
Harriet Lerner, PhD. from her
book:
"Fear and Other Uninvited Guests" (2004)
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Love, work and knowledge are the wellsprings
of our life. They should also govern it.
Wilhelm Reich, M.D.
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The foolish and the dead alone
never change their positions.
James Russell Lowell, poet
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I would rather love what I cannot have,
than have what I cannot love.
Anonymous, 1905
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“Hacer es la mejor manera de decir”.
José Martí, político, pensador, escritor,
periodista, filósofo y poeta cubano (1853-1895)
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"Doing is the best way to say it".
José Martí
Cuban poet, political, thinker, writer, journalist,
philosopher and poet (1853-1895)
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I am in daily danger of giving my life for my country
and duty for
I understand that duty and have the courage to carry it out -the duty
of preventing the United States from spreading through the Antilles
as Cuba gains its independence, and from empowering with that
additional strength our lands of America. All I have done so far, and
all I will do, is for this purpose. I have had to work quietly and
somewhat indirectly, because to achieve certain objectives, they
must be kept under cover; to proclaim them for what they are would
raise such difficulties that the objectives could not be attained.
(Letter to Manuel Mercado,
the final words Marti ever wrote.)
Jose Marti, May 19, 1895
http://www.cubaminrex.cu/josemarti/jose%20marti%
20vers%20ingles/marti-political%20testament-ing.htm
http://makeashorterlink.com/?H32232B37
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When all men think alike, no one thinks very much.
Walter Lippmann
(the other one)
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Perfectionism spells paralysis.
Winston Churchill
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“I'd rather regret the things I have done
than the things that I haven't.”
Lucille Ball
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"An orgasm a day keeps the doctor away."
Mae West
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"A girl doesn't need anyone who doesn't need her."
Marilyn Monroe
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there is
a positive side
and a negative side
at each
moment
you decide
Corita (Sister Corita Kent)
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Knowledge is too precious to hoard.
Preston Wilcox (Harlem
archivist and activist)wva
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Castro may have had only a few Cubans actually
fighting
with him up in the hills, but he could never have overthrown
the Batista regime unless he had the sympathy of the vast
majority of Cuban people..
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1967)
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/628.html
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I was never a Communist, but I was a fellow traveler.
Though layered, my loyalty was never split; always
at the bottom, even if I did have to constantly shuffle
my tactics, was black itself. I was "red" only when
I thought it was a smarter way of being "black."
Ossie Davis
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In this world we presume many ambitions. We make many
observations
such as (a) everyone's aloneness (there really are no categories, you
know. Everyone is so alone -- the basic, essential state of humankind);
(b) the paradox that is communication - the built-in answer to that
feeling of aloneness.
Communication itself is what baffles the multitude. It is both so
difficult and so simple. Of all man's fears. Of all man's fears,
I think men are most afraid of being what they are -- in direct
communication with the world at large. They fear reprisals,
the most personal of which is that they "won't be understood."
How can anyone expect to be understood unless he presents his
thoughts with complete honesty? This situation is unfair because it
asks too much of the world. In effect, we say, "I don't dare show you
what I am anyway because I don't trust you for a minute but please
love me anyway because I need you to. And, of course, if you don't
love me anyway, you're a dirty dog, just as I suspected, so I was
right in the first place." Yet, every time God's children have thrown
away fear in pursuit of honesty -- trying to communicate themselves,
understood or not -- miracles have happened.
Duke Ellington
September 16, 1965
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Fidel Castro at the University of Havana
November 17, 2005
Here is a conclusion I’ve come to after many years: among all the errors we may have committed, the greatest of them all was that we believed that someone really knew something about socialism, or that someone actually knew how to build socialism. It seemed to be a sure fact, as well-known as the electrical system conceived by those who thought they were experts in electrical systems. Whenever they said: “That’s the formula”, we thought they knew. Just as if someone is a physician. You are not going to debate anemia, or intestinal problems, or any other condition with a physician; nobody argues with the physician. You can think that he is a good doctor or a bad one, you can follow his advice or not, but you won’t argue with him. Which of us would argue with a doctor, or a mathematician, or a historian, or an expert in literature or in any other subject? But we must be idiots if we think, for example, that economy is an exact and eternal science and that it existed since the days of Adam and Eve, and I offer my apologies to the thousands of economists in our country.
All sense of dialectics is lost when someone believes that today’s economy is
identical to the economy 50 or 100 or 150 years ago, or that it is identical to
the one in Lenin’s day or to the time when Karl Marx lived. Revisionism is a
thousand miles away from my mind and I truly revere Marx, Engels and Lenin.
http://www.walterlippmann.com/fc-11-17-2005.html
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Fidel Castro: "The Epiphany Gift"
January 15, 2008
Writing, as many people know, is an instrument of expression that lacks speed,
tone and the intonation of spoken language, and it doesn’t use gestures. It also
takes several times our scarce available time.
Writing has the advantage that it can
been done at any time, day or night, but one doesn’t know who will read it; very
few can resist the temptation to improve it, to include what was not said or to
cross out what was said; sometimes one has the urge to throw it all in the waste
basket since you don’t have the interlocutor there in front of you. All
my life I have transmitted ideas about events as I was seeing them, from the
darkest ignorance until today when I have more time available and I have the
possibility of observing the crimes being committed against our planet and our
species.
To the youngest of our revolutionaries, in particular, I recommend to be extremely demanding with themselves and to observe an iron-clad discipline. They should avoid being ambitious for power, presumptuous or boasters. They should be watchful about bureaucratic methods and mechanisms and avoid succumbing to simple slogans. They should recognize bureaucratic procedure for the worst obstacle they are and use science and computation without falling prey to the excessively technical and unintelligible jargon of the elitist specialists. They should always be hunger for knowledge; and perseverance, and both physical and mental exercises should be part of their lives.
In this new era in which we live, capitalism is not even a useful instrument. It is like a tree with rotten roots, from whence only the worst forms of individualism, corruption and inequality sprout. Nor should we give away anything to those who could be producing and who don’t produce, or who produce very little. Reward the merits of those who work with their hands or their minds.
Just as we have universalized higher education, we must also universalize simple
physical labor; it helps us to at least carry out a part of the infinite
investments demanded by everyone, as if there was an enormous reserve of money
and labor force. Be especially wary of those inventing State enterprises with
just any excuse and then managing the easy profits as if they had been
capitalists all their lives, sowing egoism and privileges.
http://www.cuba.cu/gobierno/discursos/2008/ing/f140108i.html
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U.S. President John F. Kennedy
October 24, 1963
"I believe that there is no country in the world including any and all the
countries under colonial domination, where economic colonization, humiliation
and exploitation were worse than in Cuba, in part owing to my country's policies
during the Batista regime. I approved the proclamation which Fidel Castro made
in the Sierra Maestra, when he justifiably called for justice and especially
yearned to rid Cuba of corruption. I will even go further: to some extent it is
as though Batista was the incarnation of a number of sins on the part of the
United States. Now we shall have to pay for those sins. In the matter of the
Batista regime, I am in agreement with the first Cuban revolutionaries. That is
perfectly clear."
interview with Jean Daniel, 24 October 1963
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Revolution
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Some people just can't take
"yes" for an
answer.
-- Walter Lippmann (author of this website)
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Todo bien, excepto por las malas cosas.
Everything's good, except for the bad stuff.
-- Walter Lippmann (yes, that's me again)
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MENDACITY
by Max Roach and C. Bayen
Mendacity, mendacity, it makes the world go round.
A politician makes a speech and never hears the sound.
The campaign trail winds on and on in towns from coast to coast.
The winner ain't the one who's straight, but he who lies the most.
Now voting rights in this fair land we know are not denied.
But if I tried in certain states, from treetops I'd be tied.
Mendacity, mendacity, it seems is everywhere.
But try and tell the truth, and most folks scream "Not Fair!"
Listen:
https://paswonky.wordpress.com/2012/10/11/mendacity-politics-as-usual-2/
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"You don’t fight fire with fire. You fight
fire with water. We’re gonna fight racism with solidarity. We're not gonna fight
capitalism with Black capitalism. We’re gonna fight capitalism with socialism.
Socialism is the people. If you’re afraid of socialism, you’re afraid of
yourself." FRED HAMPTON, SR.
http://whyaminotsurprised.blogspot.com/2008/12/revolutionary-love-of-fred-hampton-sr.html
http://bit.ly/1G29Jtn
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Consider well your action,
What's done you can't recall,
No use to pull the trigger
Then try to stop the ball.
--author unknown
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