"Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You,

Submitted by WindDancer13 on Sat, 02/23/2019 - 12:12pm

ask what you can do for your country." --JFK Inaugural Address

"No one person can alone accomplish what must be done to turn our country around. We all must do our part." --Bernie Sanders in almost every speech and interview he does

Each and every person here and their friends, relatives, their followers on Twitter and Facebook and Minds and their acquaintances on the street is responsible for change, not Sanders.

Exponential Growth: If a lily pad doubles its size each day and on the 30th day it covers the entire pond, on what day was the pond half covered? (from a class taken in 1979)

We are at day one.

Here are some suggestions of what YOU can do for your country:

Well, don't just stand there, get busy!

Edit to add: Okay, I got it. Apparently, twenty minutes is too much time to watch a video on how you can do something for your country. The steps House outlines start at 9:20. Maybe ten minutes is not too much, says the persistent optimist.

Tags:

activism

Vote

Comments

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 02/23/2019 - 1:11pm

The JFK quote popped into my head yesterday

ask what you can do for your country."

I wonder what he meant by this? Did he mean that we should join the military to defend our freedoms or something else? Reading this in today's context when we have our government doing everything it can to make us peons non existent I see the quote as something different.

As for the DNC not cheating Bernie again, he is going to have to win big in every state so that if they do people will not be able to deny it. And yes I'm seeing people saying that Hillary and the DNC did not rig the primary even though Donna and Liz admitted it. Except Liz was told to walk it back. The super delegates still get to override votes.

—

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Submitted by WindDancer13 on Sat, 02/23/2019 - 1:33pm

Something else

@snoopydawg

Now the trumpet summons us again—not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are—but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation"—a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.

--Jhttps://www.bartleby.com/124/pres56.html

Yes, he will have to win big, and we can do our part in ensuring that by following the steps in the video as well as hounding our state representatives regarding the number and placement of polling places and making sure everyone we know is properly registered and has everything they need when they arrive at said polls.

Not if he is the last man standing:

The super delegates still get to override votes.

—

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass

Submitted by Anja Geitz on Sat, 02/23/2019 - 2:38pm

After 20 years of political activism under my belt

I finally managed to get my non-political Sister to become a political "revolutionary" in support of Bernie in those heady days of 2016. We not only canvassed together to get people registered, we organized fundraisers, mass post card mailings, trained a team of neophyte bloggers to hit social media, and sponsored delegates for the convention.

We were, as you might say, very very busy.

And while it was a very satisfying experience as far as sibling relationships go, I need not belabor the point of what the experience was like watching the delegates we sponsored barred from entering the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, or discovering that the Clinton Campaign and the DNC colluded with the media in an effort to "elevate" Trump's campaign by instructing the media in a strategy memo to take his campaign seriously ensuring he would be the "Pied Piper" candidate in the GOP primary.

Maybe I could've survived all of that to fight another day if it weren't for the fact that my Sister and I are still waiting for the State of California to count our votes, along with a reported 2 million others. I might've even survived THAT to fight another day if any of the electoral fraud perpetrated during the Democratic Primary had been officially addressed.

But then this happened.

The Department of Homeland Security on Friday declared the electoral system as "critical infrastructure," the latest in a series of eleventh-hour responses to alleged Russian election-season hacks.

The designation — which will put election equipment in the same category as the power grid or financial sector — came the same day that intelligence agencies released an unclassified report that concluded Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a hacking campaign against Democratic organizations and officials that eventually aimed to help elect Donald Trump. The report said Russian spies had accessed elements of state and local election boards as part of their digital meddling.

So now they will have control of all the polling places, election machines, voter databases, and all other information technology. No independent audits, then? If my vote cannot be ensured, if the only option being offered is working within a fraudulent system, then the blind hope that this time it will be different will not be enough to sustain or compel me to "get busy"

Here's hoping JFK will forgive me.

—

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Submitted by WindDancer13 on Sat, 02/23/2019 - 3:30pm

They have control because we let them.

@Anja Geitz

So now they will have control of all the polling places, election machines, voter databases, and all other information technology.

The video talks about some specific ways to take that control back. Knocking on doors and passing out flyers is great, but those actions don't address the fundamental problem. You say your vote was not counted, well what are you going to do about it? Say the system is rigged and give up?

The best way we can follow JFK's "what you can do for your country" is to ensure full voting rights and that is going to take everyone to involve her or himself.

I finally managed to get my non-political Sister to become a political "revolutionary" in support of Bernie in those heady days of 2016. We not only canvassed together to get people registered, we organized fundraisers, mass post card mailings, trained a team of neophyte bloggers to hit social media, and sponsored delegates for the convention.

We were, as you might say, very very busy.

And while it was a very satisfying experience as far as sibling relationships go, I need not belabor the point of what the experience was like watching the delegates we sponsored barred from entering the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, or discovering that the Clinton Campaign and the DNC colluded with the media in an effort to "elevate" Trump's campaign by instructing the media in a strategy memo to take his campaign seriously ensuring he would be the "Pied Piper" candidate in the GOP primary.

Maybe I could've survived all of that to fight another day if it weren't for the fact that my Sister and I are still waiting for the State of California to count our votes, along with a reported 2 million others. I might've even survived THAT to fight another day if any of the electoral fraud perpetrated during the Democratic Primary had been officially addressed.

But then this happened.

The Department of Homeland Security on Friday declared the electoral system as "critical infrastructure," the latest in a series of eleventh-hour responses to alleged Russian election-season hacks.

The designation — which will put election equipment in the same category as the power grid or financial sector — came the same day that intelligence agencies released an unclassified report that concluded Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a hacking campaign against Democratic organizations and officials that eventually aimed to help elect Donald Trump. The report said Russian spies had accessed elements of state and local election boards as part of their digital meddling.

So now they will have control of all the polling places, election machines, voter databases, and all other information technology. No independent audits, then? If my vote cannot be ensured, if the only option being offered is working within a fraudulent system, then the blind hope that this time it will be different will not be enough to sustain or compel me to "get busy"

Here's hoping JFK will forgive me.

—

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass

Submitted by Anja Geitz on Sun, 02/24/2019 - 11:29am

There is no way to respond to your

@WindDancer13

Annie-the-sun-will-come-out-tomorrow urgings without being impolite. What we are dealing with is the political equivalent of organized crime. Hounding our elected representatives, getting the names of our board of elections, will only compel them to change the face of the game. I am unmoved by your optimism that this time it will be different if we only try a little harder. Maybe a yellow vest movement or divesting in the economy but working within the system is a bit like shooting fish in a barrel for the other side. They will never be compelled to let go of their power because we "demand" justice. Instead they will lie about what we are doing, set up barriers, and use the media to garner consent for what they are doing. And guess what? The people will just gobble up the lies.

—

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Submitted by thanatokephaloides on Sun, 02/24/2019 - 4:18pm

they have power whether we "let them" or not.

@Anja Geitz

There is no way to respond to your Annie-the-sun-will-come-out-tomorrow urgings without being impolite.

Isn't that the Gospel truth! Last night, I suppressed an entire response Comment I wrote to this same message for this very reason: any response I could come up with was too harsh for the classy place we call c99. And I was sticking strictly to facts, not ad-hominem attacks. The facts alone are so harsh that it's difficult to show proper respect for a fellow c99er who beLIEves some of this stuff.

I applaud you for doing just that, zoebear.

A tiny point of order: I think the woman's name you're looking for is Pollyanna.

What we are dealing with is the political equivalent of organized crime.

Methinks you need to watch the Godfather Trilogy again!

Kay: But Presidents and Senators don't have people killed!
Michael: Now who's being naïve?
-- The Godfather (Part I)

Michael: Italian politics have had this kind of men for centuries. They are the true Mafia.
-- The Godfather Part III

[video:https://youtu.be/qqVN5ndOklI?t=158]

Hounding our elected representatives, getting the names of our board of elections, will only compel them to change the face of the game.

More likely, the hounders will be permanently consigned to the "Ignore/Burn Without Reading" file.

I am unmoved by your optimism that this time it will be different if we only try a little harder. Maybe a yellow vest movement or divesting in the economy but working within the system is a bit like shooting fish in a barrel for the other side. They will never be compelled to let go of their power because we "demand" justice. Instead they will lie about what we are doing, set up barriers, and use the media to garner consent for what they are doing. And guess what? The people will just gobble up the lies.

Especially since there's no significant "independent media" in most locales any more. And, I'm sorry, but "Internet-only" "media" doesn't count. We need genuinely independent print and over-the-air free broadcast media, as that's still what ordinary working-class people rely on for their news. And most of us don't have any such thing available.

The one thing that is raising my hopes is that politics-as-usual is being rejected worldwide, from the gilles jaunes in France to the defection of MPs from both major parties in Great Britain to a s-l-o-w-l-y rising tide of dissatisfaction here. Our frustration derives from the molasses-like rate of movement for change here, of course.

—

"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Submitted by Tall Bald and Ugly on Sat, 02/23/2019 - 5:29pm

Yeah, right,

good luck with that.
18 point difference between the posted results and the exit polls, no fraud here.
Keep going, Don Quixote, there's a Long line of windmills waiting. . .

—

Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .

Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .

If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march

Submitted by WindDancer13 on Sat, 02/23/2019 - 5:51pm

What was it in the video that you missed on

@Tall Bald and Ugly

how to stop that from happening again?

—

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass

Submitted by QMS on Sat, 02/23/2019 - 10:55pm

OK don't ask

what our taxes are paying for. Just don't ask. Because the answer is embarrassing to our elected representatives. Our 'bettors' will only give you misguidance. There was a time the idea of working for a common ideal made sense. No longer. The purpose of the US government is now to represent the control of the world by the corporations that own it. Is this really difficult for thinking people to see? Or, perhaps am I just making stuff up, like the rest of the information machine.

Submitted by WindDancer13 on Sat, 02/23/2019 - 11:26pm

Please connect the dots for me

@QMS

on how your response addresses the content of the video and the steps to ensure voting rights and accurate counting.

—

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass

Submitted by thanatokephaloides on Sun, 02/24/2019 - 5:05pm

You asked for it, you got it.

@WindDancer13

Please connect the dots for me on how your response addresses the content of the video and the steps to ensure voting rights and accurate counting.

You asked for it, you got it. You might not like it, however.

Although this response of mine is more related to zoebear's Comments than QMS's, it still fits both. And before you kvetch, you need to know that I watched that entire video, all 19-and-change minutes of it.

Our responses center about the fact that many of us have already tried everything suggested in the video. For years. To exhaustion. And no significant change has occurred. Like zoebear, I am unmoved by your (and the video presenter's) unfounded optimism that this time it will be different if we only try a little harder. The video presenter is demonstrably wrong on two critical points: in all essentials, our current situation is exactly as it was in 2015-6 when Bernie Sanders got phucked over and out of a nomination that was rightfully his; and there are no remaining "independent media" left in most places to get our story out. Internet-only "media" doesn't count here; what is needed is genuinely independent print and free over-the-air broadcast media, and those species are seriously endangered if not utterly extinct. Add those facts -- and facts they are -- to the fact that any but the uber-rich who make objections to public officials are automatically consigned to the "Ignore/Burn Without Reading" file, and you have the whole explanation as to why your video has received the response it has here.

I hope this challenge to certain ideas does not sour you on c99 generally. I do respect your right to advocate working "through the system" for the changes we need. I just can no longer support that contention myself, as the observed facts don't support it, and the days of my being able to buy the incrementalists' "maybe, possibly, someday, later" as an answer have definitely ended.

—

"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Submitted by WindDancer13 on Sun, 02/24/2019 - 7:08pm

I want to address this first:

@thanatokephaloides

I hope this challenge to certain ideas does not sour you on c99 generally.

The problem is not with your particular response but an accumulation of responses and not just to me that has had me thinking about leaving c99 for a couple of months now. I found another place where being open-minded or proposing ideas is not subjected to misinterpretation, misrepresentation and dogged ridicule.

So, as to the video:

You say that the presenter is wrong about independent media and that there is a change from 2016. There are plenty of independent media outlets around and more are coming online all the time. It might surprise some that Twitter and FaceBook are not the only games in town. Funny you should mention over-the-air media as this particular presenter has a Roku feed. It is highly doubtful in an age when all print media is losing money that an independent source would go that route. As for Sanders, he now has name recognition as well as having organizations already set up in all 50 states. That is very different.

You are not expected to answer the questions below for me, just for yourself who claims to have done everything.
1.Who are the people who you have identified as having accountability in your voting precinct, city, county and state for voting issues? (Board of Elections, Supervisors of Elections, etc.)
2.How did you contact them: calls, emails or letters or all? What were their responses? How did you follow up? Who did you organize with to advertise their actions or start petitions to address the problem? What kind of committee did you form to get rid of them when they acted improperly?
3.Did you cover all the bases, including a demand for exit polling and audits?
4.What proposition/ballot measures did you and/or your group propose to address voting issues?
5.What kinds of demands did you make for paper ballots and hand counting and multiple counts for blind verification?
6.Have you addressed rank-choice voting or open primaries with your Board of Elections?
7.Which independent media outlets do you contact to update them on what is happening in your region?

I have in no way suggested incremental changes (this is one of those misrepresentation I mentioned in my first paragraph). I also do not subscribe to the defeatist attitude seen from some people here. Sounds like a lot of people never learned how to ride a bicycle.

PS: There is a difference in being a Pollyanna and dogged determination.

—

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass

Submitted by thanatokephaloides on Sun, 02/24/2019 - 10:16pm

independent media

@WindDancer13

You say that the presenter is wrong about independent media and that there is a change from 2016.

Half right. I did say that the presenter is wrong about independent media. But I also said that there was no fundamental difference between our situation now and that in 2016. And there isn't. The entirety of both government and real (i.e., Internet independent) media, nationwide, are corrupted beyond recovery and beyond any ability of ordinary working-class people to change it by working with the system. Demonstrably true in 2015-6, and still demonstrably true today.

There are plenty of independent media outlets around and more are coming online all the time. It might surprise some that Twitter and FaceBook are not the only games in town. Funny you should mention over-the-air media as this particular presenter has a Roku feed. It is highly doubtful in an age when all print media is losing money that an independent source would go that route.

Kindly please show me where independent non-Internet media exist in this country. The majority of ordinary working-class people still rely on newspapers, radio, and TV for their news and views. And this is very unlikely to change in the near future. Print may be losing money right now, but people still trust it before they'd trust "some whack-job on the Internet", which is why we still have any newspapers at all in the USA.

So independent real media, non-Internet media, is what is needed and what doesn't really exist in most of our country.

n.b.: I do live in a place with a genuinely independent print outlet. But such are very uncommon.

#4.1.1 I hope this challenge to certain ideas does not sour you on c99 generally. The problem is not with your particular response but an accumulation of responses and not just to me that has had me thinking about leaving c99 for a couple of months now. I found another place where being open-minded or proposing ideas is not subjected to misinterpretation, misrepresentation and dogged ridicule. So, as to the video: You say that the presenter is wrong about independent media and that there is a change from 2016. There are plenty of independent media outlets around and more are coming online all the time. It might surprise some that Twitter and FaceBook are not the only games in town. Funny you should mention over-the-air media as this particular presenter has a Roku feed. It is highly doubtful in an age when all print media is losing money that an independent source would go that route. As for Sanders, he now has name recognition as well as having organizations already set up in all 50 states. That is very different. You are not expected to answer the questions below for me, just for yourself who claims to have done everything. 1.Who are the people who you have identified as having accountability in your voting precinct, city, county and state for voting issues? (Board of Elections, Supervisors of Elections, etc.) 2.How did you contact them: calls, emails or letters or all? What were their responses? How did you follow up? Who did you organize with to advertise their actions or start petitions to address the problem? What kind of committee did you form to get rid of them when they acted improperly? 3.Did you cover all the bases, including a demand for exit polling and audits? 4.What proposition/ballot measures did you and/or your group propose to address voting issues? 5.What kinds of demands did you make for paper ballots and hand counting and multiple counts for blind verification? 6.Have you addressed rank-choice voting or open primaries with your Board of Elections? 7.Which independent media outlets do you contact to update them on what is happening in your region? I have in no way suggested incremental changes (this is one of those misrepresentation I mentioned in my first paragraph). I also do not subscribe to the defeatist attitude seen from some people here. Sounds like a lot of people never learned how to ride a bicycle. PS: There is a difference in being a Pollyanna and dogged determination.

—

"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Submitted by WindDancer13 on Sun, 02/24/2019 - 11:05pm

There is something even simpler.

@thanatokephaloides

It is called word of mouth. It used to be the main form of communication between humans.

Some find it difficult to talk to those who have a different view point, so here is what Killer Mike said: "Connect with me at my level of interest and once you connect with me at my level interest, you make it easier to introduce me to new things."

—

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass

Submitted by thanatokephaloides on Mon, 02/25/2019 - 1:45am

communication

@WindDancer13

There is something even simpler.

It is called word of mouth. It used to be the main form of communication between humans.

Some find it difficult to talk to those who have a different view point, so here is what Killer Mike said: "Connect with me at my level of interest and once you connect with me at my level interest, you make it easier to introduce me to new things."

Veritably so, all of it!

Another avenue I'm investigating seriously is shortwave radio. Combine that with your "word of mouth", and you get amateur radio -- one of the most reliable sources of "ground zero" news of them all.

(I really do need to get me a new SW receiver.........)

—

"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Submitted by WindDancer13 on Mon, 02/25/2019 - 9:26am

Iirc, shortwave radio can be run

@thanatokephaloides

with a generator. Is that right? That sounds like a really good idea. Are CBs still around? I know the advent of the cell phone has knocked out a lot of older tech, but it might be a good idea to have some of that around.

—

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass

Submitted by thanatokephaloides on Mon, 02/25/2019 - 5:02pm

radio on a generator

@WindDancer13

Iirc, shortwave radio can be run with a generator. Is that right?

Amateur radio can be and often is. There's a form of amateur radio nicknamed "QRP" which endeavors to send messages worldwide on less than 10 watts of transmitter power.

That sounds like a really good idea. Are CBs still around? I know the advent of the cell phone has knocked out a lot of older tech, but it might be a good idea to have some of that around.

CBs still do exist; and the value of some of this "analog era" tech is proving itself daily.

—

"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Submitted by WindDancer13 on Mon, 02/25/2019 - 6:25pm

Good to know

@thanatokephaloides

I have not had mush experience with amateur radio (I take it that is the preferred name over shortwave radio or maybe I missed something?) unless one counts the thing that we used in the construction outfit I once worked for. CBs I have had a lot more experience (and fun) with. I can see a place for them.

As I do not know that much about them, maybe you can answer some questions for me. Is it feasible to have either tech slip under the wire of gov't surveillance (to be clearer, to keep the gov't from spying on communications)? I know the police used to be able to track CB users if they were in range and on the right frequency, but has that changed with everyone moving to new tech? How easily can they be disrupted?

—

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass

Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Sun, 02/24/2019 - 8:52pm

WindDancer, I watched the whole thing

...and I thought it was brilliant.

There's a new energy afoot in the nation. A fresh generation of all ages. They are open-hearted and sincere and have opted to believe what they have been told about Democracy — and they intend to follow all the steps to police it and make it work the way that it is supposed to. For the People.

No matter how the road to the 2020 election plays out, it will be the first time a truly mindful independent electorate has a coordinated and shared nationwide experience of the processes that underlie a US democratic election from beginning to end. The shenanigans will vary from state to state, but if they are dedicated to reporting what they see to one another, the very fact of their mindful observations could have a profound political effect upon the nation.

...this particular presenter has a Roku feed.

That is very interesting. I took time to read many of the comments on the YouTube page. To me, there was something different and encouraging about them. Something that I plan to investigate further.

Onward!

—

____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato

Submitted by WindDancer13 on Sun, 02/24/2019 - 9:36pm

When a 15 (now 16, I think) young woman

@Pluto's Republic

can single-handedly get countries to pay attention to climate crisis, I think we adults could at least make an effort to preserve democracy in this country. I posted somewhere here at c99 recently several links about some very young people who are making a huge difference. They are easy enough to look up though. They are very inspiring and make me almost embarrassed that the only thing I did remotely political as a child was pack a lunch and go to listen to then-President Eisenhower when he came to my town.

Oh, yeah, there will plenty of roadblocks put up for 2020. We just need to get some semi-trucks to run through them.

I pretty much always read comments in articles I read or videos I view (even the ones I violently disagree with). It gives me a better measure of how people are actually thinking (or not thinking as the case may be).

—

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass

Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Sun, 02/24/2019 - 11:43pm

I do too.

@WindDancer13

I pretty much always read comments in articles I read or videos I view (even the ones I violently disagree with). It gives me a better measure of how people are actually thinking (or not thinking as the case may be

Thousands upon thousands of comments. Rivers of comments. I'm good with big data and these comments processed together give me a sense of the mood of the nation. I don't claim it is accurate, but I find it useful. Right now I am shocked that both political parties have no idea they are completely out of touch with the mood of the American people.

—

____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato

Submitted by WindDancer13 on Sun, 02/24/2019 - 11:57pm

I think they do know it and just don't care.

@Pluto's Republic

Right now I am shocked that both political parties have no idea they are completely out of touch with the mood of the American people.

That let them eat cake attitude of theirs is not going to hold up very well in the near future. They will be poorly missed. It is too bad that we cannot line up guillotine after guillotine in front of the Congressional building. = )

I agree that those comments might not give a totally accurate picture of the country's temperature, but once the far out stuff is discarded, it can come pretty close in a lot of cases.

I keep forgetting to mention in essays and posts that we also need to start looking at weeding out as many as possible of those corporate Dems in the Senate in 2020 as well as retaking the Senate. Ginsberg is going to be retiring.

—

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass