InTheWeeds

Democracy, Freedom – Wisdom to Know

This post about democracy is inspired by the election in Iraq. The pictures of the purple fingers and the smiles and the lines should make us stop and think, and then thank God. And after we have done that, we need to thank those that have come before us and those who now have given and are giving their all in time, talent and lives to present this precious gift to others.

My words do not do justice to what is and has been done so I will offer up some words of others who also have given…

“We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor, it must be demanded by the oppressed.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“… democracy I salute it. I espouse it. I would work for it… I stand upon the foundation of free elections based upon universal suffrage, and that is what we consider the foundation for democracy.

But I feel quite different about swindle democracy, a democracy that calls itself a democracy because it is Left Wing. It takes all sorts to make a democracy, not only Left Wing, or even Communist. I do not allow a party or body to call themselves democrats because they are stretching farther and farther into the most extreme forms of revolution.

I do not accept a party as necessarily representing democracy because it becomes more violent as it becomes less numerous.

One must have some respect for democracy and not use the word too lightly. The last thing which resembles democracy is mob law, with bands of gangsters, armed with deadly weapons, forcing their way into great cities, seizing police stations and key points of government, endeavouring to introduce a totalitarian regime with an iron hand, and clamoring, as they can nowadays if they get the power.

Democracy is not based on violence or terrorism, but on reason, on fair play, on freedom, on respecting the rights of other people. Democracy is no harlot to be picked up in the street by a man with a tommy gun.

I trust the people, the mass of people, in almost any country, but I like to make sure that it is the people and not a gang of bandits who think that by violence they can overturn constituted authority, …” Sir Winston Churchill

“Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it.” Abraham Lincoln

“We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands. …the goal of America is freedom”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“America's support for human rights and democracy is our noblest export to the world.” William J. Bennett

“There is only one force of history that can break the reign of hatred and resentment, and expose the pretensions of tyrants, and reward the hopes of
the decent and tolerant, and that is the force of human freedom.”

“When our Founders declared a new order of the ages; when soldiers died in wave upon wave for a union based on liberty; when citizens marched in peaceful outrage under the banner “Freedom Now” – they were acting on an ancient hope that is meant to be fulfilled. History has an ebb and flow of justice, but history also has a visible direction, set by liberty and the Author of Liberty.”
George W. Bush

All the Best, LivingTheDream

PS:
For those who want all the answers on the war in Iraq:
“Of course, on these vast matters on which so many lives depend there is always a great deal of guesswork. So much is unknown and immeasurable. Who can tell how weak the enemy may be behind his flaming fronts and brazen mask? At what moment will his will power break? At what moment will he be beaten down?” Sir Winston Churchill

posted by livingthedream @ 7:47 PM