Last Word

“We have forgotten history for one reason and, if we are not careful, we will neglect it for another…When exactly was the ‘again’ in (President Trump’s) slogan ‘Make America Great Again?’Hint:It is the same ‘again’ that we find in ‘Never again.’” – Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny

“In the waning weeks of 1932, facing no external security threat and no challenge from within, with no conceivable justification except to prove the inevitability of his rule, Stalin chose…

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#15 of On Tyranny: Contribute to Good Causes – “Be active in organizations, political or not, that express your own view of life.Pick a charity or two and set up autopay. Then you will have made a free choice that supports civil society and helps others to do good.” - Timothy Snyder

“Wanting to be wanted; needing to be needed…”-Rosabella, in Frank Loesser’s Most Happy Fella

“The (French) National Convention (Parliament) declares slavery abolished in all the colonies.In…

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“It is impossible to carry out democratic elections, try cases at court, design and enforce laws, or indeed manage any of the other quiet business of government when agencies beyond the state also have access to violence. For just this reason, people and parties who wish to undermine democracy and the rule of law create and fund violent organizations that involve themselves in politics.” - Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny, #6 “...we make a great mistake if we imagine that the Soviet…

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#13 of On Tyranny: Practice Corporeal Politics – “Power wants your body softening in your chair and your emotions dissipating on the screen. Get outside. Put your body in unfamiliar places with unfamiliar people. Make new friends and march with them.” - Timothy Snyder

“By embracing the politics of inevitability, we raised a generation without history...One thing is certain: If young people do not begin to make history, politicians of eternity (self-absorbed...longing for past…

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#4 of On Tyranny: Take Responsibility for the Face of the World - “The symbols of today enable the reality of tomorrow. Notice the swastikas and the other signs of hate. Do not look away, and do not get used to them. Remove them yourself and set an example for others to do so.” - Timothy Snyder

“(Abraham Lincoln) would have proven the best friend the South could have had, and saved much of the wrangling and bitterness of feeling brought out by reconstruction under a President…

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by Marie Hoff

We greet each other very carefully,
Like porcupines getting ready to make love.
Arms in big virtual, barrel hugs,
Lots of embarrassed joking and choking
Hoping we don’t look as foolish as we feel.

Hope rises and falls, and rises again
Like the panting of a small injured bird,
testing Ms. Dickinson’s thesis, that it
Never stops singing, no matter what.

Funny things happen: suddenly millions of people
Need millions of rolls of toilet paper: is this an
epidemic of diarrhea or…

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#14 of On Tyranny: Establish a private life. – “Nastier rulers will use what they know about you to push you around. Scrub your computer of malware on a regular basis. Remember that email is skywriting. Consider using alternative forms of the internet, or simply using it less. Have personal exchanges in person. For the same reason, resolve any legal trouble. Tyrants seek the hook on which to hang you. Try not to have hooks.” – Timothy Snyder 

“The only weapon of self defence I…

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#6 of On Tyranny: Be wary of paramilitaries – “When the men with guns who have always claimed to be against the system start wearing uniforms and marching with torches and pictures of a leader, the end is nigh. When the pro-leader paramilitary and the official police and military intermingle, the end has come.” – Timothy Snyder

“Men who rape, kill, torture, and mutilate because they don’t like how another person looks or behaves, what he or she believes, or for whom he or…

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“(the Federalist authors) saw that government must rest upon the will of the majority, but they saw too that majority rule must be tempered by a system of checks and balances designed to safeguard fundamental liberties and give time for sober second thought. They saw...the important distinction between the jurisdiction of government and the area of government—between the power which government must have to be effective in its proper sphere, and the area to which government must be…

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by Michael Str!ke, Krissee Grosso, Hoff, and others

A restaurant can be a very special place. It can be where you see the folks that live above, around, and beyond; coming regularly and enjoying the flow of the days, the nights, the food, and the drinks. It's where workers come together and bond, laugh, cry, work, sweat, and serve the community that keep that business running. But we have to remember that a restaurant, with nothing inside of it, can be a very different place. We know…

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