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pinboy3niner

(53,339 posts)

24. Fighting the good fight, even when the odds are impossible

Thu Apr 30, 2015, 06:12 PM

Apr 2015

ALDONZA: Why do you do these things?

DON QUIXOTE
What things?

ALDONZA
These ridiculous... the things you do!

DON QUIXOTE
I hope to add some measure of grace to the world.

ALDONZA
The world's a dung heap and we are maggots that crawl on it!

DON QUIXOTE
My Lady knows better in her heart.

ALDONZA
What's in my heart will get me halfway to hell.
And you, Señor Don Quixote-you're going to take
such a beating!

DON QUIXOTE
Whether I win or lose does not matter.

ALDONZA
What does?

DON QUIXOTE
Only that I follow the quest.

ALDONZA
(spits)
That for your Quest!
(turns, marches away; stops, turns bock
and asks, awkwardly)
What does that mean... quest?

DON QUIXOTE
It is the mission of each true knight...
His duty... nay, his privilege!
To dream the impossible dream,
To fight the unbeatable foe,
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go;
To right the unrightable wrong.

To love, pure and chaste, from afar,
To try, when your arms are too weary,
To reach the unreachable star!

This is my Quest to follow that star,
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far,
To fight for the right
Without question or pause,
To be willing to march into hell
For a heavenly cause!

And I know, if I'll only be true
To this glorious Quest,
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm
When I'm laid to my rest.

And the world will be better for this,
That one man, scorned and covered with scars,
Still strove, with his last ounce of courage,
To reach the unreachable stars!

--From Man of La Mancha

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I'm a boomer, I was raised on desperate long shots on achieving social causes, [View all] HereSince1628 Apr 2015 OP

We will all know soon enough who is the Dem upaloopa Apr 2015 #1

I fully expect an exhuberant clash equal to 2008. HereSince1628 Apr 2015 #7

Not me I will not be here if it is like that upaloopa Apr 2015 #8

There was also a time when the Surgeon General said Cigarettes were good for you, and there was Vincardog Apr 2015 #2

Yep. HereSince1628 Apr 2015 #4

Optimism and hope are not dead. One pulled cotter pin can break the whole machine! Dont call me Shirley Apr 2015 #3

That's all over whatchamacallit Apr 2015 #5

Maybe but don't count on that. There is no political equivalent to a watch escapement HereSince1628 Apr 2015 #9

Viva la revolution! n/t whatchamacallit Apr 2015 #17

Hear, hear! nt F4lconF16 Apr 2015 #27

I'm a Boomer and I remember Nixon OKNancy Apr 2015 #6

Me too. THe sucker signed the Clean Water and Clean Air acts and put Ruckleshaus HereSince1628 Apr 2015 #11

yes, of course I am aware of that. I am also aware that he did it totally as a political move OKNancy Apr 2015 #14

Oh he was a b'st'rd, but WE LEFT HIM WITH NO CHOICE!! HereSince1628 Apr 2015 #16

This boomer will never defend Nixon. greatauntoftriplets Apr 2015 #18

My dad, born in 1909, said he'd never trust Nixon hifiguy Apr 2015 #21

I'm not at all defending Nixon. I think "WE" forced him into doing the impossible HereSince1628 Apr 2015 #22

I'm a boomer and I remember the feeling in the 70's that we could do anything dixiegrrrrl Apr 2015 #26

I am a boomer and I once knew the boomer who wrote part of the assembly language LiberalArkie Apr 2015 #29

+ Infinity Pooka Fey Apr 2015 #30

There is a SUBSTANTIAL difference between those and Bernie Sanders getting elected brooklynite Apr 2015 #10

What else boomers share? Knowledge that "Fear is the Mind Slayer" HereSince1628 Apr 2015 #13

"Boomer" here. H2O Man Apr 2015 #12

I think many of the favorite movies/books of boomers share that. HereSince1628 Apr 2015 #15

I was raised by a Boomer Piasladic Apr 2015 #19

Fighting the good fight, even when the odds are impossible pinboy3niner Apr 2015 #24

If I could vote for George McGovern Dyedinthewoolliberal Apr 2015 #20

When I was 16 I went around sticking McGovern literature hifiguy Apr 2015 #23

I got to vote in my first general election by absentee ballot, from Vietnam. HereSince1628 Apr 2015 #25

I was too young to vote Generic Other May 2015 #34

Long lineage of union working folk, democrats. I was a young toddler when JFK Pooka Fey Apr 2015 #28

It isn't about "being impossible", it's really about NorthCarolina Apr 2015 #31

It sometimes seems it's about TRYING to convince us of that... HereSince1628 Apr 2015 #32

Gen-X here, and i feel the same way. nashville_brook May 2015 #33

This is the type of thread that makes DU RobertEarl May 2015 #35

The Labor Movement, the Civil Rights Movement, Women's Suffrage Movement were all liberal_at_heart May 2015 #36