The United States of America, 1776-2006. R.I.P.

[marmar]

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to mourn the passing of a great idea.:cry:



The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men.
- Samuel Adams

It would be easy for us, if we do not learn to understand the world and appreciate the rights, privileges and duties of all other countries and peoples, to represent in our power the same danger to the world that fascism did.
- Ernest Hemingway

Naturally, the common people don't want war, but after all, it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag people along whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.
- Hermann Goering, Hitler's Reich-Marshall

Fascism is not defined by the number of its victims, but by the way it kills them.
- Jean Sartre

If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."
- James Madison

The worst crimes were dared by a few, willed by more and tolerated by all.
- Tacitus

What is morally wrong can never be advantageous, even when it enables you to make some gain that you believe to be to your advantage.
- Marcus Tullius Cicero