Conscience

I’m just his father, Elisa,  not his conscience. A man’s life ain’t worth beans except he lives up to his own conscience. I’ve got to give Josh that chance.

~ Gary Cooper as Jess Birdwell in William Wyler’s “Friendly Persuasion.”

C. S. Lewis About Liberty and Tyranny

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.  It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies.  The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep…his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” ~  C. S. Lewis

Knowledge

Some students drink at the fountain of knowledge, others just gargle. ~ E. C. McKenzie

New Movie Series: "America. Her People. Her Stories."

The following excerpt is from the Dr. Gregory J.W. Urwin's commentary in the movie "The Battle of Bunker Hill" (2009, video documentary short) http://www.bunkerhilldvd.com/ .

The movie was produced and directed by Tony Malanowski, and associate producers William Chemerka and Kevin Reem." This is the first movie in movie series "America. Her People. Her Stories. -The way your children learn about the history of the United States is about to change forever."

"One of the surprising things about American Revolution is that a lot of Americans didn’t support it. But there was this special core of patriots who endured all the hardship all the dangers we associate with war, and even more so then than today, because American government was new, it was weak, it could not always pay people, people often went years without pay, troops went years without pay, very often they were short of food, there war periods when they were short of uniforms, the fact that there were enough people who stuck with it under those circumstances to beat the British, to establish independence was incredible.”

And what they were trying to overthrow was not a typical European or Byzantine tyrant, they were rebelling against the most liberal government on Earth for a cause or a series of causes that we might consider a bit esoteric today. They had to understand what is it they are risking and why, what the taxes are doing to them and what representation meant. People made tremendous sacrifices, because of what they believed in: the individual rights, the rights of the new nation.

One thing that today young people could learn from the revolution is that if you want things to get better, if you want freedom to flourish, if you want to live in a country where your rights and the rights of your neighbors are respected, you can’t leave that to anyone else, you can’t outsource that. The revolutionary generation believed in something they called public virtue. They felt that liberty will only endure if the people supported it. And you must defend your country in wartime, and in peace time keeping your eye on the government, keeping an eye on policies, voting, making sure that the best people were guiding your fortunes in the legislative and the executive and judicial branches of your government."

~ Dr. Gregory J.W. Urwin, Professor of History, Temple University

http://www.bunkerhilldvd.com/

Paul Newman as Frank Galvin in "The Verdict"

What an extraordinary movie and extraordinary performances by stellar actors! I just had to transcribe some excerpts.

Frank Galvin's opening remarks:

"Your honor, ladies and gentlemen of the jury... it's a terrible thing to sit in judgment. So much rides on it. I know that you have thought, 'How can I be pure? How can, uh - 'How can I be... impartial without being cold? How can I be, uh...merciful and still be just I know that some of you have said prayers today...to be helped to judge correctly. Uh, we have the reputation of two men - two, um... well-respected doctors before us... and a renowned hospital. And with them we have my client... Deborah Ann Kaye who is deprived of sight... of speech... of hearing...of locomotion, of ... well, in short of everything that constitutes her life. We will prove... that she was deprived through negligence, through the negligence of these respected men..."

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Frank Galvin's closing remarks:

"Mr. Galvin."

"Mr. Galvin?"

"Summation?"

"Well... you know, so much of the time we're just lost. We say, 'Please, God. Tell us what is right. Tell us what is true.' I mean, there is no justice. The rich win, the poor are powerless. We become... tired of hearing people lie. And after a time, we become dead, we think of ourselves... as victims. And we become victims. We become - We become weak. We doubt ourselves. We doubt our beliefs. We doubt our institutions. And we doubt the law.

But today, you are the law. You are the law...not some book, not the lawyers... not a marble statue... or the trappings of the court. You see, those are just symbols...of our desire... to be just. Well, they are - They are, in fact, a prayer. I mean, a fervent and frightened prayer. In my religion... they say, 'Act as if ye had faith. Faith will be given to you.'  If - If we are to have faith in justice...we need only to believe in ourselves... and act with justice. See, I believe there is justice in our hearts. "  

• American Rhetoric: Movie Speech: "The Verdict" (1982)
• No Overturning Lumet's ‘Verdict' 

TIBET to USA: “WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOUR COUNTRY, TO YOUR VALUES, TO YOUR PRINCIPLES, HOME OF THE FREE AND HOME OF THE BRAVE?”

Quotes from the movie: Tibet, City of the Snow Lion. 2003.

Can be watched here: http://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/john-major/videos/246469

When I see beings of wicked nature oppressed by violent misdeeds and afflictions, may I hold them dear, as if I had found a rare and precious treasure. ~ The 14^th Dalai Lama

“The PLA not only suppresses its own people, but also represses the people of Tibet and we are directly subsidizing that repression. We have raised capital for the PLA on Wall-Street. Mao must be laughing in his grave.” ~ Jeff Fiedler, AFL/CIO China Labor Expert

“People ask me, what does it mean for Tibet. That’s not the question. What does it mean to your country, to your values, to your principles, home of the free and home of the brave? Stooping down to this murderous dictatorship, we just lost the confidence of its own people.” ~ Lhasang Tsering, poet, writer and independence activist, Amnye Machen Institute, Dharamsala, India.

“It is easy for Chinese to portray people who are sympathetic with Tibet as religious fanatics, as new-agers, as people who are on the fringes of popular opinion. Whereas China is big important international country and they appeal to political and economical mainstream.

~ John Major, Professor of Chinese History, then of Dartmouth College.

"Human rights is not just some wishy washy idealistic thing, it is geopolitically practical thing. (…) It means that the measure of the government trust-ability and credibility in the word arena as citizens of the world is how well they treat people who are under their own power."  ~ Robert Thurman, Ph. D.

 “I think big business is cornering market in many ways on US China policy. People who have been fighting for human rights and democracy in Tibet are up against much bigger force then they were before. In the years to come, the China lobby in this country will be so significantly tied in with Chinese government, with billions and billions and billions dollars worth of contracts that those few voices calling for democracy and human rights in that part of the world will have a hell of a time in congress making their case heard.” (2003) ~ John Aveda

• Lodi Giari, Special Envoy of the Dalai Lama to the U.S.
• Here & Now: China, Tibet & the World
• Tsering Shakya 
•  Amnye Machen Institute

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• January 19, 2011 Clinton: U.S., China Must Build Cooperative Relationship

'With Chinese President Hu Jintao in Washington for a state visit, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says that while the United States must stand by its values and interests, the relationship should not be “zero-sum.” '

•  November 18, 2010 Infringements on Religious freedom Continue in Tibet: Clinton< The Tibet Post

According to the annual State Department report, in the last one year, the level of religious repression in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) and other Tibetan areas remained high, especially around major religious holidays and sensitive anniversaries.

"The government remained wary of Tibetan Buddhism and the central role traditionally played by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and other prominent Tibetan Buddhist leaders.

• February 21, 2009 Clinton: Chinese human rights can't interfere with other crises < CNN

"U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton broached the issue of human rights with Chinese leaders on Saturday, but emphasized that the global financial slump and other international crises were more pressing and immediate priorities."

"The United States will continue to press China on issues such as Tibet, Taiwan and human rights", she told reporters accompanying her.

"Successive administrations and Chinese governments have been poised back and forth on these issues, and we have to continue to press them. But our pressing on those issues can't interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis, and the security crisis," she told reporters in Seoul, South Korea."

• March 15, 2008 Clinton Campaign Ducks a Simple Question About Tibet

"During the subsequent Q&A, however, Clinton's National Security Advisor, Lee Feinstein, ducked my question about the Bush Administration's decision last week to remove China from its list of human rights violators - a decision made right in the middle of escalating tensions in Tibet that have culminated in riots in Lhasa, a military crackdown on protests and media nationwide, and according to some reports, upwards of 100 deaths.

Life a Duty

"I slept, and dreamed that life was Beauty;
I woke, and found that life was Duty.
Was thy dream then a shadowy lie?
Toil on, poor heart, unceasingly;
And thou shalt find thy dream to be
A truth and noonday light to thee.          
  
Ellen Sturgis Hooper. (1816–1841), American poet