Category: quote

President Biden’s farewell

Vote for Democracy #26

Last night, US President Joe Biden delivered a farewell speech from the Oval Office. Among other things, it warns against the increasingly powerful tech oligarchy that threatens our democracy. You can read the address here.

The penultimate paragraph is:

My eternal thanks to you, the American people. After 50 years of public service, I give you my word, I still believe in the idea for which this nation stands — a nation where the strength of our institutions and the character of our people matter and must endure. Now it’s your turn to stand guard. May you all be the keeper of the flame. May you keep the faith. I love America. You love it, too.

Yes.

I, along with millions and millions of others, will heed the call. Each of us doing the work that is ours to do will keep our democracy intact.

Some will have a bigger, public role and others will be working in a much smaller sphere of influence, but all of us can participate.

It’s what democracy means.
*****
Join us for Linda’s Just Jot It January! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/01/16/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-12th-2025-2/

One-Liner Wednesday: technology

“…and this was said to me by a cryptologist: If you think technology is going to solve your problems, you don’t understand technology and you don’t understand your problems.”
~~~ Laurie Anderson

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays and/or Just Jot It January! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/01/15/one-liner-wednesday-jusjojan25-the-15th-be-colourful/

One-Liner Wednesday: Hope and action

It’s important to emphasize that hope is only a beginning; it’s not a substitute for action, only a basis for it.

~~~ Rebecca Solnit

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/12/04/one-liner-wednesday-why/

One-Liner Wednesday: in a democracy

In a democracy it is the duty of every citizen to think.

~~~ James Russell Lowell in the first presidential endorsement in The Atlantic in 1860 when the new magazine endorsed Abraham Lincoln; this year, in only their fifth endorsement in their long, storied history, they endorsed Kamala Harris.

This timely reminder is brought to you as part of Linda’s One-Liner Wednesday. Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/10/30/one-liner-wednesday-getting-ready/

One-Liner Wednesday: John Kelly on Trump’s fascism

(Photo by Lucas Sankey on Unsplash)

Retired US Marine general and longest serving chief of staff to Donald Trump when he was president “said that, in his opinion, Mr. Trump met the definition of a fascist, would govern like a dictator if allowed, and had no understanding of the Constitution or the concept of rule of law.” Source: New York Times (gift link to article) which backs up my recent post on this subject

This timely warning comes to you as part of Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays, which is usually much lighter or inspiring than this. To join us, visit here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/10/23/one-liner-wednesday-no-better-time/

Presidential Debate Bingo

NETWORK, a social justice lobbying organization founded over fifty years ago by a group of Catholic sisters, is currently embarked on their Nuns on the bus & Friends tour in the run-up to the November election.

They have provided a non-partisan tool to use during the September 10th presidential debate to keep track of which issues are mentioned during the debate. It’s a bingo card!

The page above puts it this way:

The 2024 election poses a critical choice to our country: will we choose a future where everyone thrives? You can use the bingo card to help you track what the candidates have to say on the issues, and discern how your vote will protect and expand a flourishing, multiracial, multi-faith democracy for all.

I know that many of us, whether or not we follow a faith tradition, want to see everyone thrive. Please feel free to use and share this bingo card and NETWORK’s Equally Sacred Multi-Issue Voter Checklist to help guide deliberations in choosing for whom to vote at all levels of government.

One-Liner Wednesday: wisdom from Meister Eckhart

“Meister Eckhart instructs us that to ignore our capacity to give birth, to run from our responsibility to create, is to run from goodness itself: If human beings have something that they do not bestow on others, they are not good.”
~Matthew Fox

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/07/03/one-liner-wednesday-did-you-know/

One-Liner Wednesday: hope

Hope is not the certainty that things will turn out as we wish, but the conviction that some things are worth doing no matter how they turn out.

Vaclav Havel

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/06/12/one-liner-wednesday-how-many-hours/

One-Liner Wednesday: prescience

I do not want to see the Republican party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny—Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear.

– Senator Margaret Chase Smith (Republican – Maine) addressing the Senate on June 1, 1950 near the beginning of McCarthyism

Please join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/06/05/one-liner-wednesday-snakes-on-a-plane/

One-Liner Wednesday: Life-long learning

We need to remember across generations that there is as much to learn as there is to teach.

Gloria Steinem

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/05/08/one-liner-wednesday-taking-bunny-pics/