14-01-2022, 11:17 AM
"A tiny percentage of the population owns the vast majority of the country’s wealth. That suits them, but at the same time it’s terrifying; they are so outnumbered & have so much to lose. The idea that we might act in concert is appalling, that we might work towards something grander & more permanent than the filling of our bellies – they will crush this; they are too terrified to do otherwise."
(About the Chartist movement, 19th century)
The Telling, Jo Baker
"No God can be bigger than the gate that lets people into the presence. If the only way to that god is through a narrow gate with picky little gatekeepers, then that god is no bigger than that gate nor wiser than the keepers."
"The assumption that all women are equipped with a strong, overriding maternal instinct; that all babies arouse this maternal instinct; & that any woman who does not respond maternally is a rotten person who must be guilty as sin – the Hail Mary assumption."
Gibbon’s decline & fall, Sheri Tepper
"A Negro tries to register to vote in Mississippi.
The white man taking his application gave him the standard literacy tests:
“What is the first line of the thirty-second paragraph of the Unite States Constitution?”
The applicant answered perfectly.
:Name the eleventh President of the United States & his entire cabinet.”
The applicant answered correctly.
Finally, unable to trip him up, the white man asked “Can you read & write?”
The applicant wrote his mane & was then handed a newspaper in Chinese to test his reading. He studied it carefully for a time.
“Well, can you read it?”
“I can read the headline, but I can’t make out the body text.”
Incredulous, the white man said:” You can read that headline?”
“Oh yes, I’ve got the meaning all right.”
“What’s it say?”
“It says this is one Negro in Mississippi who’s not going to get to vote this year.”
Black like me, John Howard Griffin.
(About the Chartist movement, 19th century)
The Telling, Jo Baker
"No God can be bigger than the gate that lets people into the presence. If the only way to that god is through a narrow gate with picky little gatekeepers, then that god is no bigger than that gate nor wiser than the keepers."
"The assumption that all women are equipped with a strong, overriding maternal instinct; that all babies arouse this maternal instinct; & that any woman who does not respond maternally is a rotten person who must be guilty as sin – the Hail Mary assumption."
Gibbon’s decline & fall, Sheri Tepper
"A Negro tries to register to vote in Mississippi.
The white man taking his application gave him the standard literacy tests:
“What is the first line of the thirty-second paragraph of the Unite States Constitution?”
The applicant answered perfectly.
:Name the eleventh President of the United States & his entire cabinet.”
The applicant answered correctly.
Finally, unable to trip him up, the white man asked “Can you read & write?”
The applicant wrote his mane & was then handed a newspaper in Chinese to test his reading. He studied it carefully for a time.
“Well, can you read it?”
“I can read the headline, but I can’t make out the body text.”
Incredulous, the white man said:” You can read that headline?”
“Oh yes, I’ve got the meaning all right.”
“What’s it say?”
“It says this is one Negro in Mississippi who’s not going to get to vote this year.”
Black like me, John Howard Griffin.
in order to be old & wise, you must first be young & stupid. (I'm still working on that.)