Once again it’s time for a Saturday night $27-group / Political Revolution open thread, featuring a few inspiring quotes, some good music, and a picture or two of foresterbob’s cat Noble Fur.
Usually I encode the week’s new quotes so that people who enjoy deciphering messages can have some code-cracking fun in addition to getting to read some good quotes. This week, though, I’m posting all the quotes in plain unencoded English.
That’s partly because I’m away from home this week, plant-sitting and pet-sitting for a friend, so have a little less time to spend on encoding messages, and partly because there are some inspiring folks I’d like to spotlight this week and would rather have their quotes more easily readable.
I usually include quite a few Bernie Sanders quotes in these $27 Quotes diaries, but this week, like last week, has no quotes from Bernie Sanders. Instead I’ll be quoting a famous and very noteworthy member of congress and four people who have been regular posters here on Daily Kos. I think all of them have said some very inspiring things over the years, and I hope you will think that too.
Quotes coming up, but perhaps folks would enjoy some music first?
The theme of last week’s quotes was a new think tank which is being launched. The first on quoted Jane Sanders:
Sen. Bernie Sander’s wife, Jane Sanders, is launching a think tank aimed at helping “progressive leaders” connect with more people. “The purpose is to revitalize democracy in support of progressive institutions.”
In the second quote, Jane Sanders continued:
Our feeling is that at this point in time our country is at a crossroads, and people are engaged in a political process that can be opaque. A vital democracy requires an informed electorate, civil discourse, and bold thinking. So we put together this team to focus on issues, but not in a partisan way, not in a way which just focuses on the latest crazy thing. It will not be about Trump; it will be about the issues facing the country.
The third quote was a shorter version of the above (for the benefit of folks whose thinking runs along the lines of tl;dr):
A vital democracy requires an informed electorate, civil discourse, and bold thinking.
And she added, regarding the new think tank:
Hopefully it’s going to increase the number of progressive voices in the mainstream media.
She continued:
During Bernie’s presidential campaign, I had the pleasure of traveling around this country — seeing its beauty and experiencing the passion and dedication of its people. I learned so much from meeting people who were involved in making their communities better, and I came away with a determination to ensure those voices would be heard.
Last week’s last quote was another nice short one:
A true democracy requires an informed electorate, and we have so much to learn from each other.
~ Jane Sanders
She’s a wonderful woman, and one I look forward to hearing much more from in the years ahead.
Someone else I look forward to hearing much more from is John Lewis. But for tonight’s first quote I’d like to look back, instead, to some important things he said back in 1963 at the March on Washington.
That’s coming up in a moment. But before we get to new quotes, perhaps you’d like another quick glimpse of Noble Fur?
This is from the speech John Lewis delivered at the March on Washington back in late August 1963. It was an important time in US history, and you can read about some of that history in the 3-book graphic novel series The March (which I have highly recommended here in the past and am pleased to recommend again.)
My friends let us not forget that we are involved in a serious social revolution. By and large, politicians who build their career on immoral compromise and allow themselves an open forum of political, economic and social exploitation dominate American politics.
There are exceptions, of course. We salute those. But what political leader can stand up and say, “My party is a party of principles”? For the party of Kennedy is also the party of Eastland. The party of Javits is also the party of Goldwater.
Where is our party? Where is the political party that will make it unnecessary to march on Washington? Where is the political party that will make it unnecessary to march in the streets of Birmingham? Where is the political party that will protect the citizens of Albany, Georgia?
~ John Lewis, in a speech at the March on Washington, August 28, 1963
And here’s another bit of revolutionary rhetoric from John Lewis:
They’re talking about slow down and stop. We will not stop. All of the forces of Eastland, Barnett, Wallace, and Thurmond will not stop this revolution.
If we do not get meaningful legislation out of this Congress, the time will come when we will not confine our march into Washington. We will march through the South, through the streets of Jackson, through the streets of Danville, through the streets of Cambridge, through the streets of Birmingham.
But we will march with the spirit of love and with the spirit of dignity that we have shown here today.
There are actually two versions of the speech available: the one he delivered (which those two quotes come from) and the one he originally wrote but was asked to revise. You can find both versions, as well as some of the story behind it, on Bill Moyer’s site, and you can also learn the story behind it in volume 2 of The March.
And now for some quotes from some people who have posted a lot of good diaries and comments on this very website. The first quote takes a short look back in time to a noteworthy effort to promote unity among Democrats and help get more Democrats elected.
Alas, back in April when this effort was made, some people still weren’t ready for unity. But it’s good for us all to look back, remember, and try to do better going forward. Here, from someone I hope we’ll all be able to continue reading in the days ahead, an excerpt from an April 17th diary by Delphine about the week-long cross-country unity tour Tom Perez and Bernie Sanders engaged in.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Tom Perez, launch a tour of several “red” and “purple” states Monday, starting in Portland, Maine. The tour then heads to Louisville, Kentucky, on Tuesday, Omaha, Nebraska, on Thursday, and Salt Lake City, Utah, and Mesa, Arizona, on Friday. Rallies are also tentatively scheduled for Florida, Montana and Nevada...
The tour will “begin the process of creating a Democratic Party which is strong and active in all 50 states, and a party which focuses on grassroots activism and the needs of working families,” according to an announcement by Sanders and Perez. Their priorities for the “Come Together and Fight Back Tour” include pushing for a $15 minimum wage and pay equity for women, action on climate change, reforming the immigration and criminal justice systems and tax reform that “demands that the wealthy and large corporations start paying their fair share of taxes.”
Next, a comment by caring and thoughtful person who’s made many valuable contributions to this site, Mahakali Overdrive. In this comment she was replying to someone who had cheered at the banning of a long-time member of this site, ZhenRen:
I don’t even know you, haven’t seen you comment once in my nearly nine years on this site. And you are glad a much-loved-by-this-community (including people on all sides of the political aisle) poster is banned?
You would cheer the banning of a poster who is not neurotypical, who is not wealthy, who is not white, who thinks carefully and deeply about huge amounts of political theory and history, and who is everything that the Democratic party champions for, at least on paper, who even served the party faithfully at times as a volunteer? Because of what reason?
Most of what makes the Daily Kos a community is being able to dialogue across differences, to disagree and then move on later, to learn from one another, and ultimately, to be compassionate and to listen to others’ experiences over time, not over one diary or thread.
When people come along and cheer for the destruction of that kind of interpersonal caring and relationship, it is not good socially OR politically.
Here’s a comment from another person who’s well worth paying attention to, KnotIookin.
Back in May there was a front-page diary about HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) and the role HBCUs had played in offering refuge to Jewish scholars fleeing Nazi Germany. It’s a good diary; and KnotIookin made a good comment about the historic ties between the Jewish and Black communities, how those ties have been frayed in recent times, and the value of re-building that unity in the days ahead.
Unfortunately some people weren’t able to appreciate the comment at the time she posted it, so I thought it was worth re-posting tonight:
While many younger Jews did not know the exact history of Jews and HBCU they did feel a kinship with the plight of Americas Black citizenship… And they joined in the fight to bring equality to the shores of their parents new homeland … They marched in freedom marches, they picketed on picket lines, they rode on buses heading south, they struck and picketed and boycotted and were shunned and beaten and some were murdered… All in the fight for freedom for all.
But then something changed and a wedge was driven between people's who should not have become enemies on different sides of this fight for freedom and equality.
For me nothing more clearly indicted the hardened detrimental effects of this wedge then the relentless attacks on Bernie Sanders and the unbelievable ridicule of his effort, as a child of the holocaust... to continue the battles he was raised to fight.
So with all due respect to all sides… Every single person who mocked Bernie (and by doing so mocked my ancestors) with the words “he marched with King” needs to apologize and remember our shared history of oppression and that we once were unified and need to become unified again.
And lastly, I thought people might enjoy a quote from the very-readable bobswern. This is from a rec list diary he published back in late April. There were close to 1500 comments (and close to 500 recs) so a lot of you may have already seen it, but I think a lot of what bob writes is worth continuing to think about and this section — about how we are more united than some people want to admit — seems especially worth remembering as we try to regain a sense of unity and community after so many bitter pie fights of the past year:
… Virtually every Democrat I know in the real world will tell you that they strongly support both a woman’s right to choose whether or not they want to have an abortion and fighting economic inequality.
Newsflash: These are not—and they never were--mutually exclusive issues. It’s not an either-or proposition. But, you wouldn’t know that if you’d been reading the front page of this status quo Democratic website, lately. Somehow, in the calculating mind of the owner of this website (and some of those here that are on his payroll), this translates into “fighting over privilege.”
Exactly who’s “fighting” over a woman’s right to choose on this blog? Hell, even the few folks here that are personally against abortion understand that a woman has the right to choose. While I have yet to read anything from anyone at Daily Kos that advocates that our government should legislate away a woman’s right to choose, I’m sure that there’s someone somewhere at Daily Kos that believes otherwise. The thing is, I have yet to read it! Did I miss the memo?
Speaking of missing memos, did Kos not know that Bernie and Jane Sanders have been vehement, unequivocal pro-choice advocates since… forever… or, at least a hell of a lot longer than virtually most other members of the House and Senate? (We’re talking many decades of them consistently supporting a woman’s right to choose, no ifs, ands, or buts. As Yves Smith notes, up above, the Sanders’ family makes Hillary Clinton’s and Barack Obama’s politically expedient hypocrisy on the subject look downright shameful.)
I hope we continue to be able to read more diaries and comments from these and other good Kossacks in the days to come.
Some music to close this diary out — one of my very favorite Holly Near songs, so I hope folks will pardon me for posting it again.
.
PS: Sorry no cryptograms in tonight’s diary. But for those of you who want a puzzle to work on, here’s one I ran across a few days ago. I confess, I am completely baffled by this one! If anyone can make sense of it and figure out a good solution, I’d very much like to hear it.