Welcome once again to $27 Quotes — a weekly place where you can sit back, relax, enjoy some inspiring quotes and good music, and (most importantly) spend time gazing at a picture or two of foresterbob’s cat Noble Fur.
Only time for a very abbreviated $27 Quotes tonight, and one of the quotes most of you will already have seen. But it’s one worth seeing many times (and may be the best quote of the year). And the other main quote in tonight’s diary spotlights an outstanding Ohio candidate whom many of you may not yet know is running for office.
Let’s get started...
Let’s start with the Ohio candidate. He lives in Medina, Ohio, and here’s something he recently wrote about living in Medina:
I have often said Medina was way too white and way too Republican for me. But I’ve now lived here for over 35 years and, despite my irritation and downright ire with a city run by an elite who stay in their offices, elected and otherwise, way past their expiration dates, I love my city. I plan to die here. Hopefully later rather than sooner.
I felt pride when the Medina city council recently passed an LGBT anti-discrimination ordinance with bipartisan support. It was the right thing to do. I was disgusted but not surprised when all those who voted for the great ordinance found themselves with single-issue opponents in their reelection campaigns. The single issue was, of course, that those opponents wanted to discriminate against the LGBT citizens of Medina.
In my ward, the opposition candidate was a vile zealot who railed against the LGBT community on his social media. His faux-Christian beliefs included subjecting women to male domination and forbidding his daughter from having male friends. I couldn’t countenance this man representing me on the city council.
I wrote a letter to the local newspaper praising the city council candidates who supported the ordinance and condemning the bigotry of those who opposed it. My family and I took it one step further…
Please click here to read about the step further he took. It’s a very good story and well worth reading. And it led to him deciding to run for a seat on the Medina County Democratic Party Central Committee. As he explains:
I believe with all my heart, intellect and soul that the solutions to the problems facing our cities, states, nation and world can be found in progressive liberal philosophies and policies. It has been proven over and over again that the Republican Party offers succor only for the already wealthy. They are gutting the middle class of our country. They are vilifying the poor. They oppose the diversity that has made our country great and can make it truly great again.
And here’s a quote about his political philosophy which I strongly considered for tonight’s title quote. I’ll explain in a moment why I chose a different quote instead, although you can probably guess why once you see who this candidate is.
I don’t want to work with Republicans. I want them to work with us.
~ Tony Isabella
For any of you who don’t recognize that name, Tony Isabella is the writer who created Black Lightning for DC Comics in 1977. There is currently a Black Lightning tv series on the CW, which draws heavily and respectfully on Isabella’s vision of who the character is and what he stands for.
Let’s take a momentary Noble Fur break, and then on to Justice, Like Lightning...
Justice, Like Lightning...
“Justice, like lightning...” was a phrase Isabella used at the start of all the early Black Lightning stories. It expressed a key element of the series, which is that Black Lightning was not about clobbering baddies, he was about helping people and bringing justice to the people in his community. When he wasn’t in costume he was a school teacher, and his role as a teacher helping his students was as important to him as his role when he put on the costume in protecting the people who lived in his neighborhood from those who would exploit and endanger them.
Here’s a 7 minute video interview with Tony Isabella which explains how he came to create DC Comics’ first black superhero and what his vision for the character was.
Time for another quick Noble Fur break...
This campaign is about human solidarity.
⦁ Are you willing to fight for someone without health care even if you have insurance?
⦁ Are you willing to fight for immigrants even if you are native-born?
⦁ Are you willing to fight for America's children even if you have none?
~ Bernie Sanders
Regardless of which candidate you favor in the Democratic presidential primary, that’s something which needs to be a key part of what Democrats stand for in 2020 and beyond. Which leads into what I think may be, although it’s only the middle of January now ...
The Best Quote of the Year
In January 2016 the Sanders campaign created one of the best political campaign ads ever, featuring the Simon and Garfunkel song “America”. Here it is in case you’d like to watch it again:
This past week the Sanders campaign has created an ad which is even better. This one features the Bob Dylan song “The Times They Are A-Changin”:
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And for those who aren’t able to watch the video, here’s the quote which accompanies the music:
I want you all to take a look around and find someone you don't know.
Are you willing to fight for that person who you don't even know as much as you're willing to fight for yourself?
If you are willing to fight for a government of compassion, and justice, and decency, not only will we win this election but together we will transform this country.
The pain that one person feels, if we have children that are hungry in America, if we have elderly people who can't afford their prescription drugs, you know what? That impacts you. That impacts me. We are all in this together.
~ Bernie Sanders
“We are all in this together.”
That’s the best quote of the year so far, and one I hope to hear in one form or another throughout the year.