Thomas M. Disch - ThisIsCommonSense.org

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People now have more information, and they are smarter, overall, as a consequence — even in those ways they choose to be dumb.
Thomas M. Disch, The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of: How Science Fiction Conquered the World (1998), p. 226.

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Today in Freedom

On April 12, 1861, the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter marked the start of the American Civil War. Firing on the Union-held fort for 34 hours, the Confederate bombardment killed no soldiers in the exchange of artillery fire.

The Union garrison, led by Major Robert Anderson, surrendered on April 13, 1861, and was allowed to evacuate without loss of life.

During the evacuation on April 14, however, a Union soldier, Private Daniel Hough, was killed, and another, Private Edward Galloway, was mortally wounded due to an accidental explosion of a cannon during a salute to the U.S. flag. These are the only recorded deaths associated with the Fort Sumter incident.

Thought of the Day

Sejamos simples e calmos,
Como os regatos e as árvores,
E Deus amar-nos‑á fazendo de nós
Belos como as árvores e os regatos,
E dar-nos‑á verdor na sua primavera,
E um rio aonde ir ter quando acabemos …
E não nos dará mais nada, porque dar-nos mais seria tirar-nos mais.

Let’s be simple and calm,
Like the trees and streams,
And God will love us, making us
Us, even as the trees are trees
And the streams are streams,
And will give us greenness in the spring, which is its season,
And a river to go to when we end …
And he’ll give us nothing more, since to give us more would make us less us.
Fernando Pessoa writing under the heteronym Alberto Caeiro, O Guardador de Rebanhos (“The Keeper of Sheep”), VI — in A Little Larger Than the Entire Universe, trans. Richard Zenith (Penguin, 2006).

— Fernando Pessoa

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