“Like any man, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land“
Martin Luther King, Jr., a day before his assassination, in a speech delivered at Bishop Charles Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee.
On April 4, 1841, William Henry Harrison died of pneumonia, becoming the first President of the United States to die in office and the one with the shortest term served (he died on his 32nd day as president). Renowned Indian killer, a proponent of the expansion of slavery into Northwest Territories, and a Whig, Harrison won the presidency in part by turning the Democrats’ “log cabin and hard cider” aspersions on his character as the basic symbols of the campaign.
Though hardly a “limited government man,” some limited government history buffs proclaim him the Greatest President, on the ostensibly droll and possibly cynical grounds that he spent so little time in office.
On a sadder note, Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated on this day in 1968.
“…only when it is dark enough can you see the stars. And I see God working in this period of the twentieth century in a way that men, in some strange way, are responding.
“Something is happening in our world. The masses of people are rising up. And wherever they are assembled today, whether they are in Johannesburg, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; Accra, Ghana; New York City; Atlanta, Georgia; Jackson, Mississippi; or Memphis, Tennessee — the cry is always the same: ‘We want to be free.‘“
Martin Luther King, Jr., a day before his assassination, in a speech delivered at Bishop Charles Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee.
“Being confident of our own future, we are now free of that inordinate fear of communism which once led us to embrace any dictator who joined us in that fear.”
James Earl Carter, Jr., Commencement Address, Notre Dame University, May 22, 1977
The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.
William Shakespeare, As You Like It (c.1599-1600), Act V, scene 1, line 34.
“Good literature erects bridges between different peoples, and by having us enjoy, suffer, or feel surprise, unites us beneath the languages, beliefs, habits, customs, and prejudices that separate us.”
Mario Vargas Llosa, Nobel Lecture, 2010
“It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority. For there is a reserve of latent power in the masses which, if it is called into play, the minority can seldom resist.”
Lord Acton, “The History of Freedom in Antiquity,” 1877.
Sometimes you write something, and think of the next thing to say . . . but realize you cannot say it in the space allotted. Or that the next thought should be “saved for next time.” Or maybe you merely wonder “Will the reader think of that too?”
In expanding on Friday’s water discussion, for Townhall this weekend, I wondered, “Will the reader think of Fourier?”
Fourier famously said that, with socialism, the oceans would be filled with lemonade!
Which would lead to a scarcity of water. A constituent of lemonade, but more important and versatile than the famous tart sugary fruit drink.
Actually, socialism leads to far worse scarcities than a dystopia of lemon-spiked seas.
As we now know. Read the column at Townhall. Come back here and click the links to Friday’s water Common Sense. And look up online the work of PERC, and of economists like these:
“Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.”
William Shakespearen, Julius Caesar (1599), Caesar, Act II, scene ii.
A simple and powerful statement from John Stossel.