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28 June 2008

Some words of wisdom from Abraham Lincoln

I was updating my GoodReads site when I happened to come across this quote from our greatest president that seemed apropos considering the parlous times we're living in:

"These [the armed forces] are not our reliance against a resumption of tyranny in our fair land. All of them may be turned against our liberties, without making us stronger or weaker for the struggle. Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in our bosoms. Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, every where.... Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage, and you are preparing your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample on the rights of those around you, you have lost the genius of your own independence, and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises." (Speech at Edwardsville, Illinois, September 11, 1858)

It's only after I noted the citation that I realized the date: How doubly apropos!

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