makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part, you can't even passively

take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the

wheels, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop."

 

Mario Savio-  1960's and onward, Activist and teacher- passed away 1996.

                    Was at Berkeley, California in the 1960's

 

 

"America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good,

America will cease to be great."

 

Alexis de Tocqueville- French Statesman, 1805-1859 age 53. This statement is attributed to Tocqueville but research has been unable to find it in his works?

 

I find the statement pretty solid, but it raises questions with me , especially due to the period of history in which it was made. When statement was made slavery and the wars against the native inhabitants of the North American continent were in full swing. If someone could call us great at this moment in our history, I detect a very serious observational disconnect. Have we as a society ever really deserved to call ourselves great? The fact that an intellectually honest study of our history provides ample justification to answer this question in the negative. What I see is the existence of very powerful groups of people that by their actions, words have kept the United States from reaching it's potential to be truly great. I find the moments of greatness that we as a society can legitimately lay claim to have largely been the result of steadfast idealists who work tirelessly against the negative efforts of the other group of people I refer to above.

 

Colin McCoy