People Who Are Amazing [MLKJ/SBA]

Had my second day of work today and it went well.
So, as you know, it's Martin Luther King Jr. [Long name...] Day! My brother Sam said we use to celebrate it but I don't EVER remember doing that so I label him a 'liar'.

In honor of Mr. MLKJ I'm going to put several of his most moving quotes.

"Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent."
"A man who won't die for something is not fit to live."

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."


"Discrimination is a hellhound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them."

Enjoy those! [I got them all from 'Brainy Quotes'.]

For my I.E, Individual Event,  I debated between a Susan B. Anthony speech or Atticus's closing argument. In the end I gladly chose Susan B. Anthony's speech after she was accused of voting. Imagine that! Being taken to court for voting. I'm very glad, in some sense, to be living in the time period I do. Maybe, one day, though, some one will look back and, with a sigh of relief, say; "Whew, glad I didn't live back then in 2011"  

Here is the speech:

Friends and fellow citizens: I stand before you tonight under indictment for the alleged crime of having voted at the last presidential election, without having a lawful right to vote. It shall be my work this evening to prove to you that in thus voting, I not only committed no crime, but, instead, simply exercised my citizen's rights, guaranteed to me and all United States citizens by the National Constitution,
beyond the power of any state to deny.

The preamble of the Federal Constitution says:

"We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union. And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole people - women as well as men. And it is a downright mockery to talk to women of their enjoyment of the blessings of liberty while they are denied the use of the only means of securing them provided by this democratic-republican government - the ballot.

For any state to make sex a qualification that must ever result in the disfranchisement of one entire half of the people, is to pass a bill of attainder, or, an ex post facto law, and is therefore a violation of the supreme law of the land. By it the blessings of liberty are forever withheld from women and their female posterity.

To them this government has no just powers derived from the consent of the governed. To them this government is not a democracy. It is not a republic. It is an odious aristocracy; a hateful oligarchy of sex; the most hateful aristocracy ever established on the face of the globe; an oligarchy of wealth, where the rich govern the poor. An oligarchy of learning, where the educated govern the ignorant, or even an oligarchy of race, where the Saxon rules the African, might be endured; but this oligarchy of sex, which makes father, brothers, husband, sons, the oligarchs over the mother and sisters, the wife and daughters, of every household - which ordains all men sovereigns, all women subjects, carries dissension, discord, and rebellion
into every home of the nation.

Webster, Worcester, and Bouvier all define a citizen to be a person in the United States,
entitled to vote and hold office.

The only question left to be settled now is: Are women persons? And I hardly believe any of our opponents will have the hardihood to say they are not. Being persons, then, women are citizens; and no state has a right to make any law, or to enforce any old law, that shall abridge their privileges or immunities. Hence, every discrimination against women in the constitutions and laws of the several states is today null and void, precisely as is every one against Negroes.

Isn't it amazing, that one line, that talks about secured freedom? That brought some things into light! This speech addressed a huge problem but, also, if dissected, talks about more than just Woman Rights. The cool thing about Susan B. Anthony is that she stood for Life too. I really, other than Van Gogh, couldn't think of, at the moment, any one else I'd rather meet at the moment.

:]

LIA