Amnesty International USA Group 133

Amnesty International

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Quotations

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.": - Anne Frank

"And for those who get discouraged, I would say they should search their own hearts. I have a strong belief that those working for the truth will never lose. We will be successful whether we have lost or won, since we are working for the truth.": - Aung San Suu Kyi, Burmese Nobel Peace Laureate

"Human history depends on how hard we work, on how much we are willing to sacrifice. We can be amazed by our effort if we continually stay at it on the ground.": - Cornel West

"We should be encouraged by historical examples of social change, by how surprising changes take place suddenly, when you least expect it, not because of a miracle from on high, but because people have labored patiently for a long time.": - Howard Zinn

"Watching and seeing suffering has a way of getting inside of you, and you catch on fire. When you see the injustice that's causing the suffering, you've got to do something about it.": - Sister Helen Prejean, author, Dead Man Walking

"We must combine the toughness of the serpent with the softness of the dove, a tough mind and a tender heart.": - Martin Luther King, Jr. 1929-1968

"No man can terrorize a whole nation unless we are all his accomplices.": - Edward Murrow

"The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush, it will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference and undernourishment.": - Robert Hutchins

"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise.": - F. Scott Fitzgerald

"It is easier to be a 'humanitarian' than to render your own country its proper due; it is easier to be a 'patriot' than to make your community a better place to live in; it is easier to be a 'civic leader' than to treat your own family with loving understanding; for the smaller the focus of attention, the harder the task.": - Sydney J. Harris

"Boundary, n.: In political geography, an imaginary line between two nations, separating the imaginary rights of one from the imaginary rights of another.": - Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"

"Peace, n.: In international affairs, a period of cheating between two periods of fighting.": - Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"

"Those who would trade liberty for a small security will have neither.": - Thomas Jefferson

"Killing one person in murder - Killing 100,000 is Foreign Policy.": - seen on a button

"We are constantly being astonished these days at the amazing discoveries in the field of violence. But I maintain that far more undreamt of and seemingly impossible discoveries will be made in the field of nonviolence.": - Ghandi

"Only the people, can save the people.": --Calixto Torres Santay, Quiche-Guatemalan Human Rights Activist

"Talk is cheap... It's the way we organize and use our lives every day that tells what we believe in.": --Cesar Chavez

"You can kill a thousand; you can bring an end to life; you cannot kill an idea.": - Acting Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres on the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.": - John F. Kennedy

"Don't mourn. Organize.": - Joe Hill

"...we are...resolutely opposed to politicizing the human rights issues as an excuse to interfere in other countries' internal affairs.": - Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Tang Guoqiang told reporters

"The most regrettable event [in my life]": - Japan's Kyodo news agency quoting Deng Xiaoping's remorse over the 1989 Tiananmen Square military crackdown.

"I wish I could cry, but we don't cry anymore.": - Innocent Chukuma, Reebok Human Rights Award Recipient 1996

"It is only because of the tears of thousands of brothers and sisters that I am here today.": - Jesus Tecu Osorio, Reebok Human Rights Award Recipient 1996

"Those seeking a better life don't check their humanity at the border.": - Julie Su, Reebok Human Rights Award Recipient 1996

"Can't nobody lick us, Pa. We're the people.": - Jane Darrell in the Movie - The Grapes of Wrath

"Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less.": - Susan B. Anthony

"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.": - Frederick Douglass, 1857

"The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender." "Winning is a habit. Unfortuantely, so is losing.": - Vincent Thomas Lombardi (1913-1970)

"Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground.": - Frederick Douglass, 1857

"A man must be willing to die for justice. Death is an inescapable reality and men die daily, but good deeds live forever.": Jesse Jackson, Jesse Jackson: The Man, The Movement, - The Myth, 1975

"A man who won't die for something is not fit to live.": - Martin Luther King, Jr., 1963

"It is a blessing to die for a cause, because you can so easily die for nothing.": - Andrew Young, 1977

"There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.": - Nelson Mandela, 1953

"The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses.": - Malcolm X, 1963

"The problem in defense is how far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without.": - Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969)

"I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.": - Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969)

"Compared to war, all other forms of human endeavor shrink to insignificance. God help me, I do love it so.": - George C. Scott in the Movie - Patton

"I still cannot hear or see the name Ken Saro-Wiwa without chanting in my head `we will not forget.'": - Amy Beeler, Amnesty International USA, Boston Area Cluster Chairperson

"... to evoke the recognition that every injustice wears a human face.": - William F. Schulz, Amnesty International USA, Executive Director

"I used to box for Oxford."
"I used to kill for the CIA.": - A Fish Called Wanda

"The central message of Buddhism is not 'every man for himself!'": - A Fish Called Wanda

"We did not lose Vietnam! It was a tie!": - A Fish Called Wanda

"Well, would you like to know what you'd be without us, the good ol' US of A to protect you? I'll tell you. The smallest f**ing province in the Russian Empire, that's what. So don't call me stupid, lady. Just thank me!": - A Fish Called Wanda

"The London Underground is not a political movement.": - A Fish Called Wanda

"An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.": - Martin Luther King, Jr.

"In democratic countries, knowledge of how to combine is the mother of all other forms of knowledge; on its progress depends that of all the others.": - De Tocqueville

"We were born on it, and we got killed on it, died on it. Even if it's no good, it's still ours. That's what makes it ours - being born on it, working it, dying on it. That makes ownership, not a paper with numbers on it.": - The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck

"China is likely to evolve into a multiparty democracy within the next decade.": - Xu Wenli, (an optimistic) Chinese Democracy Activist and Prisoner of Conscience

"No man makes a greater mistake than he who does nothing because he can only do a little.": - Edmund Burke

"My father is no different than any powerful man, any man with power, like a president or senator."
"Do you know how naive you sound, Michael? Presidents and senators don't have men killed!"
"Oh. Who's being naive now, Kay?": - The Godfather, Francis Ford Coppola

"If anything in this life is certain, if history has taught us anything, it is that you can kill anyone.": - The Godfather: Part II, Francis Ford Coppola

"Your aim is to humiliate and debase the human being. There is no justification for cruelty."
"Our aim is to rid society of negative influences. This end justifies certain unorthodox means.": - Closetland, Radha Bharadwaj

"If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains set lightly upon you; and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.": - Samuel Adams

"The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny. ": - James Madison, Federalist Paper No. 47

"Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress, but I repeat myself.": - Mark Twain

"The weak enslave themselves and justice belongs to the strong": - Klingon (a race of warrior aliens from Star Trek) saying

"If we make peaceful revolution impossible, we make violent revolution inevitable.": - John F. Kennedy

"USA - very good friend of Tibet!": - The standard response from Tibetans in Tibet when someone says they are from the United States

"I believe that everywhere, people aspire to be treated with dignity... to give voice to their opinions, to choose their own leaders, to associate with whom they wish, to worship how, when and where they want. These are not American rights or European rights or developed world rights. These are the birthrights of people everywhere.": - US President Bill Clinton, June 1998, as quoted on page one of Amnesty International's USA Campaign report Rights For All

"The USA has been quick to voice its condemnation of human rights violations in some other countries and to stress, by contrast, the wealth of civil and political rights which it guarantees within its borders. As this report shows, however, it has failed to deliver these rights to many of its people and there are signs that, unless urgent steps are taken, these rights will be further eroded.": - Rights For All, page 150

"State Department spokesman James Foley, avoiding a clash with Amnesty, said, 'We welcome their scrutiny. In keeping with our recognition of the universality of human rights and our openness as a democratic society, we are proud of our political and judicial systems, which we believe are the envy of the world.'": - Excerpt from an article on the report release in the Chicago Tribune, 10/5/98

"Amnesty International decides to go after the United States for human-rights abuses. China signs a major human-rights accord. What's wrong with this picture?": - The Akron Beacon-Journal (Ohio), in a byline titled "Topsy-turvy," 10/7/98

"Granted, many of the abuses cited are dated, generated outrage, and prompted lawsuits, firings, even criminal charges. Grant, too, that abuse of human rights is not state-directed or policy. Still, abuse can be considered 'state sanctioned' if it's tolerated by a wink and no strong effort is made to prevent or stop it. In that regard U.S. culture is one of mixed messages: One message encourages community policing and sensitivity; another glorifies Dirty Harry-style policing on TV and in the movies.
More to the point, U.S. Supreme Court decisions have discouraged federal-court oversight of state prison systems. Congress has circumscribed court review of immigration decisions. The Florida Legislature diluted state oversight of local jails and so embellished the rights of police officers that it is extremely difficult to fire rogue cops.
What Amnesty International sees, and what we haven't, is that our checks and balances aren't always working. Even before the release of Amnesty's compendium, there was ample reason to address brutal prison conditions and to halt discriminatory law enforcement. That need obviously continues.": - The Miami Herald, 10/8/98

"[MI5] does not kill people or arrange their assassination.": - MI5, British Intelligence organization similar to the US FBI, said in a response to recent allegations that it tried to assassinate Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

"Americans continue to work to improve our application of equality under the law for all our own citizens, as we believe that freedom and justice are the birthright of humankind. We are also working daily to foster and promote the growth of these rights in other countries. Indeed, the championing of democracy and human rights serves as a cornerstone of my administration's foreign policy.": - President Bill Clinton, Dec 10, 1997, International Human Rights Day

"We will continue to speak out about human rights violations whether they're in China, Burma or Cuba. We, however, have to have a flexible approach to how we deal with it, depending upon what our national interests are. And we have to understand where we have strategic relationships that require us to take a different approach.": - Secretary of State Madeline Albright

"So far they have not given us any indication that they are ready or willing to change their beliefs. I think any country would keep these kind of people in jail.": - President Kim Dae Jung, South Korea

"Physical abuse of citizens by a police officer is among the most serious violations of the public trust possible.": - St. Clair Commission Report, 1992

"Life is a terminal disease, and it's sexually transmitted.": - John Cleese

"Hillary is much prettier than the wife of Jiang Zemin...": - a music teacher from Xi'an, China, when asked for a comment on the visit of President Bill Clinton to China.

"...Esteemed Guests, Mr. President, Mrs. President...": - the Mayor of Xi'an, China welcoming Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton to his city.

"Autonomy with integrity...": - the new formulation of the U.S. position on Tibet. The United States recognizes what China calls the Tibetan autonomous region as part of China.

"The 5 'T's": - New term referring to the big issues in US-China Relations (Tibet, Taiwan, Tiananmen, Trade, Technology Transfer)

"I just think they could get more good will in the rest of the world, for less effort, by doing the right thing on Tibet than nearly any other issue... We think it's wrong for the people of Tibet to be subject to any sort of religious, cultural or economic discrimination. ... It's obvious that we have no power to compel them to do this ... There is no tool, no incentive, no anything because nothing is as important to the Chinese as the territorial integrity of their country. So I have to find a way to argue my case and prevail and I will keep doing this. I care very, very much about this and I have been working on this hard for the last couple of years and I will continue to do it as long as I'm president.": - President Bill Clinton

"Clinton is coming to meet (President) Jiang Zemin, but the Communist Party is falling. Everyone hates the government. No one is happy. There are protests every week ... I tell the truth ...This visit might be good for relations between the two countries. But for ordinary people it doesn't mean a thing. The ordinary people will continue to suffer whatever happens.": - Mr. Yue, a man playing checkers on a corner in Xi'an, on the eve of Clinton's visit. Yue ignored pleas of his checkers partner to be silent for fear of being overheard.

"And let me say something that will perhaps be unpopular with everyone. I have spent time with the Dalai Lama. I believe him to be an honest man, and I believe if he had a conversation with President Jiang, they would like each other very much.": - President Bill Clinton

"If you are convinced what you're doing is correct, your heart is at ease and you can continue in the struggle.": - Wei Jingsheng

"I am going to see a number of people from different elements of Chinese society, and I am going to do what I think is best to promote the cause of human rights.": - President Bill Clinton

"...we are enclosing a little bit of the blood of Monsignor Gerardi, whom we killed on Sunday night...": - a death threat to a progressive political candidate from the" Jaguar Avengers", a notorious death squad, who also claim "credit" for the murder of Bishop Juan Geradi

"Human rights work is a kind of spiritual practice.": - The Dalai Lama

"It did not matter whether legal or illegal means were used, just as long as the problem was solved.": - Former South African police General Gerrit Erasmus, chief of the Witwatersrand security police at the time Stanza Bapope died under torture, testifying to the Truth and Reconciliation Committee amnesty committee.

"The Master's tools will never dismantle the Master's house.": - Audre Lorde

"You can kill a revolutionary but you can't kill a revolution.": - Fred Hampton

"What hurts Indians most is that our costumes are considered beautiful, but it's as if the person wearing it doesn't exist.": - Rigoberta Menchu

"Bad hair day? How about a bad staying alive day?": - Joan Rivers

"The repossession by women of our bodies will bring far more essential change to human society than the seizing of the means of production by workers.": - Adrienne Rich

"There's room for everyone at the rendezvous of victory.": -Cesaire

"[Umkhonto we Sizwe] wanted whites to have an understanding of the pain and suffering felt by black people ... We wanted to show that it was not only MK soldiers who bled. The only way was to rip the apartheid war machine open, to deal with its soft underbelly.": - Umkhonto we Sizwe (the armed wing of the African National Congress during the anti-apartheid struggle literally ‘The spear of the nation’) commander Aboobaker Ismail, at a South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearing.

"…we are the first major energy company to support publicly the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights - and the emergence of the concept of sustainable development.": - From Shell Corp.’s web page

"Ken Saro-Wiwa... We will not forget!"
"Abacha! Abacha! The world is watching you!": - Shouts from "Get on the Bus III" participants, at the Nigerian Consulate in NY.

"I consider supporters helping Tibet as pro-Justice, not pro-Tibet. I ask all of you supporting Tibet to also help other causes, other people who are less fortunate.": - the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, May 4, 1998

"No matter how hard we are beaten our linked arms cannot be broken.": - Gyaltsen Drolkar, Gyaltsen Choezom and the 12 other nuns imprisoned in Drapchi Prison in Lhasa, Tibet.

"There is no greater sorrow on Earth than the loss of one’s native land.": - Euripides, 431 BCE

"May all beings be in peace… Long live the Dalai Lama… Free Tibet": - Thupten Ngodup, a 50 year old Tibetan that set himself on fire in New Delhi, India to protest the Tibetan situation.

"Who wants to know!?": - Official at the Nigerian Consulate in NY in response to, "What is the name of the Consul General?"

"Hooray for group 133!": - Isabel from the International Secretariat’s China/Tibet Team and Lisa Mahoney from Amnesty International USA’s China/Tibet Coordination Group, in relation to Group 133’s work on Prisoner of Conscience Gyaltsen Drolkar.

"Free Speech not only lives, IT ROCKS!": - Oprah Winfrey in a statement made just after winning a case against a Cattle association that was suing her for slander.

"Many Organizations would be far stronger if their staff and leaders resolved to do nothing else but find others to volunteer for all the jobs.": - Organizing for Social Change, Kim Bobo, Second Edition, Seven Locks Press Press, Santa Ana, California, 1996

"No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed uncharted land or opened a new heaven to the human spirit": - Hellen Keller

"Evil is not our destiny; tyranny is not our fate": - Li Lu, Reebok Human Rights Award Recipient

"No one is above the law, and no one is beneath the law": - Van Jones, Reebok Human Rights Award Recipient

"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.": - Oscar Wilde

"...all things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.": - Spinoza

"I urge my fellow Tibetans to continue to resist violent acts of frustration and desperation as a means to protest against injustice and repression. If we give in to hatred, desperation and violence, we would debase ourselves to the level of the oppressors. The way of the oppressors is intimidation, coercion and the use of force. Ours is a belief in and reliance on truth, justice and reason. This distinction is our most effective weapon.": - The 14th Dalai Lama, March 10, 1997, Tibetan Uprising Day

"Not a day passes over the earth, but men and women of no note do great deeds, speak great words and suffer noble sorrows.": - Charles Reade

" ... because in helping the oppressed we help ourselves.": - Angel Martinez, Member of the Reebok Foundation, Board of Advisors

"The democratic reform carried out in Tibet in 1959 ended the history of a feudal serf system which merged religion with politics, and gave the more than one million serfs and slaves in Tibet, accounting for more than 95 percent of the population, the right to be their own masters."
"The situation as regards human rights in old Tibet bears no comparison with the situation in Tibet today," the Dalai Lama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize is the head of a "a dark, savage and cruel system of merging politics with religion and feudal serfdom."
"He [the Dalai Lama] also fabricates sensational lies to befuddle world opinion.": - Xinhua, the Chinese Government News Agency.

"Let China sleep, for when she wakes the world will tremble.": - Napoleon Bonaparte

"Listening is the beginning of peace.": - Elise Boulding

"Freedom … We never give up hope, not because it is our cause, but because our cause is a just cause.": - HH The 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet

"The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.": - George Orwell

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerned citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.": - Eleanor Roosevelt

"No man can terrorize a whole nation unless we are all his accomplices.": - Edward Murrow

"The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush, it will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference and undernourishment.": - Robert Hutchins

"Only free men can negotiate, prisoners can not enter in to contracts.": - Nelson Mandela

"No iron chain or outward force of any kind could ever compel the soul of man to believe or disbelieve.": - Carlyle

"Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.": - George Orwell

"Since when do you have to agree with people to defend them from injustice?": - Lillian Hellman

"Thanks in advance for anything you can provide. You obviously have a very energetic group over there and your activities are admirable!": - In an email to the Tibet Action Team from Robert M. Adams, AIUSA Group 22, Pasadena/Caltech

"The unbridled growth of human rights accentuates differences among persons and groups, threatens internal order and social cohesion, and transforms nations into mere states. In the worst cases the uncontrolled growth of rights, like cancer cells, can kill the hosts that nurture them -- and thereby
kill themselves.": - John A. Gentry, Washington Quarterly, Autumn 1999

"If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, had he the power, would be justified in silencing mankind": - John Stuart Mill "ON LIBERTY"

"Torture has perhaps saved some, at the expense of honor, by uncovering thirty bombs, but at the same time it aroused fifty new terrorists who, operating in some other way and in another place, will cause the death of even more innocent people.": - Albert Camus

"The Master [Confucius] said, 'Don't worry if people don't recognize your merits; worry that you may not recognize theirs.'": - The Analects of Confucius

"Little drops of rain wear away the greatest of stones": - Unknown

"I want to tell the world that we need justice, just like a wound needs treatment to heal. If you don't open it up and clean it out, it will never get better.": - Albanian survivor in Kosovo, speaking about impunity of Serbian human rights violators

"Your activities are an inspiration for us all to do more, I much appreciate Group #133.": - Ron Cooper, Member of AIUSA Group 148 of California, in an email to the Tibet Action Team

"Free at last! Now I have the happiest time in my life with my family. I appreciate your help for all this. Thank you, thank you so much. As you know I was released on 15th August. On my way home I saw the polar star in the sky. I could rarely see the star in prison. They say it represents ideal and guide. I think you are like the star for me. I wonder how can I be released without your help. I will never forget your affection for me and for human rights. And I received the money from you. Thank you very much. Good luck.": - Choi Ho Kyoung, A South Korean who was the Adoption case for former Group 215 of Boston, MA.

'It was an uncertain time, but thank God, I received support from my family and from international organisations,' he told the press during an emotional reunion with his mother, son and family. He added, 'It is my desire and hope that the judges will work with the same speed they worked on my case for the release of the other innocent prisoners': - Julio Cesar Mendivil Trelles was released on the evening of 25 August 1999.

"Maybe you just sent one card - but all of these cards are like little drops of water that combine to create an avalanche of pressure.": - The avalanche that greeted Nigerian prisoner of conscience Chris Anyanwu

"We've been waiting all our lives for this chance to speak out",. "But never in my life did I think it would be here in Canada".: - Edilberto Del Toro Argota, a 45-year-old bus driver charged with disseminating 'enemy propaganda' and sentenced to four years in a Cuban prison for his human rights work

'I want to warmly thank all Amnesty International members': - Radhia Nasraoui, a Tunisian human rights lawyer who for years has been harassed and intimidated by security forces because of her human rights work, writes about her long involvement with Amnesty International

"The foolish believe that their own interests will suffer if they put the benefit of others first.": - Dogen, Japanese Zen Master, 1200-1253

"Talk is cheap. It's the way we organize and use our lives every day that tells what we believe in.": - Cesar Chavez

"....the candle burns not for us, but for all those whom we failed to rescue from prison, who were shot on the way to prison, who were tortured, who were kidnapped, who were disappeared.' That's what the candle is for.": - Peter Benenson, founder of Amnesty International

"Now Tom said, 'Mom wherever there's a cop beatin' a guy. Wherever a newborn baby cries. Where there's a fight 'gainst the blood and hatred in the air Look for me Mom I'll be there. Wherever there's somebody fightin'for a place to stand. Or decent job or a helpin' hand. Wherever somebody's strugglin' to be free. Look in their eyes Mom you'll see me.'": - "The Ghost of Tom Joad" by Bruce Springsteen

"The oppressed cannot remain oppressed forever. The urge for freedom will eventually come.": - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"I don't think we should link FMS (Foreign Military Sales) with Human rights."
"I agree. That would be setting a very bad precedent. It could be applied almost anyplace. I see Moynihan took off after Amin.": - Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and President Gerald Ford from recently declassified documents

"The Chinese government firmly supports and protects, in accordance with the law, all legal protest
activities.": - People’s Republic of China Vice President Hu Jintao

"If Jesus Christ spoke to Pat Robertson, he’d say, 'Pat, I think we got a problem with this DEATH PENALTY stuff. I mean, you want the State - the same people who run the motor vehicle registry, to be in charge of LIFE AND DEATH?'": - Jimmy Tingle

"What do you call assassins who accuse assassins?": - Marlon Brando as Colonel Walter E. Kurtz in Apocalypse Now (1979):

"You know I'm violently opposed to police brutality.": - Commissioner Gordon from the 1960's TV Series "Batman"

"I am a screen saver for computers. I don't mind...People can use me as they want. My main practice is to serve human beings.": - The Dalai Lama of Tibet

"I do not think that NATO should have gone to war in Kosovo. They should not be bombing - it is a terrible mistake. Once you have committed violence, its nature is unpredictable. We now have hundreds of thousands of Kosovar refugees in camps. At least, we still have Tibetans in Tibet.": - The Dalai Lama of Tibet

"It cannot be called virtue to kill fellow citizens, betray ones friends, be without faith, without pity, and without religion; By these methods one may attain power but not glory.": - Machiavelli, The Prince, Chapter VIII

"Like the bee gathering honey from the different flowers, the wise person accepts the essence of the different scriptures and sees only the good in all religions.": - Mahatma Gandhi

"Americans should keep a low profile…": - According the United States Department of State in a ``worldwide caution'' released Wednesday. This warning is due the anniversary the of US embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya that killed over 200 people.

"What is the difference between Mechanical Engineers and Civil Engineers?"
"Mechanical Engineers build weapons, Civil Engineers build targets.": - Unknown

"If my son is dead, I want at least his little bones.": - Jesus Palencia of Guatemala, 70, looking for her 'disappeared' son Alfonso Alvarado Palencia. Ms. Palencia said that for 15 years she has sent telegrams to the National Palace, looked at hundreds of bodies in morgues and joined in protests, and demonstrations. Since the disappearance of the son, a former labor leader shown in the logbook of extrajudicial executions committed by the Guatemalan Military recently made public, as dead by March 1984.

"...no matter how strong the wind of evil blows, it will not be able to extinguish the flame of truth".: - His Holiness the Dalai Lama said many years ago

"Your silence will not protect you.": - Audre Lorde

"He who says it cannot be done should get out of the way of the one who is doing it.": - Chinese Proverb

"If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are people who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightening. That struggle might be a moral one; it might be a physical one; it might be both moral and physical, but it must be struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. T never did and never will. People might not get all that they work for in this world, but they must certainly work for all they get.": - Frederick Douglas, Abolitionist

"You more likely regret that you hadn't spoke up - than what you said.": - Ronald J. Neroda (10-97)

"Don't agonize. Organize": - Florynce Kennedy

"Whatever is not forbidden is permitted.": - Friedrich von Shiller, Wallenstein's Camp, 1798

"Some things you must always be unable to bear...Injustice and outrage and dishonor and shame. No matter how young you are or how old you have got...Just refuse to bear them.": - William Faulkner

"One of the boys said I was looking well. Of course I am. There is going to be a racket and I am going to be in it!": - Mother Jones, 1910

"When is doubt tell the truth.": - Mark Twain, Following the Equator, 1897

"The power of a movement lies in the fact that it can indeed change the habits of people. This change is not the result of force but of dedication, of moral persuasion.": - Steve Biko (1946-77), South African political leader. Interview, July 1976. Quoted in: Donald Woods, Biko, (1978).

"The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of the men and women. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, the ardor the sacrifice, the more glorious the triumph.": - Thomas Paine, 1776

"The harder they come, the harder they fall.": - Jimmy Cliff

"The future depends on what we do in the present.": - Mahatma Gandhi

"Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are people who want crops without ploughing the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning; they want the ocean without the roar of its many waters. The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both. But it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand; it never has and it never will.": - Frederick Douglas, 1857

"It is necessary; therefore, it is possible.": - G.A. Borghese

"Oh, I am heartily tired of hearing what Lee is going to do. Try to think of what we are going to do ourselves.": - Ulysses S. Grant

"You cannot fight against the future. Time is on our side.": - W. E. Gladstone

"The mark of a civilized society is that people are fed and clothed and housed.": - Madge Micheels-Cyrus

"If we do not change our direction, we are likely to end up where we are headed.": - Ancient Chinese proverb

"Do not look where you fell, but where you slipped.": - Vai proverb, Liberia

"If you make yourself a floorcloth, people will wipe their feet on you.": - Belizian Creole proverb

"The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.": - Martin Luther King, Jr.

"The man who fights for his ideals is the man who is alive.": - Cervantes

"What gives you hope what keeps you from getting discouraged?"
"Groups like this one": - Group 133 member Jean Lawton question to Noam Chomsky at the group's May 1999 meeting.

"I can't do everything, I'm not Amnesty International.": - Noam Chomsky

"Apparently you think of me only as the leader of a cause. Well, I'm also a human being.": - 'Victor Laszlo' in the movie Casablanca

"...fanatics...": - James Graham, Amnesty Cogroup Program director, sarcastically referring to Group 133 and friends

Advice From An Old Sage. -----------------------
There is good and bad In all of us. You will make mistakes. Mean things will be done to you. Be good to yourself. Be kind to others. Forgive and forget. Give them the benefit of the doubt. Just get back up again. Keep coming back to life. Take risks. Have adventures. Look life in the eyes. Stay your course to the stars. Love deeply with no expectations. Be serene patience.

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