Mark

“No one is more empowered by free speech than the historically marginalized and dispossessed. I’ll repeat Frederick Douglass’s declaration from 1860: free speech is the “great moral renovator of society and government.” He argued that “slavery cannot tolerate free speech” and that “five years of its exercise would banish the auction block and break every chain in the South.”
― David French, Divided We Fall: America’s Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation

“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened. —Anatole France, Nobel Laureate, 1921”
― Lynda Rutledge, West with Giraffes

“People look at you peculiar if you talk about the feeling you got for animals, saying animals have no souls, no sense of good or bad, no value up next to humans," he said. "I don't know about that. Sometimes I think animals are the ones who should be saying such things about us." He shook his head. "Animals can tear your heart out. They can maim you. They can kill you dead on instinct alone and saunter into the next minute like it was nothing. But at least you know the ground rules with animals. You can count the cost of breaking the rules. You never know with people. Even the good can hurt you bad, and the bad, well, they're going to hurt you but good." He dropped his arm from the window to rub his gnarled hand. "It's why I keep choosing animals. Even if it kills me. One day, it probably will.”
― Lynda Rutledge, West with Giraffes

“They” are violent. “They” are dangerous. And “we” are innocent.”
― David French, Divided We Fall: America’s Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation