Other Voices ~ Bill P

"I believe a long time ago that God got hurt; that is why people got hurt"
BillP

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IMAGE CREDITS: William Blake - "Ancient of Days"

other voices - Joann Jones

On the value of caregivers ~

During my second year in nursing school, our professor gave us a quiz. I breezed through the questions until I read the last one: "What is the first name of the woman who cleans the building?"

Surely this was a joke. I had seen the cleaning woman several times, but how would I know her name? I handed in my paper leaving the last question blank.

Before the class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward our grade. "Absolutely," the professor said. "In your careers, you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say hello." I've never forgotten that lesson. I also learned her name was Dorthea.

other voices - Edward Abbey

"May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.

"What is the purpose of the giant sequoia tree? The purpose of the giant sequoia tree is to provide shade for the tiny titmouse.

"Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit".

Edward Abbey

other voices - Martin Luther King

"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love
will have the final word in reality.
This is why right, temporarily defeated,
is stronger than evil triumphant."

Martin Luther King

other voices - Erma Bombeck

"Never go to a doctor whose office plants are dead."

Erma Bombeck

other voices - Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman Orator - 106-43 B.C.

The Enemy Within

"A nation can survive its fools and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within.

An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and he carries his banners openly against the city.

But the traitor moves among those within the gates freely, his sly whispers rustling through all alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself.

For the traitor appears to be no traitor; he speaks in the accents familiar to his victim, and he wears their face and their garments and he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men.

He rots the soul of a nation; he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of a city; he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist.

A murderer is less to be feared.
The traitor is the plague."

other voices - BillP

"I believe a long time ago that God got hurt; that is why people got hurt"
BillP

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IMAGE CREDITS: William Blake - "Ancient of Days"

other voices - Richard J. Machowicz

"Being a warrior is not about the act of fighting.

It's about being so prepared to face a challenge
and believing so strongly
in the cause you are fighting
that you refuse to quit."

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notes: Richard Machowicz founded Bukido Institute after years of serving as a Navy Seal. Read Mike Mahler's interview with him; IMAGE CREDITS TO: 1- Comradeship, 1937 by Josep Thorak. Sculpture originally in front of German Pavilion at 1936 Paris World Exposition, from Werckmeister's Totalitarian Art page

other voices - Herman Melville

"Familiarity with danger makes a brave man braver but less daring"

"It is better to sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian"

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IMAGE CREDIT: Rockwell Kent

other voices - Mark Twain / Samuel Clemens

"The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter --
it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning."

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IMAGE CREDIT: Fireflies in a Jar © 2010 [used with permission] Steven David Johnson, producing "eco-relational imagery". His work is poignant and thoughtful. He is a freelance photographer and a visual and communication arts professor at Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. Steve also does a photoblog of life around him, Virginia Journal.

other voices - Franklin Delano Roosevelt

"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much;
it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."

FDR's "Bill of Rights"

• The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the Nation;
• The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
• The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
• The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
• The right of every family to a decent home;
• The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
• The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
• The right to a good education.

other voices - J. Donatella