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Readings in NonViolent Action (Thoreau) / No Syr Arrest / Essay on Stanton Needed
From: Webmaster (webmaster@kids-right.org)
This is a message from a mailing list, members@kids-right.org http://www.kids-right.org/ To unsubscribe from this list at anytime, send email to Majordomo@kids-right.org with the following 1 line in the BODY of the message (Subject is ignored). unsubscribe members ====================================================================== Good People, This message contains information on: 1. Readings in NonViolent Action - Thoreau 2. Syracuse Update - No arrest today. 3. Essay Needed - Elisabeth Cady Stanton and the Vote 1. Readings in NonViolent Action - Henry David Thoreau ------------------------------------------------------ [With regards to Thoreau, please keep in mind his ideals are associated with the concept of Civil Disobedience, and NOT NonViolent Action as practiced later by Gandhi & King. They shared his idea of personal responsbility, and the tremendous power of one person acting from conviction -- but they shed the "anger" toward the people you disagree with.] Born in 1816 in Concord, Massachusetts, from an average family. He was a graduate of Harvard college and then became a teacher in the local school -- he lasted about two weeks after disagreeing with local officials. He then spent some time as a tutor and handyman, and then started to write. He found himself scandalized by the nation's acceptance of slavery and the Mexican/American war. On July 4th, 1845 he moved his meager belongings to a cabin he had built in the woods near Walden Pond. There he was to declare his independence from the government for the next two years. He is "an example of the practicability of virtue, the deep-rooted individual who has the power to awaken his neighbors from their torpid lives of expediency to lives of principle." In the middle of his life at Walden Pond he was arrested for not paying the local poll tax. He refused to pay as a way of demonstrating he did not recognize a government, "which buys and sells, men, women, and children, like cattle..." He spent a couple of days in jail until the tax was paid by an anonymous benefactor. His writings would influence later Civil Right's leaders such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King. --------- His essay 'Civil Disobedience' was an outgrowth of some of these experiences. They are powerful words to anyone who is seriously thinking of the sacrifice involved with reform. Some excerpts are quoted below: "There are thousands who are in opinion opposed to slavery and the war . . . yet in effect do nothing to put an end to them . . . They hesitate, and they regret, and they sometimes petition; but they do nothing in earnest and with effect. They will wait, well disposed, for others to remedy the evil . . . There are nine hundred and ninety-nine patrons of virtue to one virtuous man. . ." "Even voting for the right is doing nothing for it. It is only expressing to men feebly your desire that it should prevail. A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority. There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men. . ." "Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man in also a prison." ". . . But the rich man . . . is always sold to the institution which makes him rich. Absolutely speaking, the more money, the less virtue; for money comes between a man and his objects . . . Thus his moral ground is taken from under his feet. . ." "When I converse with the freest of my neighbors, I perceive that, whatever they may say about the magnitude and seriousness of the question . . . the long and the short of the matter is . . . they dread the consequences of disobedience to their property and families . . . If I deny the authority of the State when it presents it tax-bill, it will soon take and waste all my property, and so harass me and my children without end. This is hard . . ." "Thus the State never intentionally confronts a man's sense, intellectual or moral, but only his body. It is not armed with superior wit or honesty, but with superior physical strength." 2. Syracuse Update - No arrest today. ----------------------------------- John Murtari returned to the Syracuse Federal Building today to continue his peaceful walk inside the building. He just called in and was able to walk for two hours with no arrest. For more detailed information, check the web site at: http://www.AKidsRight.Org/actionb_syr 3. Essay Needed - Elisabeth Cady Stanton and the Vote ----------------------------------------------------- At the site we try to provide excerpts from history, so we can learn from the past, avoid making the same mistakes, and hopefully bring reform much sooner! We would like to have an essay on Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the techniques used to bring Women the right to vote in the United States. If you are interested, please let us know. For an example of the tone and content, please see what we currently have at: http://www.AKidsRight.Org/civil_back.htm Contact webmaster@AKidsRight.Org ================================================================== To unsubscribe from this list at anytime, send email to Majordomo@kids-right.org with the following 1 line in the BODY of the message (Subject is ignored). unsubscribe members
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