Writing on the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing
2010s
Context: p>Americans have more freedom and broader rights than citizens of almost any other nation in the world, including the capacity to criticize their government and their elected officials. But we do not have the right to resort to violence — or the threat of violence — when we don’t get our way. Our founders constructed a system of government so that reason could prevail over fear. Oklahoma City proved once again that without the law there is no freedom.Criticism is part of the lifeblood of democracy. No one is right all the time. But we should remember that there is a big difference between criticizing a policy or a politician and demonizing the government that guarantees our freedoms and the public servants who enforce our laws.</p
“We, me and thee and the parson and all the other lads in the village constitute the public, and the politicians are our servants.”
The Oaken Heart
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Margery Allingham 15
English writer of detective fiction 1904–1966Related quotes
“Being a politician is a poor profession. Being a public servant is a noble one.”
On Growing Up: Letters to American Boys & Girls (1962); also quoted in Herbert Hoover On Growing Up: Letters from and to American Children (1990) edited by Timothy Walch
As quoted in Filipinos in History, Vol. 2 (1989) by National Historical Institute of the Philippines.
ULOL
“O servant, where dost thou seek Me?
Lo! I am beside thee.”
Variant translation: Are you looking for me? I am in the next seat.
My shoulder is against yours.
you will not find me in the stupas, not in Indian shrine
rooms, nor in synagogues, nor in cathedrals:
not in masses, nor kirtans, not in legs winding
around your own neck, nor in eating nothing but
vegetables.
When you really look for me, you will see me
instantly —
you will find me in the tiniest house of time.
As paraphrased by Robert Bly in The Kabir Book (1977)
Songs of Kabîr (1915)
Context: O servant, where dost thou seek Me?
Lo! I am beside thee.
I am neither in temple nor in mosque: I am neither in Kaaba nor in Kailash:
Neither am I in rites and ceremonies, nor in Yoga and renunciation.
If thou art a true seeker, thou shalt at once see Me: thou shalt meet Me in a moment of time.
Source: Earthsea Books, The Farthest Shore (1972), Chapter 9, "Orm Embar" (Arren and Ged)
Quoted in [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez helps recruit a new wave of Democrats, NY Post https://nypost.com/2019/01/16/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-helps-recruit-a-new-wave-of-democrats/ (16 January 2019)
Quotes (2019)
"The Intellectual in America" (1955), from A Sad Heart at the Supermarket (1962)
General sources
Newsletter (UK) http://www.newsletter.co.uk/community/columnists/maurice-neill-upholding-our-right-to-accountability-1-3856967 "MAURICE NEILL: Upholding our right to accountability", 18 May 2012.
Attributed, In the Media
The Greater Common Good May, 1999 http://www.narmada.org/gcg/gcg.html.
Articles