Nine Eleven Story
This is my 911 story. I repeat it every year at this time. If you saw it last year, it has not changed. Feel free to skip the text and look at the pictures, from The Library of Congress.
I was at work, and someone called out that someone had run a plane into the World Trade Center. I didn’t think much of it, until I heard that the second tower had been hit, then the Pentagon, then the towers collapsed, then a plane crashed in Pennsylvania.
I focused on my job most of the day. There was always drama at that facility, and concentrating on my production duties helped to keep me saner. This was roughly the halfway point of my seven year tenure at this place.
One of the other workers was a bully for Jesus. He was a hateful loudmouth. After the extent of the damage became known, he shouted “They are doing this for Allah,” and prayed at his desk. The spectacle of the BFJ praying made me want to puke.
I became alienated from Jesus during these years. Once, I had once been tolerant of Christians and Jesus, as one would be with an eccentric relative. I began to loath the entire affair. I hear of others who found comfort in religion during this difficult time. That option simply was not available for me.
Radio Free Europe
While researching a post about Molly Ivins, PG stumbled onto a lovely site called Booknotes. This site enables authors promoting their latest books. It seems to have gone out of business in December 2004, but the interviews are still available. PG likes to listen to “stuff” while he edits pictures, and Booknotes appears to be a treasure chest.
The multi tasking soundtrack last night was a chat with Hendrik Hertzberg, who is familiar to readers of The New Yorker. BTW, the majority of TNY readers live west of the Hudson River. Supposedly, the biggest number of readers is in California.
In 1965, Mr. Hertzberg was about to get drafted. At the time, this meant a one way ticket to Vietnam. Young men looked for alternatives to this, some of which were legal and moral. Mr. Hertzberg heard about an organization called the National Student Association. “And so I went to work after college for the National Student Association for a year. And it wasn`t just because the National Student Association was a wonderful cause that advanced liberal ideas and fought communism abroad and all of that sort of thing. Later, we learned that it was a CIA front, but I didn`t know that. What I did know was that if you worked for the National Student Association, you didn`t get drafted, that — it wasn`t exactly that you were deferred, but anyway, nobody got drafted while working for the National Student Association, so it was a way to have a year without worrying about getting drafted.”
The National Student Association has a facebook page, which one person likes. “The 1967 revelation of NSA’s ties to the Central Intelligence Agency sparked a national scandal, but did not measurably damage NSA.”
The CIA was involved in all sorts of things in those days. ( It still is today.) One of the fronts was Radio Free Europe. When PG was a kid, the cartoon shows had a commercial for Radio Free Europe. (It was different from the one embedded here.) These fund raising commercials were part of the scam. These commercials netted around $50k a year, towards a multi-million dollar budget. (source)
Soon after the war stories, the conversation turns to religion/tribal allegiance. LAMB: Explain this. “The Nuremberg laws would say I`m Jewish. The Law of Return would say I`m not.” HERTZBERG: Well, according to the Nuremberg laws, if you have a — if you had a Jewish father, the Nazi classification, you were a Jew. But the Law of Return, where — what entitles you to citizenship, automatic citizenship in Israel, you`ve got to have to have a Jewish mother. So I`m Jewish one way, I`m not Jewish the other way. I guess I feel sort of 51 percent Jewish because my name, Hertzberg, sounds Jewish, and therefore, people respond to me, often assume that I`m … 100 percent Jewish.”
This conversation was in 2004, when BHO was a little known Senator. Today, BHO, who had a white mother, is routinely considered black. If you go by the laws of the Nazis, BHO is black. If you go by the laws of Israel, BHO is white.
Mr. Hertzberg took a break from journalism to write speeches for President Jimmy Carter. Mr. Hertzberg is a member of the Judson Wellover Society. HERTZBERG: Judson Wellover was the very first White House speech writer. Not the first person to write speeches, ghost write speeches for a president — that would probably be Alexander Hamilton for George Washington — but the first person who was ever hired just to write speeches in the White House was Judson Wellover. He was hired by Warren G. Harding, and he — it was such a matter — it was such a shameful thing to have somebody writing — hired to write speeches that they hid his salary in the budget of the White House garage. And when we started, when Bill Safire and I started the Judson — the society of sort of a marching and chatter society or dinner — we have a dinner every couple of years of White House speech writers from all administrations, we named it after Judson Wellover.
Warren Harding is credited/blamed for coining the phrase “founding fathers”. Was Mr. Wellover involved? This is a repost, with pictures from The Library of Congress.
Hillary Clinton Not An …
There was a video conversation posted Feb 4, 2016. The participants were Robert Wright, and Heather Hurlburt. The topic of conversation was spirituality, and life in Washington DC.
At the 27:14 mark, the conversation turned to people who work in government. Mr. Wright quoted a longtime Washington observer. He had never met a national elected official who was not an asshole. Ms. Hurlburt then named three politicians, with the phrase “not an asshole” after his name.
After a pause, Ms. Hurlburt said “Hillary Clinton. not an asshole …. I worked for her, and she is, in person, to individual people, a deeply good human being.” PG thought this was the best endorsement of Mrs. Clinton yet. He made a clip of the comment, and posted it in various venues.
After posting the quote, PG decided to go back and hear a bit of the context. The first three men to be labelled non-assholes were Chris Murphy, Mo Udall, and Tim Kaine. This was in February, five months before Senator Kaine was nominated to be Vice President.
In October 1992, there was a campaign rally in Woodruff Park. Al Gore, Tipper Gore, and Hillary Clinton were all there. Tipper Gore said that, in person, Hillary Clinton was just as warm and friendly (not an exact quote) in private, as she was in public. PG started to go back to the office, when he saw the President of the firm. “I guess we are both playing hookey.”
Pictures from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Clickbaitery
Today’s adventure in clickbaitery began with a headline, Math is racist: How data is driving inequality. It seems to be a rule that you get the r-word into every title, whether it is justified or not. The story promotes a book, Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy. “A former Wall Street quant sounds an alarm on the mathematical models that pervade modern life — and threaten to rip apart our social fabric.”
The thesis of the book is that big data is running amok. “Denied a job because of a personality test? Too bad — the algorithm said you wouldn’t be a good fit. Charged a higher rate for a loan? Well, people in your zip code tend to be riskier borrowers. Received a harsher prison sentence? Here’s the thing: Your friends and family have criminal records too, so you’re likely to be a repeat offender.”
Is this racist? Maybe, and maybe not. Are records secretly coded with with an indication of the persons race? (With the Health Insurance Marketplace, this information is explicitly on the application.) Or, is race just a divide and conquer tactic? While America has a hissy fit about a second string quarterback sitting down, big data is making life tougher for the ninety nine percent.
“O’Neil calls on modelers to take more responsibility for their algorithms and on policy makers to regulate their use. But in the end, it’s up to us to become more savvy about the models that govern our lives. This important book empowers us to ask the tough questions, uncover the truth, and demand change.” This sounds good on talk shows, but ultimately big data is going to continue doing what they do. With the Donald and Hillary show going full bore, there will be plenty of distraction.
The one star reviews at Amazon make their points. Aaron C. Brown skewers the book. His review is well written, but too long to quote here. “This book tackles an important subject on which the author had a lot of knowledge and expertise, and interesting incisive opinions. Unfortunately it is marred by appalling journalistic lapses, bad enough to taint not just author, but publisher as well. Crown Publishing Group should have done a little fact and reference checking.”
The other one star folks have the zesty quotes. “She claims to be a mathematician; she’s certainly not a logician.” ~ “Author clearly wasn’t payng attention is math class. The logic used in the book is contradictory at best, nonsensical at worst and racist all throughout.” ~ “Expected a nice educational read, got a book written by a SJW with an ax to grind.”
PG saw another race based article yesterday, It’s time to stop talking about racism with white people. It was written by Atlanta resident Zack Linly. Out of 1869 words, they appears 28 times, or 33 if you include they’re. (There is used 4 times, and their is used 12 times.)
The fifth sentence of this paragraph has two, of the three, homophones. “I understand that white people are mad. They’ve gone their whole lives being the default for social and cultural normalcy and never really had to think critically about race at all. Now a black first lady addresses the nation, and she talks about slavery. Now social media identifies and challenges their micro-aggressions. They’re getting the tint snatched off of their rose-colored glasses; that “Shining City on the Hill” they know as America is starting to lose some of its gloss. And they ain’t here for that — but we are.
The full article is available at the link. Here are a few more quotes.
“When Rachel Dolezal got her counterfeit black card snatched, we struck comedy gold for black meme-makers all over the web. The “Ask Rachel” hashtag was born, and scrolling through your Black Twitter feed became something like running a marathon, only the people on the sidelines were handing out little paper cups filled with white tears instead of regular drinking water.”
“When Beyoncé released the video for “Formation,” featuring a black kid in a hoodie, a “hands up, don’t shoot” banner and a sinking police car — then performed the song while paying homage to the Black Panther Party smack in the face of white America during the Super Bowl halftime show — she provided us with a bottomless open bar of white tears.”
“The fact is, we can fight systemic racism without white validation. We can continue shutting down bridges and highways every time there’s a new Alton Sterling, Philando Castile or Korryn Gaines in the news and let white folks complain about the intrusion on their lives.” (The names of citizens killed by other citizens are not said.)
As this feature is written, there are 3280 comments. scotpowell 6:29 AM EST “I bet this guy is fun at parties…..” Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Tubby Boots
PG found Classic Television Showbiz while reserarching a recent feature about the late Sherwood Schwartz. The site is a treasure, with youtubes of classic tv shows, and interviews with “entertainers”. Somewhere in the sidebar was a link to a story about Tubby Boots.
Charles “Tubby” Boots was born around 1926 in Baltimore MD. He was a nightclub comedian. Mr. Boots weighed 375 pounds, had bleach blond hair, and often performed without a shirt. He wore pasties on his boobs, and would twirl them simultaneously in opposite directions.
The parts in blue are borrowed from Classic television showbiz. Tubby’s parents were a vaudevillian dance team called Boots and Barton. At the age of seven this youngster was clocking in at an astounding two hundred pounds, a constant target of ridicule in his Baltimore schoolyard….During his childhood, Tubby managed to witness a performance by comedy’s greatest cult icon, Lord Buckley … Tubby Boots recalled shortly before his death, “[Lord Buckley] was like a father figure to me. I met Buckley when I was seven years old when I was working at the Hippodrome in Baltimore, Maryland, and I was in awe of him. I saw his act every time he would come back to play the theater … I would sit in the theater all day and watch the shows. I’d stay out of school for the whole week – my mother would pack me a lunch – she knew what I was doing because I wanted to learn about show business. Buckley would do his hat-switching act. Every other show he would get me to do it with him. I’d hang out with him backstage, we’d go out for lunch or dinner, he’d sneak me back into the theater and I’d watch the whole stage show again. I started working nightclubs when I was eleven. I weighed 250 pounds and passed myself off as twenty-one. I got arrested in a strip joint and the police said: ‘We’re not going to throw you in jail but you’re not going to work in this town again – you’re too notorious.’ So they actually put me on a train and said ‘Where you wanna ticket to?’ I said, ‘New York.’ I didn’t run away – I was forced to leave. So when I got to New York I called Buckley and, pretending to sob, said, ‘My mama died in a car crash…my father was with her…’ Unbeknownst to me, he called my mother and told her, ‘He’s with me.’ So he got me a job at The Three Deuces, passing me off as twenty-one.” The Three Deuces was one of Manhattan’s major jazz holes in the thirties and forties, regularly featuring Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. Lord Buckley was connected to the jazz world for most of his career, performing in their clubs and utilizing a great deal of the Black hipster vernacular in his act.”
Mr. Boots got a job as the emcee for burlesque shows, frequently in traveling carnival shows. He was doing well, when Lord Buckley called him from Hollywood. Supposedly, there was a movie job waiting for Mr. Boots. When he got to California, he found out otherwise. “Tubby became affectionately known as Princess Lily. “He used to call me Princess Lily but Prince Charles of Booth was my title. Buckley used to say: ‘Lil! You had the misfortune to be born with the beautiful body of a woman in the ridiculous body of a man!””
In 1959, Mr. Boots was in a bizarre accident. He was taking a bath, and the controls for the hot and cold water were in another room. Lord Buckley was handling these controls, and poured scalding hot water into the tub. Mr. Boots was stuck in the tub, and was badly burned. He spent a week in the hospital, and was not friends with Lord Buckley later.
After he recovered, Mr. Boots moved to Miami Beach. He performed in motel lounges for many years, and developed a following. Comedy albums were becoming popular, and Mr. Boots contributed “Thin my be in but fats where its at”. The albums were sold at his shows. The legend is that no copies exist that were not autographed.
The various search engines are sketchy about Tubby Boots. The Lady Bunny tells about going to see Mr. Boots in a supper club on Long Island in the eighties. Reportedly Mr. Boots did well during the comedy club explosion of the eighties.
PG saw a show by Tubby Boots. It was December 1974, at a dingy Atlanta bar called The Cove. PG was hanging out with someone we will call McClain, who liked the drag shows at The Cove. The bar was a former electronics warehouse, with a sign for Ballantines Beer by the front entrance. Ballantines had not been sold in Georgia for a long time, but the sign stayed. This was on Monroe Drive, behind Piedmont Park. Tubby Boots was a friend of somebody, and did a show at The Cove one night.
If you can stand to look at the embedded video, you get an idea about his show. Forty years later, PG can remember a few of the jokes. There was a one liner about an *African American* who took a shit, and thought he was melting. There was a routine based on the role Katherine Hepburn played in “Suddenly Last Summer”. My boy is not queeyer, he’s carnivorous. After a while, the shirt came off, and he twirled pasties from his boobs in different directions.
After the show, PG talked to a black friend, who did not want to meet the comedian. Meanwhile, Tubby Boots and McClain were making out. Before long, McClain came over to PG, and said he wanted to go somewhere else. McClain died in July, 1992. Tubby Boots died in August, 1993. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. This is a repost.
Hot Dog Quarterback
“The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”. ~ Police: 9 dead, 49 wounded in Chicago weekend shootings ~ MAP: Chicago weekend shooting tracker for Aug. 26 – 29 ~ Colin Kaepernick Is Righter Than You Know: The National Anthem Is a Celebration of Slavery ~ Washington Is Burning ~ #LifeLessons from an 80 year old man. ~ Crashing the Election ~ ‘Racist’ Technology Is a Bug—Not a Crime ~ Test Your Knowledge: $10 Vocabulary Words Quiz ~ Why there’s no such thing as “Reverse Racism” ~ SJW”s didn’t cause #YouTubeIsOverParty ~ Man, people really like using the word “censorship.” ~ Rachel Dolezal’s New Controversy: Headlining a Natural Hair Rally ~ What are right-wing people? – a guide for under 10-year-olds ~ General Knowledge For Trivia Lovers ~ An Unarmed White Man Is Shot by a Cop, and Black Activists Rally ~ Asa North ~ 1 brother dead, another shot in DeKalb County ~ Security guard shot at Norcross motel ~ 9-year-old girl, 3 others shot in Old Fourth Ward ~ Clayton County police investigating fatal triple shooting ~ Shots fired at officer outside Atlanta nightclub ~ 5-year-old boy hit by stray bullet in Atlanta apartment ~ Did we ever find out who pushed Mr. Dumpty? ~ @HLMenckenBot I go on working for the same reason that a hen goes on laying eggs. ~ Google Russian Heroin. They have a horrific problem. I don’t know if it is worse than the generation called out in this meme though. ~ The three major “life issues” are war, abortion, and capital punishment. I don’t think I have ever met anyone with consistent views on all three. ~ Nykea Aldridge, Otha M. Mooney, Roberto Rodriguez Jr., Terrence Murphy, Demarco Richards, Mahadi Hering, Dylan N. Dent, Ramon M. Tolbert were shot to death in Chicago this past weekend. If you are more concerned about criticism of a hot dog quarterback… ~ Someone is typing a comment… ~ We share commentary, news articles, and videos that cover important societal topics as well as give you opportunities to take action. ~ 1-@JohnHMcWhorter a twist on Baldwin quote I do not know many Whites who are eager to be ‘accepted’ by black people still less to be loved 2-@JohnHMcWhorter the whites, simply don’t wish to be beaten over the head by the blacks every instant of our brief passage on this planet. ~ A government headquarters is spelled capitol. A capitol has a rotunda, which is round, like an o. ~ How many of these Kapaernik memes are from people who hate football, and never miss an opportunity to tell you so? ~ Prematurely Orange Saint Ronnie is rolling in his grave ~ @postcrunk don’t worry, you’re just surrounded by emotionally immature narcissists in positions of power and influence ~ @AsebedoCharita hasn’t tweeted yet. ~ @lauraalbert I sent an email to JT Leroy saying that I enjoyed “sarah” I got a very nice reply Thank you to whoever sent it ~ @lauraalbert @chamblee54 probably was me or speedie :) ~ @Nihilist_Viking Build a man a fire, and he will be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he will be warm for the rest of his life. #Twertzog ~ Pictures for this labor day collection are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”. ~ selah
Nothing
When you google nothing, you get search suggestions. Nothing but noodles, nothing is promised lyrics, nothing but trouble, nothing ventured nothing gained, nothing else matters. One point four billion results await you. Google should know that the first page of results is the only one used.
The top result, possibly paid for, is at bandcamp. “People often wonder why Philadelphia’s NOTHING are so damn loud. In the case of many artists, the volume stems from a preoccupation with negativity, …” The third result is a tumblr for the same band. Result number four is the band on facebook. One listening, of one song, is all that this sunday morning will allow.
The second result is the nothing page at wikipedia. Philosophers find the concept of nothingness to be worthy of consideration. Number five is a dictionary entry. “Word Origin and History for nothing. n. Old English naþing, naðinc, from nan “not one” (see none) + þing “thing” (see thing). Meaning “insignificant thing” is from c.1600. As an adverb from c.1200. As an adjective from 1961.”
Result number six is a plot of land in Nothing AZ. Seven is a marketing platform. “We have nothing to do, nothing to eat, nothing to wear, nothing to say, and many other concepts. We are pleased to announce that nothing is available at this time! We are so excited about nothing that we can’t wait to tell everyone about “it”. Order Today!”
Amazon takes over number eight with Gift of Nothing by Cub. Utah Guy gave a one star review. “Do you people not understand what awesome and epic forces you are meddling with here? Sure, it’s safe for now in the cute little package, tee hee you giggle as think of the look your friend will give you when they open it, but what about when they OPEN it? Who are you to unleash The Nothing on the world? Do the struggles of Balthazar and Atreyu mean so little? Was the sacrifice of Pyornkrachzark in vain? THERE WON’T BE A LUCK DRAGON TO SAVE US THIS TIME! STOP BUYING THE NOTHING BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE!”
The last result on page one is Nothing Bundt Cakes. ” And perfection are those decadent, slowly melting bites, we all know and love.” Franchises are available. Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Seven Brilliant Quotes
There is a little graphic floating around, Seven Brilliant Quotes. Some find these sayings to be inspirational. PG smells a rat. Here are the seven quotes:
William Shakespeare – Never play with the feelings of others because you may win the game but the risk is that you will surely lose the person for a life time.
Napoleon Bonaparte – The world suffers a lot. Not because of the violence of bad people, but because of the silence of good people.
Albert Einstein – I am thankful to all those who said NO to me. Its because of them I did it myself.
Abraham Lincoln – If friendship is your weakest point then you are the strongest person in the world.
Martin Luther King Jr. – We must learn to live together as brothers or we will perish together as fools.
Mahatma Gandhi – The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.
Abdul Kalaam – It is very easy to defeat someone, but it is very hard to win someone.
If nothing else, research into the veracity of these quotes should provide some amusing text to go between the pictures. When you go looking in the land of google, there is no telling what you will find. During this expedition, the first page rule will be in effect. Only results on the first google page will be considered. The NB quote has 1.7 million results, which is too much work.
Lets begin with Willie the shake. Did he really say “Never play with the feelings of others because you may win the game but the risk is that you will surely lose the person for a life time.”? Or, as they say in the Yahoo village, Does anyone know where this Shakespeare quote comes from?
hugeshantz Does anyone know where this Shakespeare quote comes from? I’ve seen this quote all over the internet, always attributed to Shakespeare, but I can’t find a legitimate source of where it comes from (i.e. a specific sonnet, play, speech, etc.): “Never play….” Can anyone help me out here?
Dude the Obscure This is 20th/21st century psychobabble. Shakespeare never wrote anything remotely resembling that. Please never trust any of these idiotic “internet quote sites.” They are all, all, all crap. I can’t believe that any intelligent person could think for a minute that this was written by Shakespeare. Really. Get some critical-thinking skills, child.
The next quote is by Napoleon Bonaparte, not Napoleon Dynamite. “The world suffers a lot. Not because of the violence of bad people, but because of the silence of good people.”
Before we consider the veracity of this quote, lets consider two things. NB did not speak english, so there is likely to be translation confusion. Second, the wars NB started caused widepread suffering. Little of this suffering was caused by the silence of good people.
The sources on page one do little except show the quote, usually with the credit going to NB. No one shows when or where he said it, or in what context. Brainyquotes doea not show it on the NB pages.
Number three is from Albert Einstein.” I am thankful to all those who said NO to me. Its because of them I did it myself.” According to Shelly Winters, Marilyn Monroe did not say no to Dr. Einstein. Google has a doozy of a forum, Misquoting Einstein?.
Jimmy Snyder says the quote has been attributed to Dorothy Parker, Yogi Berra, William Shakespeare, The Bible, Benjamin Franklin, and Groucho Marx. This is a clue that the quote is bogus.
zoobyshoe’s I just found this an another wiki page discussing the quote page: “I am thankful …” This is being attributed to Einstein on the Internet, but it appears to come from Wayne W. Dyer’s book You’ll See It When You Believe It, page 54, according to Google Books. Dyer does not attribute it to Einstein, but mentions Einstein in the same paragraph. “In my office I have two framed posters. One is a picture of Albert Einstein, beneath which are the words “Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” The other poster is made up solely of words: “I am grateful to all those people who said no. It is because of them I did it myself.” Great thoughts!”
Ryan_m_b’s “Never believe quotes you read on the internet” – Winston Churchill zoobyshoe’s His actual words were: “The internet has nothing to offer, but blood, tears, toil, and misquotes.”
It should not be surprising that Winston Churchill finds his way into this discussion. He has a taste for the spotlight, even 47 years after his demise. He is an example of how truthiness is sometimes all you need. His most famous speech was a radio address during a bad part of World War Two. The speech was read by an actor. England was inspired, and went on to win the war. Why should anyone worry if an actor gave his speech for him?
This is enough fun for one day. There will be a part two soon, and it will probably be full of number two. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Welcome to part two of the Chamblee54 due diligence report on the Seven Brilliant Quotes. In part one, we checked out the first three. At no time was a source for the quote found. All three are suspect, with “misunderstanding” indicated in the Albert Einstein quote. It is amazing how quickly accepted these sayings are by the inspiration hungry public.
Getting back to business, did Abraham Lincoln say “If friendship is your weakest point then you are the strongest person in the world.” There are lots of links to this quote, in a variety of fonts and colors. Some have spectacular photography in the background. However, none of these links has a source for this quote, or any indication of the context.
Wikiquotes has 43,444 words about Abraham Lincoln. PG copied these words, and did a search for the word “friendship”. The quote from the poster was not found. The meme is missing. This wikiquotes test has been very useful for checking out quotes. It is not authoritative, but is a good place to start.
This type of research can be frustrating. Being inspired by beautiful words can give you strength and purpose. It can also make you feel foolish, when the lovely words are revealed to be lies. Being a cynic gets lonely. Children of all ages don’t like to be told that there is no Santa Claus.
The good news is that number five is for real. Martin Luther King gave a speech at Western Michigan University in 1963. There is a probably his standard speech, given many times. The second section of the speech is “Call for action.”
“The world in which we live is geographically one. Now we are challenged to make it one in terms of brotherhood. Now through our ethical and moral commitment, we must make of it a brotherhood. We must all learn to live together as brothers or we will perish together as fools. This is the great challenge of the hour. This is true of individuals. It is true of nations. No individual can live alone. No nation can live alone.”
“I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. You can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality. [W]e’re challenged after working in the realm of ideas, to move out into the arena of social action and to work passionately and unrelentingly to make racial justice a reality.”
“[W]e must never substitute a doctrine of Black supremacy for white supremacy. For the doctrine of Black supremacy is as dangerous as white supremacy. God is not interested merely in the freedom of black men and brown men and yellow men but God is interested in the freedom of the whole human race, the creation of a society where all men will live together as brothers.”
PG has written about the problem of quoting Mohandas Gandhi before. Supposedly he said “I love your Christ, but I dislike your Christianity.” PG thinks this is a fabrication.
The quote on the poster is “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” Wikiquotes has a link to Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi Online. The next stop is page 302 of this section. Mr. Gandhi gave an “Interview to the press” in Karachi, on March 26, 1931. A freedom fighter named Bhagat Singh had been executed by the British three days earlier.
Do you not think it impolitic to forgive a government which has been guilty of a thousand murders?
I do not know a single instance where forgiveness has been found so wanting as to be impolitic.
But no country has ever shown such forgiveness as India is showing to Britain?
That does not affect my reply. What is true of individuals is true of nations. One cannot forgive too much. The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.
The bottom line is from Dr. Abdul Kalam. (The name is misspelled on the poster.) The phrase is “It is very easy to defeat someone, but it is very hard to win someone.” Many viewers have no idea who this person is. Once again, Wikiquotes comes to the rescue. “Dr. Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam (born 15 October 1931) Indian scientist and engineer; 11th President of India; generally referred to as Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.” The quotes are from Wings of Fire: An Autobiography of APJ Abdul Kalam.
A search for the word “defeat” did not show results. A search for “win” shows a few, but not the poster child. The phrase on the poster is also credited to John Keats. There is also the story of the student who argues with an atheist professor, and ultimately wins. The student is sometimes said to be Albert Einstein. In this version, Argumnent : What, Who is GOD?, the coda is “This seems to be a true story, and the student was none other than APJ Abdul Kalam, the former President of India “.
The research for part one consisted of entering the quote into a search engine. It was not until the Lincoln investigation that the method of copying wikiquote, and searching for a key word, was discovered. Out of a sense of fairness, the first three quotes will be investigated using this method.
For William Shakespeare, the search word was risk. There were no results. For Napoleon Bonaparte, the search word was violence. There was one result. “There is no such thing as an absolute despotism; it is only relative. A man cannot wholly free himself from obligation to his fellows, and not the one on the poster. For Albert Einstein, the search word was thankful. There were no results.
So, there are seven quotes in the motivational poster. Only two of the seven have a apparent source. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. This is a repost. This version is edited, out of concern for the attention span of the audience.
Chamblee54 
leave a comment