Today is Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day. It is our day to honor those who have died in our nation's service.
Thornton Wilder wrote "Our Town" about Peterborough, New Hampshire. Today we honored the 99 people in our town who have died in war. As each name was read, a second grade child rang the bell on the Memorial Gate. Many of us were moved to tears.
Remembering these brave man and women, I cannot help but think that they did NOT lay down their lives to protect any American's inclination to be apathetic.
"Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote."
George Jean Nathan (1882-1958)
“The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men”
Plato
“The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy”
Charles de Montesquieu
“Is it ignorance or apathy? Hey, I don't know and I don't care.”
Jimmy Buffett
“By far the most dangerous foe we have to fight is apathy - indifference from whatever cause, not from a lack of knowledge, but from carelessness, from absorption in other pursuits, from a contempt bred of self satisfaction”
William Osler
“The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.”
Robert M. Hutchins
“Apathy is a sort of living oblivion.”
Horace Greeley
"Now picture a soggy rain-soaked piece of cardboard lying on the ground - with black ink streaked like weeping mascara that reads, "There is no room on this wall for more wars. Thank you for supporting the troops. - Come again."
John Corey
“Apathy is the glove into which evil slips its hand”
Bodie Thoene
Yes, Benjamin Franklin said this - was anyone listening?
“So much attention is paid to the aggressive sins, such as violence and cruelty and greed with all their tragic effects, that too little attention is paid to the passive sins, such as apathy and laziness, which in the long run can have a more devastating effect.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
“Slums may well be breeding grounds of crime, but middle-class suburbs are incubators of apathy and delirium”
Cyril Connolly
“Apathy can be overcome by enthusiasm, and enthusiasm can only be aroused by two things: first, an ideal, with takes the imagination by storm, and second, a definite intelligible plan for carrying that ideal into practice.”
Arnold Toynbee
“Everyone talks about apathy, but no one does anything about it”
Anon.
And my personal favorite....
“Harold Wilson is going around the country stirring up apathy.”
William Whitelaw
And here's the point to all of my "apathy" quotes:
Eligible to vote but not registered? We can do something about this. Register yourself and let us actively encourage others to register to vote.
Vote411.org (sponsored by The League of Woman Voters) makes it easy for you to register to vote by providing answers to some of the most commonly asked questions about voting.
You can use their Online Voter Registration Tool to register for the first time or to update your registration.
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