Good Morning!
Today is the birthday of John Millington Synge (1871 – 1909) who said:
“A translation is no translation, he said, unless it will
give you the music of a poem along with the words of it.”
It is also the birthday of Charles Chaplin (1889 – 1977) who said:
“You'll never find a rainbow if you're looking down.”
and
“I always like walking in the rain, so no one can see me
crying.”
and
“I'm sorry, but I don't want to be an emperor. That's not my
business. I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help
everyone if possible; Jew, Gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one
another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other's happiness,
not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In
this world there is room for everyone, and the good earth is rich and can
provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have
lost the way. Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with
hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed,
but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in
want. Our knowledge has made us cynical; our cleverness, hard and unkind. We
think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More
than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life
will be violent and all will be lost. The airplane and the radio have brought
us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the
goodness in men; cries out for universal brotherhood; for the unity of us all.
Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of
despairing men, women, and little children, victims of a system that makes men
torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me, I say, do not
despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the
bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will
pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to
the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish. Soldiers! Don't
give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you, enslave you; who regiment your
lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel! Who drill you, diet
you, treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don't give yourselves to
these unnatural men - machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You
are not machines, you are not cattle, you are men! You have the love of
humanity in your hearts! You don't hate! Only the unloved hate; the unloved and
the unnatural. Soldiers! Don't fight for slavery! Fight for liberty! In the
seventeenth chapter of St. Luke, it is written that the kingdom of God is
within man, not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the
people, have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create
happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and
beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of
democracy, let us use that power. Let us all unite. Let us fight for a new
world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give youth
a future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen
to power. But they lie! They do not fulfill that promise. They never will!
Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to
fulfill that promise. Let us fight to free the world! To do away with national
barriers! To do away with greed, with hate and intolerance! Let us fight for a
world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's
happiness. Soldiers, in the name of democracy, let us all unite!”
Happy Birthday to Kingsley Amis (1922 – 1995) who said:
“If you can't annoy somebody, there is little point in
writing.”
and
“The rewards for being sane may not be very many, but knowing
what's funny is one of them.”
Today is the birthday of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1947 - ) who said:
“One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man
cannot make a team.”
Finally, to Peter Garrett (1953 - ) who sang:
“We carry in our hearts the true country
And that cannot be stolen
We follow in the steps of our ancestry
And that cannot be broken”
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