Words of wisdom from Thomas Jefferson

As America decides who will its next President be, as we Canadians decide how to go forward in Afghanistan ... and as progressives continue to be called traitors or worse by our conservative colleagues, let us remember these words from Jefferson when someone suggested to him that Shays' Rebellion was a terrible thing and the rebel leaders deserved to be executed:

A little rebellion now and then is a good thing. …God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. …And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

Amen. Never be afraid to speak out, never be afraid to express your opinions, never be afraid to call it as you see it. Fear is what Cheney and Rove; Harper and Van Loan, want from here to eternity. Enough.

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