Like most of you, I am becoming more and more annoyed by the government shutdown. Yesterday, I heard a sick child will not get his weekly visit with a therapy dog because those “non-essential workers” had been “furloughed.”
Here are ten quotes from writers, past and present, that may help you channel and articulate your own feelings and frustration with our elected leaders:
1. “A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.” — Edward R. Murrow
2. “People shouldn’t be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people.” — Alan Moore, V for Vendetta
4. “You have to remember one thing about the will of the people: it wasn’t that long ago that we were swept away by the Macarena.” — Jon Stewart
5. “The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, and intolerable…” — H.L. Mencken
6. “The greatest patriotism is to tell your country when it is behaving dishonorably, foolishly, viciously.” — Julian Barnes, Flaubert’s Parrot
7. “Laws are spider webs through which the big flies pass and the little ones get caught.” — Honore de Balzac
8. “It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.” — Mark Twain
9. “It’s all very well to run around saying regulation is bad, get the government off our backs, etc. Of course our lives are regulated. When you come to a stop sign, you stop; if you want to go fishing, you get a license; if you want to shoot ducks, you can shoot only three ducks. The alternative is dead bodies at the intersection, no fish, and no ducks. OK?” — Molly Ivins
10. “Good governance never depends upon laws, but upon the personal qualities of those who govern. The machinery of government is always subordinate to the will of those who administer that machinery. The most important element of government, therefore, is the method of choosing leaders.” — Frank Herbert, Children of Dune