Tagged: government corruption

“What we are trying to do, I assume, is really to get back to the principles and aims and spirit of the Declaration of Independence. This spirit is resistance to illegitimate authority and to forces that deprive people of their life and liberty and right to pursue happiness, and therefore under these conditions, it urges the right to alter or abolish their current form of government — and the stress had been on ‘abolish.’ But to establish the principles of the Declaration of Independence, we are going to need to go outside the law, to stop obeying the laws that demand killing or that allocate wealth the way it has been done, or that put people in jail for petty technical offenses and keep other people out of jail for enormous crimes. My hope is that this kind of spirit will take place not just in this country, but in other countries because they all need it. People in all countries need the spirit of disobedience to the state, which is not a metaphysical thing but a thing of force and wealth. And we need a kind of declaration of interdependence among people in all countries of the world who are striving for the same thing.” — Howard Zinn

I heard this quote while watching Matt Damon give a speech [a couple years ago] where he read excerpts from a speech given in 1970 by Howard Zinn titled “The Problem is Civil Obedience.”

To read the full speech, click here: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zinn/CivilObedience_ZR.html.

“The Secret Service is forcing out four of its most senior officials while two others are retiring — the biggest management shake-up at the troubled agency since its director resigned in October after a string of security lapses. The departures will gut much of the Secret Service’s upper management, which has been criticized in recent months by lawmakers and administration officials who say it has fostered a culture of distrust between agency leaders and its rank-and-file and made poor decisions that helped erode the quality of this once elite agency.”

Source: Carol D. Leonning. “Four Top Secret Service Executives Told To Leave Their Posts in Agency Shake-Up.” Washington Post. January 14, 2015. http://wapo.st/1Ag5WDV.

“‘Although surveys reflect disapproval of the way Congress, the President, and the Supreme Court are conducting their affairs, the Annenberg survey demonstrates that many know surprisingly little about these branches of government,’ said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC). ‘This survey offers dramatic evidence of the need for more and better civics education.'”

Source: Annenberg Public Policy Center. “Americans Know Surprisingly Little About Their Government, Study Finds.” September 17, 2014. http://cdn.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/Civics-survey-press-release-09-17-2014-for-PR-Newswire.pdf.