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| In
the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and
scorned. When his cause succeds, the timid join him, for then it cost mothing
to be a patriot.
Mark Twain
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| In
1866, the Supreme Court wrote: "[I]t is the birthright of every American
citizen when charged with a crime, to be tried and punished according to law.
The power of punishment is alone through the means which the laws have provided
for that purpose, and if they are ineffectual, there is an immunity from punishment,
no matter how great the offender the individual may be, or how much his crimes
may have shocked the sense of justice of the country, or endangered its safety.
By the protection of the law, human rights are secured; withdraw that protection,
and they are at the mercy of wicked rulers, or the clamors of an excited people."
Ex
Parte Milligan , 71 U.S. (4 Wall.) 2, 118-19, 18 L.Ed. 281 (1866). |
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"The denial of due process in parole revocation
simply mirrors society's overall attitude of degradation and defilement of a convicted
felon. It is sad 20th Century Commentary that society views the convicted
felon as a social outcast. He has done wrong, so we rationalize and condone
punishment in various forms. We express a desire for rehabilitation of the
individual, while simultaneously we do everything to prevent it. Society
cares little for the conditions which a prisoner must suffer while in prison,
it cares even less for his future when he is released from prison. He is
a marked man. We tell him to return to the norm of behavior, yet we brand
him as virtually unemployable, he is required to live his normal activities severely
restricted and we react with sickened wonder and disgust when he returns to a
life of crime."
Former Chief Circuit Judge Donald Lay |
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"Trends in the educational, legal, political and
media systems all urge contemporary men and women to view themselves as wronged
by various forces real or imagined; to get angry and fight back; to fixate on
any harms of which they may have been the target; to search out wrongs about which
to become outraged."
Easterbrook |
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"He that would make his own liberty secure must
guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes
a precedent that will reach to himself. "
Thomas Paine (1737
- 1809) |
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"A
ruler, to stay in power, must convince the people that the enemy is ever at the
door."
Nicollo Machiavelli |
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"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences
attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it."
Thomas Jefferson |
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"Those
who desire to give up Freedom in order to gain Security, will not have, nor do
they deserve, either one."
Thomas Jefferson 1778 |
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"Application of power without pre-existing authority
is misuse of power."
George Rusling, Sr., 1996 |
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"In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak
up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews and I didn't speak
up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't
speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by
that time no one was left to speak up."
Martin Niemoeller (1892-1984) |
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"Experience should teach us to be on our guard
to protect liberty when government's purpose are beneficent. Men born to freedom
are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers.
The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment of men of zeal,
well meaning but without understanding."
Supreme Court Justice
Louis Brandeis from Olmstead v. United States |
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"Find out just what any people will quietly submit
to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will
be imposed upon them.
Frederick Douglass |
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"When I despair, I remember that all through history
the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers,
and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think
of it – always."
Mahatma Gandhi |
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"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
Martin
Luther King Jr. (1929 - 1968), Letter from Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963 |
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| The truth is that Sex Offender Community Notification and Registration
has been legislated "not because it's good crime control but because
it's good politics." |
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"Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people
who mean to be their own governors, must arm themselves with the power knowledge
gives. A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring
it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy or perhaps both."
James
Madison (Fourth President of the United States) |
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"Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the
lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple
of hope...building a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression
and resistance."
Robert F. Kennedy |
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"Our safety, our liberty, depends upon preserving
the Constitution of the United States as our fathers made it inviolate. The people
of the United States are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts,
not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution."
Abraham Lincoln |
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"The
laboring people found the prisons always open to receive them, but the courts
of justice were practically closed to them."
John
Peter Altgeld (1847-1902) |
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"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world.
Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
Margaret Mead - American
Anthropologist |
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"It
is the duty of nations, as well as of men, to owe their dependence upon the overruling
power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow yet, with
assured hope, that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize
the sublime truth announced in the Holy scriptures and proven by all history that
those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord."
Abraham Lincoln |
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"The
more corrupt the state, the numerous the laws."
Tacitus |
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"The degree of civilization in a society can be
judged by entering its prisons."
Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881)
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"I have been driven
many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else
to go."
Abraham Lincoln |
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“It doesn't require a majority to prevail, but rather
an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds.”
Samuel Adams |
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