tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post5342435486051695405..comments2024-03-24T11:30:08.199-07:00Comments on Can you believe?: I Ain't No StrangerJohan Maurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-69741304209138032862011-11-04T12:33:08.483-07:002011-11-04T12:33:08.483-07:00Jeremy Mott said ....
And that's not all. Som...Jeremy Mott said ....<br />And that's not all. Sometimes silence is much more needed than either talk or action. Quakers should know thia, I suppose.<br />I also must say that American music, especially folk music and blues, has been my delight since childhood. And look at what the blues has done: it has spread all over the world, along with with its progeny, jazz and rock-and-roll. And consider American poetry----the works of Whitman and Whittier (both Quaker poets in their different ways)----the Paterson poets, William Carlos Williams and Allen Ginsberg, also the other beatnik poets like Ferlinghetti and Rexroth. Almost all this music and poetry is magnificent---and raw.<br /> Perhaps, unlike Russians, we Americans are still uncivilized. But I think that we do fairly well when one considers that.<br /> Peace, Jeremy MottJeremy Mottnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-80458312395902433612011-11-03T13:14:10.327-07:002011-11-03T13:14:10.327-07:00Hello Friends,
I admit it. I too am proud, or ...Hello Friends, <br /> I admit it. I too am proud, or at least, glad, to be an American. (I can't be anythng else, I suppose, since almost all my ancestors on both sides were here even in colonial days.)<br /> The U.S.A. has done many terrible things, especially in recent years; so why I am glad.?<br />The U.S. and its predecessor colonies were leaders in religious freedom, and in rights for women. My country was late in abolishing slavery, but it did so, albeit at the cost of a terrible civil war.<br />Until the past century, the U.S. welcomed immmigrants (When I was a boy, I memorized Emma Lazarus' great sonnet, The New Colossus.)<br />Above all, when it was evident that Reconstuction had not really ended slavery, a group of radicals, blacks and whites, mostly led by pacifists, formed a new Revolution----the civil rights movement, which ended second-class citizenship, once and for all).<br />The war in Vietnam was ended under strong citizen pressure, though at a terrible price.<br /> The U.S.A. has borders thousands of miles long with Canada and Mexico; but has not had a war against Canada since 1814, or against Mexico since 1849. There is now the beginning of citizen pressure to end our enormous worldwide empire. Despite two world wars, and a long period of Cold War and "war on <br />terrorism," as a practical matter our freedoms of speech, press, and religion survive.<br /> A small community of Friends in the U.S.A. had a lot to do with making many, even most, of these things happen, from 1655 (the Flushing Remonstrance) to 1957 (the Letter from Birmingham Jail).<br />We Friends really worked---and I hope we will continue to work---at making the world a better place.<br />There is no shortage of ways to do this. Action, not talk, is needed.<br /> <br /> Peace,<br /> Jeremy MottJeremy Mottnoreply@blogger.com