Tuesday, January 20, 2009

"Whoever saves one life saves the world entire." - Schindler's List

The beautiful theme for Mr.Obama's Presidential Inauguration is taken from Abraham Lincoln, "A New Birth of Freedom". Lincoln had some very compelling things to say about Freedom:
"Freedom is not the right to do what we want, but what we ought. Let us have faith that right makes might and in that faith let us; to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it."
He also said: "Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves."

The freedom to live is the most fundamental freedom, without which we could have no other freedoms. And thus a new birth of freedom in our country needs to be broad enough to include and protect the lives of the most vulnerable among us; most notably the disabled, the elderly, and the unborn.

Further thoughts on freedom and the responsibilities that go with being truly free:

"Sweeter even than to have had the joy of caring for children of my own has it been to me to help bring about a better state of things for mothers generally, so that their unborn little ones could not be willed away from them." - Susan B. Anthony

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." - the Declaration of Independence

"The care of human life and happiness and not their destruction is the first and only legitimate object of good government." - Thomas Jefferson

"The right to life is the most fundamental of all rights, since a person deprived of life has no other rights."- Avery Dulles, S.J.

"Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it." - George Bernard Shaw

"Freedom is not so much a birthright, as it is an achievement. We are born with freedom of choice, but the way we use our choices makes us slaves or free men." - Fulton Sheen

"If you want to be free, there is but one way; it is to guarantee an equally full measure of liberty to all your neighbors.There is no other." - Carl Schurz

"It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish." - Mother Teresa of Calcutta

"The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves." - William Hazlitt

"There is no true freedom where life is not welcomed and loved; and there is no fullness of life except in freedom."- Pope John Paul II

"A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it." - G.K. Chesterton

Remember, as with all gifts from God -- freedom brings responsibility ... a responsibility we pray the new Administration, and the whole country, will embrace with gusto! That's change you can count on!

HT: A Lee in the Woudes

2 comments:

Anne (aussieannie) said...

We've just made new bumper stickers for our car and we used the Mother Teresa and the Chesterton quotes you shared! Sounds like a good time to put them up, even though we are down under! Well...they are timeless, needed in every age and every country..

Leonie said...

Nice quotes on freedom and responsibilty - I wrote a blogpost in the same issue awhile back, about giving kids freedom to choose what is right ( a paraphrase of Pope John Paul 2).

And thanks for the St Agnes day well wishes!