Speaker For The Diodes - December 1st, 2008

05:26 am - QotD

"It seems a little absurd for one in my position to be asked, or to answer, the question as to what I would do or would not do if I were President of the United States, since no such contingency has even one chance in sixty-million to be realized. But, if that chance should happen, it would probably be my experience and my misfortune to make as many blunders and give just cause for as much criticism as any one who has ever occupied the Presidential chair. One thing however I would do or try to do. I would employ every means supplied to the President by the Constitution of the United States, to secure to every citizen of the United States, without regard to race, color, sex, or religion, equal protection of the laws. No citizen, however poor or despised, should be able to say at the close of my administration that he had suffered an injustice or had been in any way oppressed or injured by any act of mine while acting as President of the United States." -- Frederick Douglass (b. 1818-02-15, d. 1895-02-20)A (thanks to sa-hall for pointing it out, having found it in an online collection of Douglass' writings)

"Rosa Parks sat so Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. could march, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. marched so Barack Obama could run. Barack Obama ran so our children and grandchildren can eventually fly." -- I've seen this variously attributed and unattributed in several places; I'm not entirely certain to whom it should be credited, but retired history professor Dr. James Horton appears to be a good candidate