Book bits

[Lilith7]

"A tiny percentage of the population owns the vast majority of the countryÔÇÖs wealth. That suits them, but at the same time itÔÇÖs terrifying; they are so outnumbered & have so much to lose. The idea that we might act in concert is appalling, that we might work towards something grander & more permanent than the filling of our bellies ÔÇô they will crush this; they are too terrified to do otherwise."
(About the Chartist movement, 19th century)
The Telling, Jo Baker


"No God can be bigger than the gate that lets people into the presence. If the only way to that god is through a narrow gate with picky little gatekeepers, then that god is no bigger than that gate nor wiser than the keepers."

"The assumption that all women are equipped with a strong, overriding maternal instinct; that all babies arouse this maternal instinct; & that any woman who does not respond maternally is a rotten person who must be guilty as sin ÔÇô the Hail Mary assumption."
GibbonÔÇÖs decline & fall, Sheri Tepper


"A Negro tries to register to vote in Mississippi.
The white man taking his application gave him the standard literacy tests:
ÔÇ£What is the first line of the thirty-second paragraph of the Unite States Constitution?ÔÇØ

The applicant answered perfectly.
:Name the eleventh President of the United States & his entire cabinet.ÔÇØ

The applicant answered correctly.
Finally, unable to trip him up, the white man asked ÔÇ£Can you read & write?ÔÇØ
The applicant wrote his mane & was then handed a newspaper in Chinese to test his reading. He studied it carefully for a time.

ÔÇ£Well, can you read it?ÔÇØ
ÔÇ£I can read the headline, but I canÔÇÖt make out the body text.ÔÇØ

Incredulous, the white man said:ÔÇØ You can read that headline?ÔÇØ
ÔÇ£Oh yes, IÔÇÖve got the meaning all right.ÔÇØ
ÔÇ£WhatÔÇÖs it say?ÔÇØ
ÔÇ£It says this is one Negro in Mississippi whoÔÇÖs not going to get to vote this year.ÔÇØ
Black like me, John Howard Griffin.