Dave-So opened this issue on Sep 26, 2006 · 29 posts
dphoadley posted Tue, 26 September 2006 at 11:34 PM
Bravo Mizrael, but be sure that you have more than just one stone for your sling. David only faced down ONE Philistine, but you seem to have to face a whole slew of them. Your detractors, like Islamic Jihadists, just weem to keep crawling out of the woodwork. You deal with one, and suddenly you've got ten more barking at your heels.
"Assenting to the “self-evident truth” maintained in the American Declaration of Independence, “that all men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights — among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” I shall strenuously contend for the immediate enfranchisement of our slave population. In Park-street Church, on the Fourth of July, 1829, in an address on slavery, I unreflectingly assented to the popluar but pernicious doctrine of gradual abolition. I seize this opportunity to make a full and unequivocal recantation, and thus publicly to ask pardon of my God, of my country, and of my brethren the poor slaves, for having uttered a sentiment so full of timidity, injustice and absurdity. A similar recantation, from my pen, was published in the Genius of Universal Emancipation at Baltimore, in September, 1829. My consicence in now satisfied. I am aware, that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire, to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hand of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; — but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD.
— William Lloyd Garrison, "To the Public", The Liberator, January 1, 1831
Excerpted from the following article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Liberator. Somehow it seems appropriate at the moment.