Benjamin Franklin once said...

[Rose Siding]

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for dinner.

Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote."

That's how Bill Moyers opens his address to the media seminar. He goes on, "My fellow lambs...."

His words are exciting. Don't miss it:

part one
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x12524

part two
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x12526

[aikoaiko]

1. I support a robust individual interpretation of the 2nd Amendment nt.

I know, I know, he meant it metaphorically, but still I wish more democrats were armed.

[MGD]

3. There's nothing to interpret on this one

"The Constitution shall never be construed...to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms."
Samuel Adams

[Recursion]

10. Oorah 2nd-Amendment progressives

Only tyrants need fear an armed populace. Which is, after all, the point.

[Time for change]

2. We need a lot more people like him

If one quarter of our national journalists were like Bill Moyers we never would have gotten into Iraq.

[Selatius]

4. The Founding Fathers were not fans of democracy.

The issue for them was establishing a government of the elite by the elite. I will only note Shay's Rebellion in American history as an indication of what happens when government, controlled by business interests, decides to pay off its debt not through progressive taxation but regressive taxation of the poorest of Americans. With that said, I will note that Bill Moyers is a much needed voice on the airwaves.

[Igel]

11. In many respects, I am not a fan of democracy.

I like my democracy constrained in many, many ways, with a bridle and a set of very strong reins. Otherwise 50.00001% of the population could decide that I and people like me aren't really worth allowing to have rights, or that the richest (or poorest) 49.9999% of the population should hand over all their wealth.

Democratic principles undergirding a system in which the majority is restrained from doing many things, and even a supermajority has severe encumbrances on its actions, is what I like.

(Edited for proper (grammatical) government.)

[Mist]

5. Thanks for the Franklin quote, Rose Siding! It'll be my new sig line! And thanks

for the Moyers link!

[Rose Siding]

6. It always stuns me

when I run across another nugget like this. It's like a present given over the ages, and Moyers put the bow on it. I love them for their minds :)

[Rose Siding]

7. Moyers: "I'm coming back.....because I don't want you to feel so alone"

"You are to America what the Abolition Movement was, and the Sufferegette Movement, and the Civil Rights Movement. You touch the soul of Democracy.

:cry:

[Mist]

8. Just finished watching the second segment--I love Moyers even more. I'm

going to be following internet issues more closely than before. I try to stay informed about internet independence, and with our new Congress, it's time for letters, e-mails, phone calls, whatever it takes. I'm always relieved and elated that truth will come out, and that we've had the internet to help us with that--for the last 6 years, it's been totally necessary. But I've always worried about the fragility of the internet's independence. I'm still far from computer literate (it takes me ages to learn the simplest things about computers), but I'm addicted to my laptop now! (Or should I say addicted to truth?)Back in 2002, when I fully realized there was NO media that could be trusted, I took the enormous step of buying a laptop. (Enormous because of the computer-illiterate problem, and, at the time, $1,400 was quite a chunk of money to me.)The internet is the last best hope of unpaid-for, non-corporate news in this country and we can't afford to lose it.

We can't afford to lose Moyers either--may he continue in good health for many years!

[NMDemDist2]

9. i expect Democracy Now! to play the keynote address and I am looking

forward to it :bounce:

but, failing that, i'll watch the vidoes

[Bombero1956]

12. I can't wait

for his new show. Bill Moyers never disappoints.