Citizenry Quotes - Page 3

• [I am enthusiastic about journalism because] it's a craft that can ... galvanize an often complacent citizenry, and make a difference.

  Katie Couric

  Differences, Making A Difference, Crafts

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• A system in which legal police shootings of unarmed civilians are a common occurrence is a system that has some serious flaws. In this case, the drawback is a straightforward consequence of America's approach to firearms. A well-armed citizenry required an even-better-armed constabulary. Widespread gun ownership creates a systematic climate of fear on the part of the police. The result is a quantity of police shootings that, regardless of the facts of any particular case, is just staggeringly high. Young black men, in particular, are paying the price for America's gun culture.

  Matthew Yglesias

  Gun, Men, America

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• Athens' biggest worry was the sheer recklessness of its own democratic government. A simple majority of the citizenry, urged on and incensed by clever demagogues, might capriciously send out military forces in unnecessary and exhausting adventures.

  Thucydides

  Clever, Military, Adventure

  Thucydides, Victor Davis Hanson, Robert B. Strassler (2008). “The Landmark Thucydides”, p.19, Simon and Schuster

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• Conservatives tend to see the world more in terms of good-versus-evil and, for some of them, the nightmare is a disarmed citizenry that can be preyed upon by criminals. They know that having a gun in the house would increase the risk of an accident for a member of their family, but they're willing to take that risk.

  Jonathan Haidt

  Gun, Evil, House

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• I think it's something that the citizenry needs to be vigilant about - participating in democracy, and that includes issues like what's going on and how much secrecy and transparency there should be. That's an on-going thing - in a democracy you want checks and balances and oversight, but you need a covert agency to protect the country. It's a very tricky balance and I think it changes as the world changes and I think we all need to be mindful of that.

  Matt Damon

  Country, Thinking, Issues

  "The Good Shepherd - Matt Damon interview". www.indielondon.co.uk.

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• In order to insure proper and widespread observance of this anniversary, all veterans, all veterans' organizations, and the entire citizenry will wish to join hands in the common purpose.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Veterans Day, Hands, Order

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• A popular feel for scientific endeavors should, if possible, be restored given the needs of the twenty-first century. This does not mean that every literature major should take a watered-down physics course or that a corporate lawyer should stay abreast of quantum mechanics. Rather, it means that an appreciation for the methods of science is a useful asset for a responsible citizenry. What science teaches us, very significantly, is the correlation between factual evidence and general theories, something well illustrated in Einstein's life.

  Walter Isaacson

  Appreciation, Mean, Literature

  Walter Isaacson (2008). “Einstein: His Life and Universe”, p.29, Simon and Schuster

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• Today we are at a crossroads. The technology is available for two great options: The massive surveillance state, or the renewed freedom of a deeply-involved citizenry thinking independently and holding the government to the highest standards.

  Oliver DeMille

  Technology, Thinking, Surveillance State

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• WOMEN must be at the forefront of nation-building to bring the South African citizenry together and, therefore, develop a whole new ethos of human co-existence

  Steven Biko

  Ethos, Together, Building

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• Our marvelous new information technologies boost our power and opportunities for political engagement, but they can also disempower us by contributing to extreme political mobilization that sometimes overwhelms our institutions. These institutions were designed for rural societies operation at a tiny fraction of today's speed and with a citizenry vastly less capable that today's. It's unclear how they will change to adapt to the new reality, but change they must.

  Thomas Homer-Dixon

  Technology, Opportunity, Reality

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• The worst way to defend our freedom is to let our leaders start taking away our freedoms! It is exactly during times like these [a national crisis] that we need more freedom of speech, a strong and critical press, and a citizenry that is not afraid to stand up and say that the emperor has no clothes.

  Michael Moore

  Strong, Freedom, Clothes

  Michael Moore (2004). “Stupid White Men: And Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation!”

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• I have spoken about what we can do as citizens, what we can do as a responsive citizenry, and this is where we have to shatter our complacency and become "active souls,"and be prepared to engage in aware - that personal struggle between our grief and our sorrow. But I don't think we have any choice.

  Terry Tempest Williams

  Grief, Struggle, Thinking

  Source: www.scottlondon.com

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• Going through intense change with an ignorant and apathetic citizenry, driven by a corporate agenda, is a really, really scary proposition. But going into it with an educated and empowered citizenry that feels it can determine the course of its society and can hold its corporations and governments accountable has a lot of power and potential to it. To me, that's what makes activism so important.

  Tim DeChristopher

  Government, Scary, Ignorant

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• Any time in America when the military has to stand in opposition of their own citizenry, something is wrong.

  Iyanla Vanzant

  Military, America, Opposition

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• One ironic legacy of the Clinton administration is the rearming of the American citizenry. Each time Clinton and his friends in Congress threaten another round of anti-gun regulations, the American people respond by stocking up.

  Llewellyn Rockwell

  Gun, People, Ironic

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• The 'well-informed citizenry is in danger of becoming the 'well-amused audience'.

  Al Gore

  Becoming, Danger, Wells

  Al Gore (2012). “The Assault on Reason: How the Politics of Blind Faith Subvert Wise Decision-Making”, p.16, A&C Black

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• Democracy is not about trust; it is about distrust. It is about accountability, exposure, open debate, critical challenge, and popular input and feedback from the citizenry. It is about responsible government. We have to get our fellow Americans to trust their leaders less and themselves more, trust their own questions and suspicions, and their own desire to know what is going on.

  Michael Parenti

  Responsible Government, Leader, Accountability

  Michael Parenti (2004). “Superpatriotism”, p.81, City Lights Books

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• We're developing a new citizenry. One that will be very selective about cereals and automobiles, but won't be able to think.

  Rod Serling

  Thinking, Cereal, Able

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• In order to cultivate a set of leaders with legitimacy in the eyes of the citizenry, it is necessary that the path to leadership be visibly open to talented and qualified individuals of every race and ethnicity.

  Sandra Day O'Connor

  Leadership, Eye, Race

  "High court to hear key school race cases" by Bill Mears, www.cnn.com. June 5, 2006.

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• A well informed citizenry is the best defense against tyranny.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Defense, Tyranny, Wells

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• What in fact takes place in an election is that two hand picked candidates are propped up before the citizenry, each candidate having been selected by a very small group of politically active people. A minority of the people... then elects one of these hand picked people to rule itself and the majority.

  Robert Ringer

  Hands, Two, People

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• An informed citizenry is at the heart of a dynamic democracy.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Heart, Democracy, Informed Citizenry

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• Once you buy the argument that some segment of the citizenry should lose their rights, just because they are envied or resented, you are putting your own rights in jeopardy - quite aside from undermining any moral basis for respecting anybody's rights. You are opening the floodgates to arbitrary power. And once you open the floodgates, you can't tell the water where to go.

  Thomas Sowell

  Rights, Water, Arbitrary

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• An enlightened citizenry is indispensable for the proper functioning of a republic. Self-government is not possible unless the citizens are educated sufficiently to enable them to exercise oversight. It is therefore imperative that the nation see to it that a suitable education be provided for all its citizens.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Exercise, Government, Self

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• Widespread public access to knowledge, like public education, is one of the pillars of our democracy, a guarantee that we can maintain a well-informed citizenry.

  Scott Turow

  Guarantees That, Democracy, Pillars

  "Let-Them-Eat-Cake-Attitude Threatens to Destroy a Network of Public Assets" by Scott Turow, www.huffingtonpost.com. February 15, 2011.

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