Civics Quotes - Page 10

• The public realm in America has two roles: it is the dwelling place of our civilization and our civic life, and it is the physical manifestation of the common good. When you degrade the public realm, you will automatically degrade the quality of your civic life and the character of all the enactments of your public life and communal life that take place there.

  James Howard Kunstler

  Character, Dwelling Place, Civilization

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• Unlike these powerful grown-ups, children have no ideologies to reinforce, no superstructure of political opinion to promote, no civic equanimity or image to defend, no personal reputation to secure.

  Jonathan Kozol

  Children, Powerful, Political Opinions

  Jonathan Kozol (2005). “The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America”, p.12, Broadway Books

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• Our young men in Vietnam have not only acquitted themselves in an outstanding manner during combat operations, but they also have been outstanding ambassadors of goodwill in the vital civic action and pacification work among the tortured populace of South Vietnam.

  Lewis William Walt

  Marine, Men, Ambassadors

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• The clerical work is par for the course. "Keep on file in numerical order" means throw in wastebasket. You'll soon learn the language. "Let it be a challenge to you" means you're stuck with it; "interpersonal relationships" is a fight between kids; "ancillary civic agencies for supportive discipline" means call the cops; "Language Arts Dept." is the English office; "literature based on child's reading level and experiential background" means that's all they've got in the Book Room; "non-academic-minded" is a delinquent; and "It has come to my attention" means you're in trouble.

  Bel Kaufman

  Art, Children, Reading

  Bel Kaufman (2012). “Up the Down Staircase”, p.49, Open Road Media

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• The word 'campaign' is a war term. So when you go into a campaign you just prepare to go to war. If you think this is an exercise in civic activity... then you are going to be surprised.

  Nancy Pelosi

  War, Exercise, Thinking

  "Women Running 'as Women': Candidate Gender, Campaign Issues, and Voter-Targeting Strategies". Paul S. Herrnson, "The Journal of Politics", Volume 65, No. 1, 2003.

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• We tend to think of the problems of globalization and cultural identity as peculiar to our times. In fact they are rooted in ancient problems of civic belonging.

  Mark Kingwell

  Thinking, Identity, Facts

  Mark Kingwell (2000). “The World We Want: Restoring Citizenship in a Fractured Age”, p.3, Rowman & Littlefield

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• The British Museum was founded with a civic purpose, to allow the citizen, through reasoned inquiry and comparison, to resist the certainties that endanger free society and are still among the greatest threats to our liberty.

  Neil MacGregor

  Museums, Liberty, Citizens

  "The whole world in our hands" by Neil MacGregor, www.theguardian.com. July 23, 2004.

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• If there's very strong civic unrest you can see a strong party of the Right emerging, whether it's UKIP [The UK Independence Party] or an even further-right party.

  Irvine Welsh

  Strong, Party, Ukip

  Source: thequietus.com

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• If you don't have properly constituted civic authorities you will encourage vigilantism and solo efforts at retributive justice - which is anarchy, and God doesn't want his world to be anarchic.

  N. T. Wright

  Justice, Effort, World

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• In our democracy and our civic discourse, it seems as if folks who take religion the most seriously are sometimes also those who are suspicious of those not like them.

  Barack Obama

  Democracy, Sometimes, Discourse

  Source: www.foxnews.com

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• I think a lot of concern of the people in the north is that one hears constant reports in talking to them is about militarisation and the presence of the army, the entry of the army into civic life, into the economy, the lack of a political settlement.

  Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu

  Army, Thinking, Talking

  Source: www.sbs.com.au

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• There's really no such thing as just Sharia, it's not one monolithic Continuum - Sharia is understood in thousands of different ways over the 1,500 years in which multiple and competing schools of law have tried to construct some kind of civic penal and family law code that would abide by Islamic values and principles, it's understood in many different ways.

  Mark Durie

  Islamic, School, Years

  "Sharia Deceptions" by Robert Spencer, www.frontpagemag.com. November 3, 2010.

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• We suffer from a terrible poverty of civic discourse in this country. Surely, it is outside of America's best traditions to send the signal that patriotism is mindless emotion, that leadership is avoiding saying tough things, that citizenship is toeing the line. But such is the result of a lack of openness, our nervousness with debate.

  Geneva Overholser

  Country, America, Suffering

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• The only way we can keep our freedom is to work at it. Not some of us. All of us. Not some of the time, but all of the time. So if you value your citizenship and you want to keep it for yourself and your children and their children, give it your faith, your belief, and give it your active support in civic affairs.

  Spencer W. Kimball

  Children, Giving, Support

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• There are no general-interest media that all of us can tap into. I'm not a good person to talk to about social media. I just avoid it. I'm suspicious also of the culture of venting. But the bigger question is, How can we in this media world have a genuine civic conversation? I mean, look at Franklin Roosevelt. He had these radio talks that all Americans listened to, and there was a common civic conversation that came out of it.

  Martha C. Nussbaum

  Mean, Media, World

  Source: www.neh.gov

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• The sin of capitalism, perhaps, is to make wants feel like needs, to give to simple silly stuff the urgency of near-physical necessity: I must have it. The grace of capitalism is to make wants feel like hopes, so that material objects and stuff can feel like the possibility of something heroic and civic.

  Adam Gopnik

  Silly, Simple, Giving

  "Under one roof" by Adam Gopnik, www.newyorker.com. September 22, 2003.

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• I find L.A. very interesting, partly because I think something new is forming there, but not in a moment of good fellowship as you might think from all this "diversity" claptrap. It's not as if we'll all go down to the Civic Center in our ethnic costumes and dance around.

  Richard Rodriguez

  Thinking, Diversity, Interesting

  Source: www.teachingbooks.net

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• We hope that more assistance will be available to the nations of the region, to include Egypt, on the three pillars that I discussed today: civic society development, education and economic development.

  Colin Powell

  Egypt, Three, Development

  Source: www.theguardian.com

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• The challenges that young people are mobilizing against oppressive societies all over the globe are being met with a state-sponsored violence that is about more than police brutality. This is especially clear in the United States, given its transformation from a social state to a warfare state, from a state that once embraced a semblance of the social contract to one that no longer has a language for justice, community and solidarity - a state in which the bonds of fear and commodification have replaced the bonds of civic responsibility and democratic vision.

  Henry Giroux

  Responsibility, People, Justice

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• I think the Tea Party monicker has kind of outlived its use. I think this is just an America movement, I mean, and you and others are really, you know, responsible for igniting this new civic engagement that's very positive.

  Laura Ingraham

  Party, Mean, Thinking

  Source: www.glennbeck.com

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• I believe devoutly that the national election is the closest thing we have to a civic sacrament of democracy. And I really do think that heed must be paid, and when people make a decision, those who are on the other side, including me, accept it, for that reason.

  Mark Shields

  Believe, Thinking, People

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• Ultimately it's the public nature of those projects that I most enjoy. Museums are more than just places to view art, they're also civic and social centers.

  Richard Meier

  Art, Museums, Views

  Source: www.architecturaldigest.com

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• Malcolm X envisions a broad-based pluralistic united front, which is spearheaded by the Nation of Islam, but mobilizing integrationist organizations, non-political organizations, civic groups, all under the banner of building black empowerment, human dignity, economic development, political mobilization.

  Manning Marable

  Organization, Political, Black

  Source: historynewsnetwork.org

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• I'm convinced in 100 years Obama will have an important place in the civic pantheon of American life.

  Jonathan Chait

  Years, Important, Pantheon

  Source: www.macleans.ca

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• When my band MU landed on Maui in 1973 we were greeted by a wonderful group of peace loving brothers & sisters who we immediately formed a bond with. We had two instant roadies, Spider & Richard, who helped with every move of our musical equipment. We settled into our house on the edge of the rainforest that eventually became a portable studio. We started rehearsing and booked the Lahaina Civic Auditorium for a full moon concert starring MU and a local band The Space Patrol.

  Merrell Fankhauser

  Brother, Moving, Moon

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