The Wood Beyond The World Forum Something to inspire you...

Occasionally I use Stumble! to find interesting sites. I came across this quote that I thought might inspire the great creators in the Wood. This is from Mahatma Gandhi.

Quote:

That is so true!

We need to keep these in mind as we plot havoc on our worlds.

 

I wanted to write something more profound but I have spent the morning researching dyslexia treatments and now can't put three words together without a spelling mistake, so I've had to stay away from big words.

You should have seen what that sentance looked like before I did a spell check on it.

Gayna

Loekie is on a mission (be afraid, be very afraid).

I would like to make this thread a sort of inspiration, words of wisdom that inspired you and will possibly inspire the other members lurking about the trees in our Wood. These pearls can become part of what we are working on and also give us a little strength during the travails we have in real live.

Today, I am going to share one of the most important quotes that drives me, especially about free speech. I am an ardent supporter of free speech. Yet this puts me in a position where I have to stand up and defend people who say things that are vile to my way of thinking. That is the bane of believing in free speech. You will hear things you do not agree with but have to (with heart and soul) defend their right to present it.

My utter and complete adherence to free speech is because of Pastor Martin Neimoller. Here is a man who supported the Nazis until he realized, too late, what they were really about. He was sent to the Dachau concentration camp yet survived. He was one of the fortunate to be freed and lived until 1984. What he wrote many will already know or have heard, but I want to have the text here, as he wrote it:

First they came for the Communists,
and I didn�t speak up,
because I wasn�t a Communist.

Then they came for the Social Democrats,
and I didn�t speak up,
because I wasn�t a Social Democrat.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists,
and I didn�t speak up,
because I wasn�t a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up,
because I wasn't a Jew,

Then they came for me,
and by that time there was no one
left to speak up for me.

Thirty years later, these words still resonate with me. So, my fellow denizen of the Wood, let us know what inspires you.