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Pastimes : Favorite Quotes -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Volsi Mimir who wrote (6537)	11/10/2000 1:02:50 AM
From: mr.mark	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13015

death is not extinguishing the light; it is putting out the lamp because the dawn has come. - rabindranath tagore **************************************** when the cities are on fire with the burning flesh of men just remember that death is not the end and you search in vain to find just one law abiding citizen just remember that death is not the end not the end, not the end just remember that death is not the end - bob dylan

To: Volsi Mimir who wrote (6537)	11/10/2000 6:57:09 PM
From: Volsi Mimir	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13015

"You can enrage some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can't enrage all of the people all of the time." ~Mike Royko Old stuff, revisited- but my favorite Mike Royko- pure vintage Royko- How to enrage almost everybody By Mike Royko Tribune Columnist March 9, 1988 A journalism student recently asked me what I liked best about my job. That was easy. I told him the paycheck. "No," he said, "what gives you the most professional satisfaction." That was harder, since I seldom think about professional satisfaction. Mostly, I think about getting the job done, turning off the office light and grabbing a beer. But now that I've given it some thought, I suppose the most satisfying part of my job is that I can be more than one person. If I may boast, I'm sometimes amazed at my own versatility. For example, lately I have been an agent of the devil, a corrupter of American values. I've been told this by countless people from all over the country who are angry because I don't share their admiration for Pat Robertson, the preacher turned politician. They not only write or phone me, but they send letters to many of the newspapers that publish my column. In Paducah, for example, one of the letters was printed below a headline that said: "Royko Just Adds to Moral Decay." The writer of the letter had said: "Royko and others like him contribute to the spiritual and moral decadence of America." From his letter, I couldn't tell what the writer's favorite brand of decadence is, so I don't know if I can take any credit for his private antics. In fact, I can't remember ever encouraging decadence. I assume that those who want to get a little depraved can manage without my help. Take Jimmy Swaggart. I didn't introduce him to that loose young lady. If he had asked me, I would have told him to at least wear fake whiskers. Or Jimmy Bakker. If the impulsive little fellow sought my advice, I would have told him: "Never, ever, fool around with the secretary." Another example of my versatility came when the late Harold Washington became the first black mayor of Chicago. During his campaign, I suggested that he fully explain some of the problems he once had with Internal Revenue. I would have asked it of any candidate, white, black or from Mars. There was an immediate outcry that I was a racist. After he was elected, I wrote that it was no reason for whites to get into a dither, that he'd probably do no worse than previous mayors and he should be given a fair chance. I was immediately deluged with phone calls and letters describing me as a "nigger lover." As time passed, I found reason to criticize some aspects of Washington's administration. So I was again bombarded with calls and letters calling me a "racist." It later occurred to me that I had missed a chance to conduct a useful social experiment. I should have saved all of those letters, invited the writers to a big party and stood off at a safe distance and watched the fun. Over the years, I've also found myself in the role of "kike" or "sheenie" or "hebe." These are words used by some decent, God-fearing Americans to describe those who don't worship the way they do. Some thought I was Jewish, which I'm not, because I have a number of views that some readers thought were too liberal. For example, I've always been against lynching. But one man found another clue. He said he knew I was a Jew because I have a prominent nose. I dropped him a note saying that Jimmy Durante also had a heroic nose, but he wasn't Jewish. And the man sent another letter saying: "So you're a lousy dago." You just can't please some people. Yet, things have a way of balancing out. And from time to time, when I've done less than fawn over some of Israel's policies, I've been accused of being an anti-Semite. That made me so upset that I thought about getting a nose job. During the Vietnam War, I wrote that we should get out. I was called a commie dupe. When I said that I thought people like Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin were kind of goofy, I was called a running dog of capitalist imperialism. That really made me nervous. No matter who won, I'd be put against the wall. I believe in capital punishment, so I'm sometimes called bloodthirsty and insensitive. When I've written about police brutality, I've been called a criminal-coddling wimp. Can a wimp be bloodthirsty? Some shrink should study that. Anyway, to paraphrase that old saying: You can enrage some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can't enrage all of the people all of the time. Maybe. But I'm not going to stop trying. -----------------------------------------------------