I made a post to the JSF's members' list with the subject "Civil Disobedience". At the moment I'm going through three Project Gutenberg ETexts by Ralph Waldo Emerson trying to get them into a state that looks decent enough to send through CafePress.com's press. I couldn't remember exactly if it was Thoreau or Emerson who wrote Civil Disobedience so I did a quick google.
I never read Civil Disobedience, so I gave the first paragraph a quick read and found something pertinent to today:
...The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it. Witness the present Mexican war, the work of comparatively a few individuals using the standing government as their tool; for in the outset, the people would not have consented to this measure.
This American government--what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity? It has not the vitality and force of a single living man; for a single man can bend it to his will...
Now I want to read about the Mexican War and its lead up. I'll have to get Civil Disobedience read first, but my oh my times really don't change.
