{"quotes":[{"text":"We need a new, deeper appreciation of the ethnic histories of the American people, not a reduction of American history to ethnic histories.","author":"Steven C. Rockefeller","tags":["demographics-of-us","ethnic-groups","history","history-of-the-united-states","multiculturalism","people-of-the-united-states","syllabi","united-states"],"id":772,"author_id":"Steven+C.+Rockefeller"},{"text":"The country he had left thirty years ago had been a realistic place. There were political realities there, then and now, that precluded blind faith, that discouraged one from thinking that everything, always, would work out fairly and equitably. But he had come to believe such things in the United States. Things had worked out. Difficulties had been overcome. He had worked hard and achieved success. The machinery of government functioned.","author":"Dave Eggers","tags":["america","equity","fairness","government","hard-work","life","united-states","work"],"id":6939,"author_id":"Dave+Eggers"},{"text":"What struck me as I began to study history was how nationalist fervor--inculcated from childhood on by pledges of allegiance, national anthems, flags waving and rhetoric blowing--permeated the educational systems of all countries, including our own. I wonder now how the foreign policies of the United States would look if we wiped out the national boundaries of the world, at least in our minds, and thought of all children everywhere as our own. Then we could never drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, or napalm on Vietnam, or wage war anywhere, because wars, especially in our time, are always wars against children, indeed our children.","author":"Howard Zinn","tags":["patriotism","united-states","war"],"id":12341,"author_id":"Howard+Zinn"},{"text":"We are going to win our freedom because both the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of the Almighty God are embodied in our echoing demands. So however difficult it is during this period, however difficult it is to continue to live with the agony and the continued existence of racism, however difficult it is to live amidst the constant hurt, the constant insult and the constant disrespect, I can still sing we shall overcome. We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice.We shall overcome because Carlisle is right. 'No lie can live forever.' We shall overcome because William Cullen Bryant is right. 'Truth crushed to earth will rise again.' We shall overcome because James Russell Lowell is right. 'Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne.'   Yet that scaffold sways the future. We shall overcome because the Bible is right.  'You shall reap what you sow.' With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to speed up the day when all of God's children all over this nation - black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old negro spiritual, 'Free at Last, Free at Last, Thank God Almighty, We are Free At Last.","author":"Martin Luther King Jr.","tags":["america","civil-rights","freedom","hope","justice","love","race-relations","racism","united-states","united-states-of-america","us","usa"],"id":13473,"author_id":"Martin+Luther+King+Jr."},{"text":"The absence of even rough agreement on the facts puts every opinion on equal footing and therefore eliminates the basis for thoughtful compromise. It rewards not those who are right, but those - like the White House press office - who can make their arguments most loudly, most frequently, most obstinately, and with the best backdrop.","author":"Barack Obama","tags":["argument","barack-obama","compromise","media","news","opinion","opinions","politics","press","united-states","white-house"],"id":15416,"author_id":"Barack+Obama"},{"text":"Question: Which Mediterranean government shares all of Ronald Reagan's views on international terrorism, the present danger of Soviet advance, the hypocrisy of the United Nations, the unreliability of Europe, the perfidy of the Third World and the need for nuclear defense policy? Question: Which Mediterranean government is Ronald Reagan trying, with the help of George Shultz and Caspar Weinberger, to replace with a government led by a party which professes socialism and which contains extreme leftists?If you answered 'the government of Israel' to both of the above, you know more about political and international irony than the President does.","author":"Christopher Hitchens","tags":["1980s","caspar-weinberger","cold-war","europe","george-p-shultz","israel","israel-united-states-relations","leftism","mediterranean-sea","national-missile-defense","presidency-of-ronald-reagan","ronald-reagan","socialism","soviet-union","terrorism","third-world","united-nations","united-states"],"id":17800,"author_id":"Christopher+Hitchens"},{"text":"It seems to be Latin American destiny to always have the United States say 'amen.","author":"Warren Eyster","tags":["foreign-relations","latin-america","politics","politics-of-central-america","politics-of-mexico","politics-of-south-america","politics-of-the-united-states","united-states"],"id":19319,"author_id":"Warren+Eyster"},{"text":"A single word indicative of doubt, that any thing, or every thing, in that country is not the very best in the world, produces an effect which must be seen and felt to be understood. If the citizens of the United States were indeed the devoted patriots they call themselves, they would surely not thus encrust themselves in the hard, dry, stubborn persuasion, that they are the first and best of the human race, that nothing is to be learnt, but what they are able to teach, and that nothing is worth having, which they do not possess.","author":"Frances Trollope","tags":["america","americans","united-states"],"id":20661,"author_id":"Frances+Trollope"},{"text":"We essentially had to build a docking mechanism between the two capsules. We didn't have to share a lot of data, and we did that at the height of the Cold War, which was pretty symbolic.' –Bill Gerstenmaier.","author":"Ron Garan","tags":["america","cold-war","global-community","globalism","globalization","international-law","international-relations","international-space-station","outer-space","russia","space-research","united-states","working-together"],"id":21458,"author_id":"Ron+Garan"},{"text":"We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people. For space science, like nuclear science and technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man, and only if the United States occupies a position of preeminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theater of war.","author":"John F. Kennedy","tags":["america","force","good","knowledge","peace","progress","rights","sea","space","united-states","war","won"],"id":23569,"author_id":"John+F.+Kennedy"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":333,"pages":34,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}