LET'S LIGHTEN UP

Politics in the United States have sunk so low that just about anyone who does not agree with one's strict adherence to some political straight-jacket is seen, not as a political adversary or opponent, but as an enemy.  Sometimes the vitriol is so viscious that Americans treat fellow-Americans as outsiders, and call each other names like socialists, communists, fascists, Nazis, etc.  While it has been escalating since the 1980s, it has become downright outrageous since the U.S. elected a president of mixed racial background who was and is quickly identified as black.  In the U.S., one drop of African blood makes on black.  And we cast prejudicial stones at people based on skin color and shade.  Sad.

However, let's pause and look at the variance of comments that have been made about liberals and conservatives that carry a lighter aura and temperament.  Methinks we need this.

"I can remember way back when a liberal was one who was generous with his own money." -Will Rogers

"Conservative, n.  a statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others." -Ambrose Bierce

"If a man is right he can't be too radical; if he is wrong, he can't be too conservative." -Josh Billings

"No man can cause more grief than that one clinging blindly to the vices of his ancestors." -William Faulkner

"The conservative who resists change is as valuable as the radical who proposes it." -Will and Ariel Durant

"We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road -- they get run over." -Aneurin Bevan

"The middle of the road is all of the usable surface.  The extremes, right and left, are in the gutters." -Dwight D. Eisenhower

"Though I believe in liberalism, I find it difficult to believe in liberals." -G.K. Chesterton

"Liberal -- a power worshipper without the power." -George Orwell

"One learns in life to remain silent and draw one's own confusions." -Cornelia Otis Skinner

"As I grow to understand life less and less, I learn to live it more and more." -Jules Renard

"The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes." -Frank Lloyd Wright

"We all live under the same sky, but we don't all have the same horizon." -Konrad Adenauer