Hmm... I'm told this one should be good, so here goes:
I'd like to thank the Avila's for creating this site, which has been a major focus on my life over the last 4 years or so. And I'd also like to thank the rest of you, for all the discussions, arguments, jokes, pics, and education that you've provided me, one way or another, over the years. I hope that I've been able to return the favor.
And, finally, a couple of quotes about our current political situation that reflect the way I feel:
"A strict observance of the laws is doubtless one of the highest duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence of written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property, and all those who are enjoying them with us..."
- Thomas Jefferson, [i]Human Events[/i], September 20, 1810
"You will never know how much it cost to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it."
- John Quincy Adams
"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as Freedom should not be highly rated."
- Thomas Paine, [i]The Crisis[/i], December 23, 1776
"If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."
- Samuel Adams
"What country can preserve its liberties of their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms... What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time wiht the blood of patriots and tyrants."
- Thomas Jefferson, [i]Papers][/i], November 13, 1787
"If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may be even a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."
- Winston Churchill
-Troy