Year: 2004

Found today on The Nation:

“A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt. But If the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake.”

—Thomas Jefferson, June 4, 1798, in a letter to John Taylor after passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts.

I found out this morning that Christopher Reeve died last night. Not only was he Superman, but an inspiration to me. He was one of the few people that didn’t give up. When life dealt him a spinal cord injury, paralyzing him, he didn’t just fade away— he became an outspoken proponent for research into repairing spinal cord injuries, and an opponent of President Bush’s shortsighted severe limitations on stem cell research which, if allowed, could have someday allowed Reeves and many others to walk again. I don’t believe in the afterlife, so it’s hard for me to feel comforted that he’s anywhere other than in the ground. A great man is gone from this earth, and it’s up to us to see that it wasn’t in vain. May he rest in peace.