WMRU Week 10

3 Nephi 3:17

Scripture

The Lord forbid; for if we should go up against them the Lord would deliver us into their hands; therefore we will prepare ourselves in the center of our lands, and we will gather all our armies together, and we will not go against them, but we will wait till they shall come against us; therefore as the Lord liveth, if we do this he will deliver them into our hands.

From Baltimore Harbor

Quotation

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just--and this be our motto: "in God is our trust." And the Star Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

- Francis Scott Key, 1814

Mosiah 29:26

...this ye shall observe and make it your law--to do your business by the voice of the people.

Scripture

Elections are important, but...

Louis Brandeis

"The most important office, and the one which all of us can and should fill, is that of private citizen."

Quotation

Romans 8:28

All things work together for good to them that love God, that are the called according to His purpose.

Scripture

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, VI.41

Quotation

You take things you don't control and define them as "good" and "bad". And so of course when the "bad" things happen, or the "good" ones don't, you blame the gods and feel hatred for the people responsible--or those you decide to make responsible.

Much of our bad behavior stems from trying to apply those criteria. If we limited "good" and "bad" to our own actions, we'd have no call to challenge God, or to treat other people as enemies.

"Here's what we are going to be reminding ourselves on Tuesday night as we sit there with our insides twisted in a knot, watching the results come in. Progress isn't about winning. Elections, as with so many other parts of our lives, are set up as binary choices and if you throw in a few high quality graphics, they become epic battles between good and evil. Change, however, isn't a single moment. It's a million moments, strung together. It doesn't happen in a single election result. It happens because over the past four years hundreds of thousands of people organised, volunteered, wrote to their elected representatives, manned the booths, knocked on doors, didn't lose their cool, and even when they did, channeled that anger into action.

We're not headed towards a single destination. This isn't really a war between good and evil. We're engaged in a process, connected to everyone around the world, and to all the ones who came before us, who looked around and said, "it doesn't have to be like this, we can do better." Whatever the outcome next week, whether we feel like the right side won or lost, remember that this is just another moment in a long succession of moments, and there are going to be plenty more after this."

'Nother Quotation

Matthew 5

Scripture

43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.

44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?

47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?

48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

Political Parties

Quotation

There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.

--John Adams, letter to a friend, Oct 1789