Well, there it is. Just found it on page eleven of the first chapter of Kurt Vonnegut's book "Palm Sunday". It's..... [View all]

[EarnestPutz]

.....really a collection of his writings that he put together into a "novel" of his life and his life's ideas. The quote is from a speech that he gave to a branch of the American Civil Liberties Union on Long Island, N.Y in 1979. He told them this, in the context of one of his books being banned by the local school board.

"What troubles me most about my lovely country is that its children are seldom taught that American freedom will vanish, if, when they grow up, and in their exercise of their duties as citizens, they insist that our courts and policemen and prisons be guided by divine or natural law".

Reading, or rather re-reading Kurt Vonnegut after a few years always does this me. He puts his finger on something that, for what ever reason, has acquired a newfound importance in my life, something I've grown into or time has brought along. This time on page eleven.

And so it goes.