Good and Evil

Via truepenny:

If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

--Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
The Gulag Archipelago

Via abydosangel, in the comments to truepenny's post:

Nobody is more dangerous than he who imagines himself pure in heart; for his purity, by definition, is unassailable.
--James A. Baldwin

We Guard the Gates of Hell

Via dancinghorse:

( lolcatz )

US Secretary for Arts and Culture

Via shuttergal: Quincy says

Interesting - it had never even occurred to me!
A US Secretary for Arts and Culture?
Please consider signing this petition: Quincy Jones has started a petition to ask President-Elect Obama to appoint a Secretary of the Arts. While many other countries have had Ministers of Art or Culture for centuries, The United States has never created such a position. We in the arts need this and the country needs the arts--now more than ever. Please take a moment to sign this important petition and then pass it on to your friends and colleagues.

I agree that our government needs to support the arts better, although I wonder how people would react, given our current economic situation. Still, it's worth supporting and may help get a step closer. My signature brought the total to 120324.