Words of Wisdom from Frederick Douglass

According to the Writer’s Almanac, it was on this date in 1838 that Frederick Douglass boarded a train to escape from slavery.  Douglass, a statesman of amazing wisdom and courage, is best known to us today for these lines:

“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”

Think of that the next time you turn on your television set and see protesters, whether their concern is an oil pipeline, an unjust incarceration, or a hateful presidential candidate–and wonder why those crazy people would sacrifice their time and often their freedom for what they believe.