One half of the world's people live on less than two dollars a day. This should concern our national security policy as well as our conscience.
Lee H. HamiltonRead
Our democracy is not a product but a continual process. It is preserved not by monuments but deeds. Sometimes it needs refining; sometimes it needs amending; sometimes it needs defending. Always, it needs improving.
Interpretation
Democracy requires ongoing effort and improvement rather than passive acceptance.
This quote emphasizes that democracy is an active and dynamic process that involves continuous work to enhance and protect it. It suggests that citizens must contribute to the democratic process through actions and advocacy, rather than simply relying on existing structures or symbols. Effective democracy requires constant refinement, defense, and proactive improvement by its participants.
In practice
In a speech about civic engagement, one might use this quote to inspire action.
One half of the world's people live on less than two dollars a day. This should concern our national security policy as well as our conscience.
Pakistan's key leaders have succumbed to the assassin's bullet or bomb or the hangman's noose, and the country has seen four military coups since its birth in 1947. Yet the Pakistani polity has limped on.
I believe that democracies do not go to war; that's the lesson of history, and I think that a democratic Pakistan is the world community's best guarantee of stability in Asia.
We must be the great arsenal of Democracy.
We the people tell the government what to do, it doesn't tell us.
Brexit is the other face of the refugee crisis - tensions that lead to stasis, external risks that lead to asymmetric shocks.
There is one transcendant advantage belonging to the province of the State governments . . . -I mean the ordinary administration of criminal and civil justice.
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