Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands;
Men whom the lust of office does not kill;
Men whom the spoils of office can not buy.
Men who possess opinions and a will;
Men who have honor; men who will not lie;
Men who can stand before a demagogue
And damn his treacherous flattieries without winking!
Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog
In public duty, and in private thinking;
For while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds,
Their large professions and their little deeds,
Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps,
Wrong rules the land and waiting Justice sleeps.
--Josiah Gilbert Holland
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"The White House is a character crucible.... It either creates or distorts character. Few decent people want to subject themselves to the kind of grueling abuse candidates take when they run in the first place... Many of those who run crave superficial celebrity. They are hollow people who have no principles and simply want to be elected. Even if an individual is balanced, once someone becomes president, how does one solve the conundrum of staying real and somewhat humble when one is surrounded by the most powerful office in the land, and from becoming overhwlmed by an at time pathological environment that treats you every day as an emperor? Here is where the true strength of the character of the person, not his past accomplishments, will determine whether his presidency ends in accomplishment or failure."
Bertram S. Brown, M.D.,
(psychiatrist who formerly headed the National Institute of Mental Health)
quoted in In the President's Secret Service by Ronald Kessler
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Election Day in the U.S. is almost over but if you haven't voted, there may still be time. It is a right and privilege not to be neglected.
Thank you, Katie G, for your generous permission to post the above image.
Praying for all of you today.
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