Florence Luscomb Quotes
It is subversive to set up inquisitions like this, state or national, into the thoughts and consciences of Americans.... It is subversive for commissions like this to spread hysteria and intimidation throughout the land that Americans are afraid to sign petitions, afraid to read progressive magazines, afraid to make out checks for liberal causes, afraid to join organizations, afraid to speak their mind on public issues. Americans dare not be free citizens! This is the destruction of democracy.
Florence Luscomb, 1887-1985, Suffregette & Organizer, statement to Massachusetts Commission to Investigate Communism, January 7, 1955
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While many people hold that view today, in the 17th century this was truly a radical notion. There were NO democracies at the time and this philosopher argued that the citizens had a need to know that might supersede the need for the state to maintain secrets from enemies. Spinoza was one of the most feared intellectuals in human history-feared that is by the established power structures. He is the only known person who was excommunicated by the Catholics, the Jews and the Muslims-all were forbidden to read his works. He was the enemy of authority and advocated personal reason as the guide for men.
This paraphrased quote originated with Martin Luther King, Jr. See related quote.
He was referring to the non-democratic states of the Middle-East.
The Red Scare had affected much of the country. The House Un-American Activities Committee had frightened much of the country claiming that the Communists had infiltrated the government. But when facts and proof were demanded, all they came up with some workers in the Hollywood film industry who had gone to communist meetings and some who had joined the party before the War when The Great Depression was still plaguing the country. The Hollywood and TV executives caved in to the political demagogues and fired and blacklisted not only the communists but those who refused to testify. The actors and musicians could not work for several years until the country came to its senses, but the screenwriters wrote under false names. At least one Academy award was won that way.
He was condemning a practice whereby some nations would have freedoms guaranteed by their constitutions or laws, but the totalitarian government would “suspend” the constitutional guarantees in times of “national emergencies.” Yew was in opposition at the time he made this famous statement. 30 years later when he was the Prime Minister, he had a different view. See {585201}.
Florence Hope Luscomb was an American architect and women's suffrage activist in Massachusetts. She was one of the first ten women graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her degrees were in architecture.:234 Luscomb became a partner in an early woman-owned architecture firm before work in the field became scarce during World War I. She then dedicated herself fully to activism in the women's suffrage movement, becoming a prominent leader of Massachusetts suffragists.
