'Improbable Collapse' 9/11 Truth Northeast Tour

Reprinted from 911Truth.org.

Scientists pose the question: How did three “indestructible” steel-framed skyscrapers collapse? “Improbable Collapse: the Demolition of our Republic” with Filmmaker, Michael Berger and Media Coordinator for 911truth.org, tours northeast: CT, MA, NY, VT, and NH; April 10-23, 2007

Contacts:
Michael Berger, Connect the Dots LLC
info@improbablecollapse.com
Jonathan Mark –Tour Coordinator; publisher – Flyby News
Email: noflyby@yahoo.com
Stephen Goodale – Resource Coordinator – valley911truth.org
Email: sggoodale@yahoo.com

Online resource links: FlybyNews.com * 911truth.org * ImprobableCollapse.com

NORTHEAST USA – “Improbable Collapse: The Demolition of Our Republic” goes on tour for two weeks in April with the support of 9/11 truth groups across the region. The tour opens on April 10, 2007, when Michael Berger presents his film at the University of Hartford, with Q & A following. The 69-minute film documentary examines the startling events of September 11, 2001 from a scientific perspective.

The film closely examines one of the world’s worst catastrophes from a civil engineering perspective. Using photo and video footage, as well as expert scientific testimony, the film thoroughly analyzes the official reports, offering varied criticisms of the official findings, while presenting a more plausible hypothesis. Both government investigations and the mainstream media have quietly ignored the findings from scientific experts.

“The dramatic collapse of World Trade Center 7 is something everyone ought to see…
It really does have the characteristics of an explosive demolition.”
– Dr. Steven Jones, physicist, author of “ Why Indeed Did the WTC Buildings Completely Collapse?”

The World Trade Center Twin Towers on September 11, 2001 disintegrated in a manner that some scientists say resembled deliberately calculated demolitions. The facts open for discussion include: at 5:20 p.m. that same day another building, the 47-story WTC 7, completely collapsed within 70 feet of its footprint in 6.6 seconds. These three buildings became the first such structures to ever suffer complete collapse due to fire and structural damage.

Michael Berger and Connect the Dots produced “Improbable Collapse: The Demolition of our Republic.” Berger is also the media coordinator for 911truth.org. He has appeared on ABC World News Tonight, CNN Showbiz Tonight, and Scarborough Country as well as dozens of radio appearances including a recent debate with Matthew Rothschild, editor of The Progressive Magazine.

10 April to 23 April, 2007

4/10 - University of Hartford, CT; 4/11 - First Churches, Northampton, MA;
4/11 Holyoke Community College; 4/12 - Keene State College, Putnam Theater, NH;
4/13 Greenfield Community TV, MA; 4/14 Hooker-Dunham Theater, Brattleboro, VT;
4/15 Berkshire Community College, MA; 4/15 Unitarian Universalists, Springfield, MA;
4/16 University At Albany, New York; 4/17 Bennington Free Library, Bennington VT;
4/18 Best Western.., Concord, NH; 4/19 Dover Friends Meeting House, Dover, NH;
4/20 UMASS Edu.., New Bedford, MA; 4/21 Democracy Center, Cambridge, MA;
4/22 Wilton Town Hall Theater, NH; April 23rd Hampshire College, Amherst, MA

"Improbable Collapse" is available for purchase at the 911truth.org E-store.

That truly is a tough job

10 April 2007
By Boris Epstein

Defending the indefensible, that is. That must be one of the reasons why few people seem to be willing to argue in defense of the official theory of 9/11.

It's not like they don't get an opportunity. The 9/11 skeptics, or 9/11 truthers, or 9/11 conspiracy theorists - pick your term - have challenged them to a debate time, and time, and time again. Here's independent journalist Ed Haas' experience (Change in Venue or Date will not Alter Decision, July 3, 2006):

The fact is that scientists outside the government’s control have been conducting peer evaluation of the NIST scientists and their “pancake theory” for years now, and the government theory has failed to pass the test. Its failure to pass the test means that the government has yet to provide a sustainable explanation of how the twin towers collapsed.

This is not unusual in the scientific community; the process of working hypothesis, research, presenting a theory, subjecting the theory to peer evaluation, and then if failing peer evaluation, returning to the research and even the hypothesis. What is different in this instance though is the stakes; and they couldn’t be higher because so much of what the U.S. government has done since 9/11 is contingent on the majority of the public believing that those twin towers collapsed as the result of the airplane impacts. With an estimated 42% of the American public now skeptical of the 9/11 Commission Report as well as the NIST “pancake theory”; the government knows it is losing the information war on 9/11, and has recently began to mount its predictable counter-offensive.

...

When faced with the challenge of a National 9/11 Debate, the Muckraker Report turned to the well-respected work of Professor Jones and Professor Fetzer at Scholars for 9/11 Truth. The Muckraker Report contacted Professor Fetzer and asked if he could assemble a highly qualified seven-member civilian debate team that would be willing to debate a seven-member government debate team regarding the government’s account of 9/11 events. Professor Fetzer had a team assembled in two weeks. With the civilian debate team in place, the Muckraker Report identified twenty-nine potential government debate team members to include the ten members of the 9/11 Commission and the thirteen NIST scientists responsible for the government’s “pancake theory” of collapse. Each of these potential government debate team members was mailed numerous invitations. Five of the 9/11 Commissioners had staffers contact the Muckraker Report via telephone to decline invitation due to “prior commitments”. However, the thirteen NIST scientists remained silent.

After three separate mailings of hard copy invitations to the NIST scientists, on June 8, 2006 the Muckraker Report received e-mail from NIST that said, “The project leaders of the NIST World Trade Center investigation team respectfully decline your invitations to participate in the National 9/11 Debate on September 16, 2006.” Not to be deterred, on June 20, 2006 the Muckraker Report e-mailed Michael E. Newman, NIST Director of Media Relations, and asked if there was a better date, time, and location for NIST to participate in the National 9/11 Debate.

On June 25, 2006, NIST Director of Media Relations, Michael E. Newman responded:

The members of the NIST WTC Investigation Team has [sic] respectfully declined your invitation to participate in the National 9/11 Debate. A change in venue or date will not alter that decision.

A change of venue or date will not alter that decision. Fascinating! What Newman is telling the world is that the public servants at NIST, the people paid by the U.S. taxpayers, will never, ever publicly debate their peers regarding the “pancake theory” of collapse of WTC-1, WTC-2, and WTC-7. Taxpayers should be outraged! The public needs to demand accountability. Apparently, the Gang of 13 at NIST does not believe they are accountability to the people. That needs to change, pronto! Newman has repeatedly told the Muckraker Report that NIST “stands solidly behind the collapse mechanisms for each tower and the sequences of events (from aircraft impact to collapse) as described in the report.” The truth is that NIST is hiding behind its unsustainable theory and dares not publicly debate the merits of its report.

Recently, Ann Arbor 911 Truth had a similar experience (9-11 Truth Event in Ann Arbor, April 10, 2007):

On April 7 annarbor911truth.com hosted Kevin Ryan, Kevin Barret and William Rodriguez for an unforgettable afternoon of truth in the League ballroom. We filled over three hundred chairs for this event called "TRUTH STRIKES BACK".

Originally, the group had planned to sponsor a debate. We invited the members of YAF, a popular rightwing organization on campus to to debate us on the following issue: "Have the government and media lied to the public about the events of Sept 11."
Though we issued several polite invitations these were declined.

Next we tried the physics department at the University of Michigan as well as three departments in the school of engineering, Civil, Materials Science and Mechanical. We sent each faculty member a personal invitation as well as a copy of "Improbable Collapse" All of the invitations were declined or not answered; that's over three hundred invitations total for the University faculty. No one would defend the official story as related in the NIST, FEMA and 9-11 Commission Report.

Since we had advertised a "debate", out of desperation Kevin Ryan and Kevin Barret did a mock debate and took turns representing the official story as outlined in NIST and the 9-11 Commission report. Then they took turns showing how these reports failed the public.

Like this author mentioned earlier, "the roar of that silence is deafening." And by all appearances people are slowly waking up to that roar.

Resume

Revision 2
Revision 1

Boris Epstein

Malden (Metro Boston), Massachusetts, US (map)

Contact

E-Mail: boris.epstein@yahoo.com
Phone: 617.816.9654

Summary

Strong analytical abilities derived from both study and hands-on experience. Enjoy challenge and uncertainty. Seeking a position where I could contribute and grow, both professionally and personally.

Technical Summary

About a dozen years of full-time experience in the IT industry. That includes programming, systems administration (primarily various versions of UNIX and Linux) as well as network administration.
Participated in development, installation and maintenance of large-scale IT solutions in fields as diverse as telecommunications, financial, internet hosting, e-commerce, etc. Have experience developing standalone applications from scratch as well as working in a team. Diverse client interaction experience both domestically and internationally.
Operating Systems: UNIX, Linux, MS Windows (XP, NT), MS DOS, Apollo Aegis, VMS
Programming Languages: C/C++, PERL, JAVA, UNIX (C-Shell, Bourne, Korn), Tcl/Tk, Lisp/Scheme
Tools: Emacs, MS Office, FrameMaker, VI
Hardware: IBM-compatible PC, HP, SUN

Timeline

April 2004 - present

Freelance writer and activist

Provide technical assistance to several online projects including Cooperative Research and New England JAVA Users Group.
In 2005, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina helped coordinate volunteer relief activities in the Gulf and personally participated in those activities.
Currently work odd jobs to support myself.

July 2001 - April 2004

ARCON Corporation
Waltham, MA

Worked as a programmer involved in development and support of the ETMS air traffic management software for the FAA at the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center in Cambridge, MA. Specific area of concentration was the CDM component of the ETMS. The tasks included design and development of new functionality, as well as supporting legacy code. A large codebase together with the need for system reliability provide for a challenging task. The code was originally written in Pascal and later migrated to C.
The system was in essence a large transportation management system receiving and reflecting frequent (mostly once-a-minute) updates regarding the status of flights operating over the US airspace. Near realtime requirements were in place for processing and analyzing data which made for an exciting and challenging task.

December 1999 - April 2001

Boston Internet Group
Boston, MA

Performed multiple roles on a daily basis, including those of a senior system designer and developer, Windows NT and UNIX system administrator and web hosting support engineer. Key player in the technology planning and implementation area. As a sole expertise in a number of areas, including object-oriented design and development, networking, network security and systems management, advised other team members on various technology issues.
Main tasks included web site backend implementation for clients, in-house product design and implementation as well as day-to-day activities mentioned above. Most of the coding was done using object-oriented technology, with JAVA as a programming language of choice.
Provided critical insight which allowed to greatly improve stability and efficiency of the internal systems.
Clients included Davox Corporation (now part of Aspect Software), Pilates Store, Lobsters-Online, Inc. and others.

September 1999 - January 2000

Thomson Financial
Medford, MA

Worked as a UNIX administrator in a large-scale web and dataserver hosting facility. Was responsible for maintenance and troubleshooting of multiple industrial-scale UNIX servers in SUN, HP and IBM platforms. Performed database maintenance of SYBASE and ORACLE databases as well as data recovery and general server troubleshooting.

May 1999 - July 1999

GTE International (currently part of Level3 Communications)
Cambridge, MA

As part of the Y2K team worked on the remediation of custom SUN Solaris machines hosting clients' mission-critical WWW sites and applications. Complex upgrades and modifications had to be accomplished requiring an absolute minimum in customers' downtime. Tasks included upgrades of the OS, DB servers and various other third-party software. Custom scripting and coding was often required to facilitate the necessary transition.

November 1995 - May 1999

WorldCare, Inc.
Cambridge, MA

Originally hired as an outside contractor. Accepted a permanent staff position in a three months' time. Throughout my whole tenure was a critical part of a small and continually overtasked team.
Responsibilities included day-to-day maintenance and support of a network of UNIX hosts. Maintained code control systems. Designed and implemented a data backup/archival system for in-house use. Created web pages using HTML, PERL and JAVA. With the emphasis on publicly available software restructured the environment to optimize and economize the development and production process. Modified publicly available software for local needs using C, Tcl/Tk, PERL, JAVA, etc. Was also involved in equipment and software installation and support at client sites. Worked with medical applications and protocols including DICOM, ISG's VRS graphical application and AWARE wavelet compression. Wrote system installation and maintenance scripts. Modified and integrated various third party software packages. Worked with multimedia devices in medical data capture/processing systems. Set up and supported LANs and WANs.

July 1992 - November 1995

Kenan Systems Corporation (currently part of Alcatel-Lucent)
Denver, CO - Cambridge, MA

Participated in database design of SYBASE databases.As part of a product team supported development effort in a heterogeneous UNIX environment. Oversaw the operation of a distributed development environment which included multiple geographically disjoint locations. Wrote a suite of PERL scripts that encompassed the local customizations to ClearCase as required by the project. Other responsibilities included release/code management using ClearCase code control system, SYBASE database administration, system design activities.

Summers of 1990 and 1991

Unisys Corporation
Cambridge, MA

Participated in the development of ATMS (Automated Traffic Management System), an air traffic management and control system for the FAA. Coding was done in Pascal against a proprietary database. The network consisted of a multitude of Aegis hosts on the Apollo platform. The development was done under DSEE as an integrated code control and management environment.

Personal

Born in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1969. Have lived in the US since 18 years of age. Attended Tver University (website in Russian) in Tver, Russia; Boston University and University of Massachusetts at Amherst graduating in 1992 with a Bachelor's Degree in Mathematics/Computer Science in 1992.

References

Just ask - plenty of people will vouch for me!

3/18/07 AntiWar Protest in Albany, NY featuring 9/11 Truth UAlbany

Check out the antiwar rally in front of the Capitol in Albany, NY on the 4th anniversary of the Iraq War. Included in the march were members of 9/11 Truth UAlbany, who also protested in front of Governor Eliot Spitzer's Mansion in the South End of Albany.

Check out 9/11 Truth UAlbany at: www.911truthualbany.org

Google Video link

"Mainstream Media & 9/11 - Blatant Mind Control Propaganda!"

1 April 2007
By Boris Epstein

YouTube link

This is a presentation worth watching to get a glimpse into how the modern media can by way of selective censorship cover a topic in a way that ridicules one of the sides in the debate from the start and denies the audience an opportunity to acquire knowledge of the subject or form an informed opinion of said subject. It is, of course, shocking when the subject at hand is something as crucially important as the tragic events of 9/11 - which, aside from their own enormity, have since been presented as basis for a revolutionary transformation of the American policy.

It also shows how myths are created by way of presenting certain opinions as apriori unassailable and subject only to unquestioning acceptance. The "9/11 heretics" are given some air time, of course. I must say that only started after the 9/11 Truth movement has grown too large to be ignored by the mainstream media but let us not dwell on that point. However, when those "heretics" are given the light of day it is generally only after a somewhat derisive introduction, only very briefly and only in such a way as to deny them an opportunity to present their views in any fashion that even smells of seriousness. That is a subtle, though effective, way to reinforce the official 9/11 myth.

For more on the myth making see an excellent article titled 9/11: The Myth and the Reality by Dr. David Ray Griffin's who also happens to be featured in the video above.

Peace March, Boston, Massachusetts, March 24, 2007

Google Video link

What's Happening at Guantanamo?

The text below came to me via email. Use this map to navigate your way to the venue.

Regardless of what you think the people held at Guantanamo may have done I believe it is important for all of us as Constitution-respecting Americans to do what we can to make sure the rule of law prevails over the current Administration's dictatorial policies. And Guantanamo is a very important front in that struggle.

Newton Dialogues on Peace & War presents:

WHAT’S HAPPENING AT GUANTANAMO?
Why Should We Care?

Talk by Attorneys Doris Tennant and Ellen Lubell

Newton lawyers Doris Tennant and Ellen Lubell are pro bono representing a Guantanamo detainee who has been held for five years without charges. They have just returned from their first visit there.

Wednesday, April 4, 7 P.M.

Newton Main Library
330 Homer Street, Newton, MA

Hello friends. Please come to this event. Doris Tennant and Ellen Lubell are representing a Guantanamo prisoner pro bono, so they are providing their time at no charge. However, their costs, including their own travel and that of a translator, translator fees, and Freedom of Information Act requests, are running at least $20,000 for this year, and will likely continue at that same pace or more. Most of the other attorneys who are representing Guantanamo detainees are members of large law firms that cover these types of expenses, but in their case the “firm” is just them. If you would like to make a contribution to help them defray costs, it would be much appreciated. Please make your check payable to “Tennant Lubell Detainee Fund.” Your contribution will not be tax-deductible, but they promise to put it to good use to help provide fundamental legal rights to a man who remains in indefinite detention.

Doris Tennant, Esq.
Tennant Lubell, LLC
288 Walnut Street
Suite 500
Newton, MA 02460

617-969-9610, X 101
Fax: 617-969-9611

www.tllawgroup.com

Curriculum Vitae

Boris Epstein

Malden (Metro Boston), Massachusetts, US (map)

Summary

An analytical thinker with a poetic perception. Have few goals other than attaining fulfillment in life and being of use to the humanity which includes myself. Can be equally content writing a political commentary, diagnosing a piece of equipment or writing software code.

Born in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1969. Have lived in the US since 18 years of age. Attended Tver University (website in Russian) in Tver, Russia; Boston University and University of Massachusetts at Amherst graduating in 1992 with a Bachelor's Degree in Mathematics/Computer Science in 1992.

Technical Summary

About a dozen years of full-time experience in the IT industry. That includes programming, systems administration (primarily various versions of UNIX and Linux) as well as network administration.
Participated in development, installation and maintenance of large-scale IT solutions in fields as diverse as telecommunications, financial, internet hosting, e-commerce, etc. Have experience developing standalone applications from scratch as well as working in a team. Diverse client interaction experience both domestically and internationally.
Operating Systems: UNIX, Linux, MS Windows (XP, NT), MS DOS, Apollo Aegis, VMS
Programming Languages: C/C++, PERL, JAVA, UNIX (C-Shell, Bourne, Korn), Tcl/Tk, Lisp/Scheme
Tools: Emacs, MS Office, FrameMaker, VI
Hardware: IBM-compatible PC, HP, SUN

Timeline

April 2004 - present

Freelance writer and activist

Maintain two websites, Sniffing Out The Higher Truth and Building a Pyramid. Provide technical assistance to several online projects including Cooperative Research and New England JAVA Users Group.
In 2005, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina helped coordinate volunteer relief activities in the Gulf and personally participated in those activities.
Currently work odd jobs to support myself.

July 2001 - April 2004

ARCON Corporation
Waltham, MA

Worked as a programmer involved in development and support of the ETMS air traffic management software for the FAA at the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center in Cambridge, MA. Specific area of concentration was the CDM component of the ETMS. The tasks included design and development of new functionality, as well as supporting legacy code. A large codebase together with the need for system reliability provide for a challenging task. The code was originally written in Pascal and later migrated to C.
The system was in essence a large transportation management system receiving and reflecting frequent (mostly once-a-minute) updates regarding the status of flights operating over the US airspace. Near realtime requirements were in place for processing and analyzing data which made for an exciting and challenging task.

December 1999 - April 2001

Boston Internet Group
Boston, MA

Performed multiple roles on a daily basis, including those of a senior system designer and developer, Windows NT and UNIX system administrator and web hosting support engineer. Key player in the technology planning and implementation area. As a sole expertise in a number of areas, including object-oriented design and development, networking, network security and systems management, advised other team members on various technology issues.
Main tasks included web site backend implementation for clients, in-house product design and implementation as well as day-to-day activities mentioned above. Most of the coding was done using object-oriented technology, with JAVA as a programming language of choice.
Provided critical insight which allowed to greatly improve stability and efficiency of the internal systems.
Clients included Davox Corporation (now part of Aspect Software), Pilates Store, Lobsters-Online, Inc. and others.

September 1999 - January 2000

Thomson Financial
Medford, MA

Worked as a UNIX administrator in a large-scale web and dataserver hosting facility. Was responsible for maintenance and troubleshooting of multiple industrial-scale UNIX servers in SUN, HP and IBM platforms. Performed database maintenance of SYBASE and ORACLE databases as well as data recovery and general server troubleshooting.

May 1999 - July 1999

GTE International (currently part of Level3 Communications)
Cambridge, MA

As part of the Y2K team worked on the remediation of custom SUN Solaris machines hosting clients' mission-critical WWW sites and applications. Complex upgrades and modifications had to be accomplished requiring an absolute minimum in customers' downtime. Tasks included upgrades of the OS, DB servers and various other third-party software. Custom scripting and coding was often required to facilitate the necessary transition.

November 1995 - May 1999

WorldCare, Inc.
Cambridge, MA

Originally hired as an outside contractor. Accepted a permanent staff position in a three months' time. Throughout my whole tenure was a critical part of a small and continually overtasked team.
Responsibilities included day-to-day maintenance and support of a network of UNIX hosts. Maintained code control systems. Designed and implemented a data backup/archival system for in-house use. Created web pages using HTML, PERL and JAVA. With the emphasis on publicly available software restructured the environment to optimize and economize the development and production process. Modified publicly available software for local needs using C, Tcl/Tk, PERL, JAVA, etc. Was also involved in equipment and software installation and support at client sites. Worked with medical applications and protocols including DICOM, ISG's VRS graphical application and AWARE wavelet compression. Wrote system installation and maintenance scripts. Modified and integrated various third party software packages. Worked with multimedia devices in medical data capture/processing systems. Set up and supported LANs and WANs.

July 1992 - November 1995

Kenan Systems Corporation (currently part of Alcatel-Lucent)
Denver, CO - Cambridge, MA

Participated in database design of SYBASE databases.As part of a product team supported development effort in a heterogeneous UNIX environment. Oversaw the operation of a distributed development environment which included multiple geographically disjoint locations. Wrote a suite of PERL scripts that encompassed the local customizations to ClearCase as required by the project. Other responsibilities included release/code management using ClearCase code control system, SYBASE database administration, system design activities.

Summers of 1990 and 1991

Unisys Corporation
Cambridge, MA

Participated in the development of ATMS (Automated Traffic Management System), an air traffic management and control system for the FAA. Coding was done in Pascal against a proprietary database. The network consisted of a multitude of Aegis hosts on the Apollo platform. The development was done under DSEE as an integrated code control and management environment.

References

Just ask - plenty of people will vouch for me!

“Improbable Collapse” – Spring 9/11 Truth Northeast Tour

The text below came to me via email.
Boris Epstein

Scientists pose the question: How did three “indestructible” steel-framed skyscrapers collapse? “Improbable Collapse: the Demolition of our Republic” with Filmmaker, Michael Berger and Media Coordinator for 911truth.org tours northeast, CT, MA, NY, VT, and NH; April 10-23, 2007

Contacts:
Michael Berger, Connect the Dots LLC
(314) 308-4893, info@improbablecollapse.com

Jonathan Mark – Valley911Truth; publisher FlybyNews.com
Tel. 978-544-7862 – Email: noflyby@yahoo.com
Stephen Goodale – Resource Coordinator - Northeast911Truth.org
On line resource links 911DVDproject.com * 911blogger.com * ImprobableCollapse.com

NORTHEAST USA – “Improbable Collapse: The Demolition of Our Republic” goes on tour for two weeks in April with the support of 9/11 truth groups across the region. The tour opens on April 10, 2007, when Michael Berger presents his film at the University of Hartford, with Q & A following the 69-minute film to look at the events of September 11, 2001 from a strictly scientific perspective.

On September 11, 2001, the World Trade Center Twin Towers disintegrated in a manner that some scientists say resembled deliberately calculated demolitions. The facts open for discussion include: at 5:20 p.m. that same day another building, the 47-story WTC 7, completely collapsed within 70 feet of its footprint in 6.6 seconds. These three buildings became the first such structures to ever suffer complete collapse due to fire and structural damage.

“The dramatic collapse of World Trade Center 7 is something everyone ought to see…
It really does have the characteristics of an explosive demolition.”
– Dr. Steven Jones, physicist, author of
“ Why Indeed Did the WTC Buildings Completely Collapse?”

The new documentary, “Improbable Collapse – The Demolition of our Republic,” closely examines one of the world’s worst catastrophes from a civil engineering perspective. Using photo and video footage, as well as expert scientific testimony, the film thoroughly analyzes the official reports, offering varied criticisms of the official findings, while presenting a more plausible hypothesis. Both government investigations and the mainstream media have quietly ignored the findings from these scientific experts.

“Improbable Collapse – The Demolition of our Republic” is produced by Michael Berger and Connect the Dots LLC. As the media coordinator for 911truth.org, Berger has appeared on ABC World News Tonight, CNN Showbiz Tonight, and Scarborough Country as well as dozens of radio appearances including a recent debate with Matthew Rothschild, editor of The Progressive Magazine.

10 April to 23 April, 2007

4/10 - University of Hartford, CT; 4/11 - First Churches, Northampton, MA;
4/11 Holyoke Community College, CT; 4/12 - Keene State College, NH; 4/13 TBA;
4/14 Hooker-Dunham Theater, Brattleboro, VT; 4/15 Berkshire Community College;
4/15 Unitarian Universalists Society of Greater Springfield; 4/16 University At Albany, NY;
4/17 Bennington Free Library, VT; 4/18 - TBA; 4/19 Dover, NH (more info coming);
4/20 - TBA; 4/21 Democracy Center, Cambridge, MA; April 22nd - TBA;
April 23rd Hampshire College, Franklin Patterson Main Lecture Hall

Quotes of Dissent

The text below was emailed to me. BE

Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.

~Harry S. Truman

We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it. ~Edward R. Murrow

Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us. ~William O. Douglas

We see political leaders replacing moral imperatives with a Southern strategy. We have seen all too clearly that there are men≈now in power in this country≈who do not respect dissent, who cannot cope with turmoil, and who believe that the people of America are ready to support repression as long as it is done with a quiet voice and a business suit. And it is up to us to prove that they are wrong.

JOHN V. LINDSAY, mayor of New York City, speech at University of California, Berkeley, April 2, 1970

Has there ever been a society which has died of dissent? Several have died of conformity in our lifetime.

Jacob Bronowski

The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western World. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity≈much less dissent.

Gore Vidal

"May we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion."

:	Dwight D. Eisenhower

"I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually." -James Baldwin,

I am saying voluntarily that I have sung for almost every religious group in the country, from Jewish and Catholic, and Presbyterian and Holy Rollers and Revival Churches. I love my country very dearly, and I greatly resent the implication that some of the places that I have sung and some of the people that I have known, and some of my opinions, whether they are religious or philosophical, make me less of an American.

-Pete Seeger, [from testimony for the House of Un-American Activities Committee], August 15, 1955

John F. Kennedy:

Without debate, without criticism, no administration and no country can succeed -- and no republic can survive

Edward R. Murrow:

No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices. (about Senator Joseph McCarthy's accusations about Communism in the American government)

Barbara Ehrenreich:

No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots.

Archibald Macleish:

The dissenter is every human being at those moments of his life when he resigns momentarily from the herd and thinks for himself.