"I was more faithful to guards than to my family. We were each other’s spies. I know by telling the truth, people will look down on me. Outsiders have a wrong understanding of the camp. It is not just the soldiers who beat us. It is the prisoners themselves who are not kind to each other. There is no sense of community. I am one of those mean prisoners."
Shin In Geun, who was born into a North Korean political prison camp (Born in the Gulag: Why a North Korean Boy Sent His Own Mother to Her Death by Blaine Harden | The Atlantic)
President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama attend the Kennedy Center Honors reception at the White House this evening. Photo by Yuri Gripas/Reuters Pictures
(Source: apsies, via idealscraps)
B.T. mentioned it would be sweet to get a version of our HQ mural that would be big enough to use as a desktop wallpaper. Tumblr wish: granted. Just click on the image above to get to the larger size and right-click to save.
The mural itself was painted by Matthew Lane and Meredith Kachel, artists who volunteered their time and talent to making our walls prettier. We appreciate it!
(via istalksnape)
"We were not born critical of existing society. There was a moment in our lives (or a month, or a year) when certain facts appeared before us, startled us, and then caused us to question beliefs that were strongly fixed in our consciousness - embedded there by years of family prejudices, orthodox schooling, imbibing of newspapers, radio, and television. This would seem to lead to a simple conclusion: that we all have an enormous responsibility to bring to the attention of others information they do not have, which has the potential of causing them to rethink long-held ideas."
Howard Zinn (via commanderspock)
(via commanderspock)
Sept. 21, 2011
“The First Lady reacts to something the President whispered to her at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in between events related to the United Nations General Assembly in New York City.”
(Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
This country was founded by people who wanted to express their opinion and wanted that for others too, even if they didn’t agree. We forgot.
— Nolan Gould (@Nolan_Gould) December 29, 2011
