A few nice Citizenship and Freedom images I found:

Dream

Image by elycefeliz
20/100 Possibilities~ 100 Possibilities Project set

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an African American clergyman, activist and prominent leader in the American civil rights movement.

www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land.

And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition. In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.

Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds.

Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny.

And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.

No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest — quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends. And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today! I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" — one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today! I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.

With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.

With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day — this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning:
My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride,
From every mountainside, let freedom ring!
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that: Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbUtL_0vAJk

Dreams

Lajos (Louis) Kossuth

Image by dbking
Lajos "Louis" Kossuth (Ľudovít Košút in Slovak) (Monok, September 19, 1802–Turin, March 20, 1894) was a Hungarian lawyer, politician and Regent-President of the Kingdom of Hungary in 1849. He was widely honored during his lifetime, including in the United Kingdom and the United States, as a freedom fighter.

Family
Lajos Kossuth was born at Monok, a small town in the county of Zemplén as the oldest of four children. His father belonged to the minor nobility, had a small estate and was a lawyer by profession. The ancestors of the Kossuth family have lived in the county of Turóc (Slovak: Turiec) since the 13th century. They had spoken Slovak language in the past and Lajos’ uncle, Juraj Košút, with whom Lajos used to spend his holidays, had remained a strong Slovak nationalist/patriot. The partly Slavic ancestry of Kossuth never became the topic of political debates because the family was part of the ruling Hungarus nobility of the Kingdom of Hungary. Also, Lajos considered himself a full Magyar (in the ethnic sense) and, interestingly, even openly denied the mere existence of a Slovak nation. The mother of Lajos Kossuth, Karolina Weber was of Lutheran German descent so Kossuth has Magyar, Slovak and German roots.

Early years
His mother raised the children as strict Lutherans. Kossuth completed his education at the Piarist college of Sátoraljaújhely and one year in the Calvinist college of Sárospatak and the University of Pest-Buda (now Budapest). Aged nineteen, he entered his father’s legal practice. He was popular locally, and having been appointed steward to the countess Szapáry, a widow with large estates, he became her voting representative in the county assembly and settled in Pest. He was subsequently dismissed on the grounds of using estate funds to pay a gambling debt.

Entry into national politics
Shortly after his dismissal by Countess Szapáry, Kossuth was appointed as deputy to Count Hunyady at the National Diet. The Diet met during 1825–1827 and 1832–1836 in Pozsony, then capital of Hungary. Only the upper aristocracy could vote, however, and Kossuth took little part in the debates. At the time, a struggle to reassert a Hungarian national identity was beginning to emerge under able leaders – most notably Wesselényi and the Széchenyis. In part, this was also a struggle for reform against the stagnant Austrian government. Kossuth’s duties to Count Hunyady included reporting on Diet proceedings in writing, as the Austrian government, fearing popular dissent, had banned published reports. The high quality of Kossuth’s letters led to their being circulated in manuscript among other Liberal magnates. Readership demands turned his output into the editing of an organized parliamentary gazette (Országgyűlési tudósítások); spreading his name and influence further. Orders from the Official Censor halted circulation by lithograph printing. Distribution in manuscript by post was forbidden by the government, although circulation by hand continued.

In 1836 the Diet was dissolved. Kossuth continued to report (in letter form), covering the debates of the county assemblies. This new-found publicity gave the assemblies national political prominence. Previously they had had little idea of each others’ proceedings. His skilful embellishment of the speeches from the Liberals and Reformers further enhanced the impact of his newsletters. The government in vain attempted to suppress the letters, and other means having failed, he was in May 1837, with Wesselényi and several others, arrested on a charge of high treason. After spending a year in prison at Buda awaiting trial, he was condemned to four more years’ imprisonment. His strict confinement damaged his health, but he was allowed to read. He greatly increased his political knowledge, and also acquired, from the study of the Bible and Shakespeare, a thorough knowledge of English.

The arrests had caused great indignation. The Diet, which reconvened in 1839, demanded the release of the prisoners, and refused to pass any government measures. Metternich long remained obdurate, but the danger of war in 1840 obliged him to give way. Wesselényi had been broken by his imprisonment, but Kossuth, partly supported by the frequent visits of Teresa Meszleny, emerged from prison unbroken. Immediately after his release Kossuth and Meszleny were married, and she remained a firm supporter of his politics. The Roman Catholic priests refused to bless the marriage as Kossuth would not convert to Meszleny’s religion. This experience influenced Kossuth’s firm defense of mixed marriages.

Journalist and political leader
Kossuth had now become a national icon. He regained full health in January 1841 and was appointed editor of Pesti Hírlap, a new Liberal party newspaper. Notably, the government agreed to grant a licence. The paper achieved unprecedented success, soon reaching the then immense circulation of 7000 copies. A competing pro-government paper, Világ, started up but it only served to increase Kossuth’s visibility and add to the general political fervour.

The first Kossuth statue in Hungary. Miskolc, Erzsébet squareSzéchenyi, the great reformer, publicly warned Kossuth that his appeals to the passions of the people would lead the nation to revolution. Kossuth, undaunted, did not stop at the publicly reasoned reforms demanded by all Liberals: the abolition of entail, the abolition of feudal burdens and taxation of the nobles. He went on to broach the possibility of separating from Austria. By combining this nationalism with an insistence on the superiority of the Magyars to the Slavonic inhabitants of Hungary, he sowed the seeds of both the collapse of Hungary in 1849 and his own political demise.

In 1844, Kossuth was dismissed from Pesti Hírlap after a dispute with the proprietor over salary. It is believed that the dispute was rooted in government intrigue. Kossuth was unable to obtain permission to start his own newspaper. In a personal interview Metternich offered to take him into the government service. Kossuth refused, and spent the next three years without a regular position. He continued to agitate on behalf of both political and commercial independence for Hungary. He adopted the economic principles of List, and was the founder of a "Védegylet" society – whose members consumed only Hungarian produce. He also argued for the creation of a Hungarian port at Fiume.

In autumn 1847, Kossuth was able to take his final key step. Due to the support of Lajos Batthyány during a keenly fought campaign, he was elected to the new Diet as member for Pest. He proclaimed: "Now that I am a deputy, I will cease to be an agitator." He immediately became chief leader of the Extreme Liberals. Ferenc Deák was absent. Batthyány, István Széchenyi, Szemere and József Eötvös, his political rivals, felt that his personal ambition and egotism led him to assume the chief place, and to use his parliamentary position to establish himself as leader of the nation; but before his eloquence and energy all apprehensions were useless. His eloquence was of that nature, in its impassioned appeals to the strongest emotions, that it required for its full effect the highest themes and the most dramatic situations. In a time of rest, though he could never have been obscure, he would never have attained the highest power. It was therefore a necessity of his nature, perhaps unconsciously, always to drive things to a crisis.

Regent of Hungary
The crisis came, and he used it to the full. On March 3, 1848, shortly after the news of the revolution in Paris had arrived, in a speech of surpassing power he demanded parliamentary government for Hungary and constitutional government for the rest of Austria. He appealed to the hope of the Habsburgs, "our beloved Archduke Franz Joseph" (then 17 years old), to perpetuate the ancient glory of the dynasty by meeting half-way the aspirations of a free people. He at once became the leader of the European revolution; his speech was read aloud in the streets of Vienna to the mob by which Metternich was overthrown (March 13), and when a deputation from the Diet visited Vienna to receive the assent of Emperor Ferdinand to their petition it was Kossuth who received the chief ovation. Batthyány, who formed the first responsible government, appointed Kossuth the Minister of Finance.

With amazing energy he began developing the internal resources of the country: re-establishing a separate Hungarian coinage, and using every means to increase national self-consciousness Characteristically, the new Hungarian bank notes had Kossuth’s name as the most prominent inscription; making reference to "Kossuth Notes" a future byword. A new paper was started, to which was given the name of Kossuth Hirlapja, so that from the first it was Kossuth rather than the Palatine or the president of the ministry whose name was in the minds of the people associated with the new government. Much more was this the case when, in the summer, the dangers from the Croats, Serbs and the reaction at Vienna increased. In a great speech July 11 he asked that the nation should arm in self-defence, and demanded 200,000 men; amid a scene of wild enthusiasm this was granted by acclamation. When Jellachich was marching on Pest he went from town to town rousing the people to the defence of the country, and the popular force of the Honved was his creation. When Batthyány resigned he was appointed with Szemere to carry on the government provisionally, and at the end of September he was made President of the Committee of National Defence.

From this time he was a virtual dictator. The direction of the whole government was in his hands. Without military experience, he had to control and direct the movements of armies; he was unable to keep control over the generals or to establish that military co-operation so essential to success. Arthur Görgey in particular, whose great abilities Kossuth was the first to recognize, refused obedience; the two men were very different personalities. Twice Kossuth deposed him from the command; twice he had to restore him. It would have been well if Kossuth had had something more of Görgey’s calculated ruthlessness, for, as has been truly said, the revolutionary power he had seized could only be held by revolutionary means (by which it is usually meant, revolutions can only be effected by dictatorship, repression and bloodshed); but he was by nature soft-hearted and always merciful; though often audacious, he lacked decision in dealing with men. It has been said that he showed a want of personal courage; this is not improbable, the excess of feeling which made him so great an orator could hardly be combined with the coolness in danger required of a soldier; but no one was able, as he was, to infuse courage into others.

During all the terrible winter which followed, his energy and spirit never failed him. It was he who overcame the reluctance of the army to march to the relief of Vienna; after the defeat of Schwechat, at which he was present, he sent Bem to carry on the war in Transylvania. At the end of the year, when the Austrians were approaching Pest, he asked for the mediation of Mr Stiles, the American envoy. Windisch-Graetz, however, refused all terms, and the Diet and government fled to Debrecen, Kossuth taking with him the Crown of St Stephen, the sacred emblem of the Hungarian nation. In November 1848, Emperor Ferdinand abdicated in favour of Franz Joseph. The new Emperor revoked all the concessions granted in March and outlawed Kossuth and his colleagues. In April 1849, when the Hungarians had won many successes, after sounding the army, he issued the celebrated declaration of Hungarian independence, in which he declared that "the house of Habsburg-Lorraine, perjured in the sight of God and man, had forfeited the Hungarian throne." It was a step characteristic of his love for extreme and dramatic action, but it added to the dissensions between him and those who wished only for autonomy under the old dynasty, and his enemies did not scruple to accuse him of aiming for Kingship. For the time the future form of government was left undecided, but Kossuth was appointed regent-president (to satisfy both royalists and republicans). The hopes of ultimate success were frustrated by the intervention of Russia; all appeals to the western powers were vain, and on August 11 Kossuth abdicated in favor of Görgey, on the ground that in the last extremity the general alone could save the nation. Görgey capitulated at Világos to the Russians, who handed over the army to the Austrians. Görgey was spared – at the insistence of the Russians. Reprisals were taken on the rest of the Hungarian army. Kossuth steadfastly maintained until his death that Görgey alone was responsible for the humiliation.

Escape and Triumphant Tour of England and America
Kossuth’s time in power was at an end. A solitary fugitive, he crossed the Turkish frontier. He was hospitably received by the Turkish authorities, who, supported by the British, refused, notwithstanding the threats of the allied emperors, to surrender him and other fugitives to Austria. In January 1850 he was removed from Vidin, where he had been kept under house arrest, to Shumla, and thence to Kütahya in Asia Minor. Here he was joined by his children, who had been confined at Pozsony/Pressburg (Bratislava); his wife (a price had been set on her head) had joined him earlier, having escaped in disguise.

In September 1851 he was allowed to leave Turkey on an American man-of-war. He first landed at Marseille, where he received an enthusiastic welcome from the people, but the Prince-President Louis Napoleon refused to allow him to cross France.

On October 23 he landed at Southampton and spent three weeks in Britain, where he was generally feted. Addresses were presented to him at Southampton, Birmingham and other towns; he was officially entertained by the Lord Mayor of London; at each place he spoke eloquently in English for the Hungarian cause; and he indirectly caused Queen Victoria to stretch the limits of her constitutional power over her Ministers to avoid embarassment, and eventually helped cause the fall of the government in power.

Having learnt English during an earlier political imprisonment with the aid of a volume of Shakespeare, his spoken English was ‘wonderfully archaic’ and theatrical. The Times, generally cool towards the revolutionaries of 1848 in general and Kossuth in particular, nevertheless reported that his speeches were ‘clear’ and that a three-hour talk was not unusual for him; and also, that if he was occasionally overcome by emotion when describing the defeat of Hungarian aspirations, ‘it did not at all reduce his effectiveness’. At Southampton, he was greeted by a crowd of thousands outside the Lord Mayor’s balcony, who presented him with a flag of the Hungarian Republic. The Corporation of London accompanied him in procession through the City, and the way to the Guildhall was lined by thousands of cheering people. He went thereafter to Winchester, Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham; at Birmingham the crowd that gathered to see him ride under the triumphal arches erected for his visit was described, even by his severest critics, as 75,000 individuals. Back in London he addressed the Trades Unions at Copenhagen Fields in Islington. Some twelve thousand ‘respectable artisans’ formed a parade at Russell Square and marched out to meet him. At the Fields themselves, the crowd was enormous; the Times estimated it conservatively at 25,000, while the Morning Chronicle described it as 50,000, and the demonstrators themselves 100,000.

The Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, who had already proved himself a friend of the losing sides in several of the failed revolutions of 1848, was determined to receive him at his country house, Broadlands. The Cabinet had to vote to prevent it; Queen Victoria reputedly was so incensed by the possibility of her Foreign Secretary supporting an outspoken republican that she asked the Prime Minister, Lord John Russell for Palmerson’s resignation, but Russell claimed that such a dismissal would be drastically unpopular at that time and over that issue. When Palmerston upped the ante by receiving at his house, instead of Kossuth, a delegation of Trade Unionists from Islington and Finsbury, and listened sympathetically as they read an address that praised Kossuth and declared the Emperors of Austria and Russia ‘despots, tyrants and odious assassins’, it was noted as a mark of indifference to Royal displeasure. This, together with Palmerston’s support of Louis Napoleon, caused the Russell government to fall and Palmerston himself to take office.

In addition, the indignation which he aroused against Russian policy had much to do with the strong anti-Russian feeling which made the Crimean War possible.

From Britain he went to the United States of America: there his reception was equally enthusiastic, if less dignified. He was the second foreign citizen to make a speech in the National Statuary Hall (Lafayette being the first).

Later Exile and Death
Gradually, his autocratic style and uncompromising outlook destroyed any real influence among the expatriate community. Other Hungarian exiles protested against his appearing to claim to be the only national hero of the revolution. Count Casimir Batthyány attacked him in The Times, and Szemere, who had been prime minister under him, published a bitter criticism of his acts and character, accusing him of arrogance, cowardice and duplicity. He soon returned to England, where he lived for eight years in close connection with Mazzini, by whom, with some misgiving, he was persuaded to join the Revolutionary Committee. Quarrels of a kind only too common among exiles followed. Hungarians were especially offended by his continuing use of the title of Regent. He watched with anxiety every opportunity of once more freeing his country from Austria. An attempt to organize a Hungarian legion during the Crimean War was stopped; but in 1859 he entered into negotiations with Napoleon III, left England for Italy and began the organization of a Hungarian legion, which was to make a descent on the coast of Dalmatia. The Peace of Villafranca made this impossible.

From then on, Kossuth remained in Italy. He refused to follow the other Hungarian patriots, who, under the lead of Deák, negotiated the 1867 Compromise (Ausgleich), and the ensuing amnesty. It is doubted whether Emperor Franz Joseph would have allowed the amnesty to extend to Kossuth. Publicly, Kossuth remained unreconciled to the house of Habsburg, and committed to a fully independent state. Though elected to the Diet of 1867, he never took his seat. He continued to remain a widely popular figure, but did not allow his name to be associated with dissent or any political cause. A law of 1879, which deprived of citizenship all Hungarians who had voluntarily been absent ten years, was a bitter blow to him. He displayed no interest in benefitting from a further amnesty in 1880.

In 1890, a delegation of Hungarian pilgrims in Turin recorded a short patriotic speech delivered by the elderly Lajos Kossuth. The original recording on two wax cylinders for the Edison phonograph survives to this day, although barely audible due to excess playback and unsuccessful early restoration attempts. Lajos Kossuth is the earliest born person in the world who has his voice preserved.

He died in Turin on the 20th of March 1894; his body was taken to Budapest, where he was buried amid the mourning of the whole nation, Mór Jókai delivering the funeral oration. A bronze statue was erected, by public subscription, in the Kerepesi Cemetery. Many regard Kossuth as Hungary’s purest patriot and greatest orator.

Many points in Kossuth’s career and character will probably always remain the subject of controversy. His complete works were published in Hungarian at Budapest in 1880-1895. The fullest account of the Revolution is given in Helfert, Geschichte Oesterreichs (Leipzig, 1869, &c.), representing the Austrian view, which may be compared with that of C Gracza, History of the Hungarian War of Independence, 1848-1849 (in Hungarian) (Budapest, 1894). See also E. O. S., Hungary and its Revolutions, with a Memoir of Louis Kossuth (Bohn, 1854); Horvath, 25 Jahre aus der Geschichte Ungarns, 1823-1848 (Leipzig, 1867) H Maurice, Revolutions of 1848-1849. Stiles, Austria in 1848-1849 (New York, 1852); Szemere, Politische Charakterskizzen: III. Kossuth (Hamburg, 1853); Louis Kossuth, Memoirs of my Exile (London, 1880); Ferenc Pulszky, Meine Zeit, mein Leben (Pressburg, 1880); A Somogyi, Ludwig Kossuth (Berlin, 1894).

Memorials
Today the main square of Budapest with the Hungarian Parliament Building is named after him and the Kossuth Memorial is an important scene of national ceremonies. Almost every town in Hungary has its own Kossuth Street or Kossuth Square and a statue of Kossuth, with the first public statue of him being the one in Miskolc, erected in 1898. The memorials of Lajos Kossuth in the territories lost by Hungary after World War I were sooner or later demolished in neighbouring countries. A few of them was re-erected following the fall of Communism by local councils or private associations. They play an important role as symbols of national identity of the Hungarian minority. The most important memorial outside the present-day borders of Hungary is a statue in Rožňava (hun: Rozsnyó), that was knocked down two times but restored after much controversy in 2004. The only Kossuth statue that remained on its place after 1920 in Romania stands in Salonta (hun: Nagyszalonta). The demolished Kossuth Memorial of Târgu-Mureş (hun: Marosvásárhely) was re-erected in 2001 in the little Székely village of Ciumani (hun: Gyergyócsomafalva). In Serbia there are two statues of Kossuth in Stara Moravica (hun: Ómoravica or Bácskossuthfalva) and Novi Itebej (hun: Magyarittebe). Memorials in Ukraine are situated in Berehove (hun: Beregszász) and Tiachiv (hun: Técső). Additionally, a bust of Lajos Kossuth is housed in the US Capitol Building in Washington D.C.

Trivia
The small town of Kossuth, Mississippi in the United States is named in honor of Lajos Kossuth.

The largest county in Iowa, Kossuth County, is named in honor of Lajos Kossuth. In front of the County Court House in Algona, Iowa, (the county seat) stands a statue of the freedom fighter.

Other statues of Kossuth remain sprinkled throughout the U.S., including in University Circle in Cleveland, Ohio. There is also a Kossuth Park at the intersection of East 121st Street and East Shaker Boulevard, just west of Shaker Square, in Cleveland.

Kossuth Road in Cambridge Ontario Canada

ELEMENTARY BOYS SCHOOL in OLD JAPAN

Image by Okinawa Soba
WARNING : SOME CONTROVERSIAL AND POLITICALLY INCORRECT COMMENTS ARE MADE IN THE LAST HALF OF THE BELOW CAPTION. IF YOU ARE ONE OF THOSE "ALL CULTURES ARE EQUAL — LET’S JUST LOVE AND ACCEPT EACH OTHER AS WE ARE" TYPES, PLEASE AVOID THE LAST HALF OF THIS CAPTION, AND GO PICK SOME DAISIES. THANK YOU !

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Perhaps the boys in the photo are studying "Engrish" ? HELLO KITTY ! LET’S SPORTS ! GET !!!

A few moons ago, I posted a shot taken inside a GIRLS Elementary school : www.flickr.com/photos/24443965@N08/2369860061/in/set-7215…

Now, it’s the BOYS turn…in real 3-D. The year is 1904.

So, do we have some kind of strict Islamic thing going on here ? Boys and Girls educated separately ? Back in 1904, was separation of the sexes at this age a normal thing in all the civilized world ?

LAURA INGALLS WILDER (Little House on the Prairie) and LUCY MAUD MONTGOMERY (Anne of Green Gables) would tell us that [North America, at least] was co-ed from day one of the late 19th century. I also notice that in all of my 19th Century Western photos of North American school groups, the kids were all mixed together.

But I have friends and family in the USA that attended either "All Boys" or "All Girls" schools for a part of their lives. I can’t say that either system — co-ed or separate classrooms — produced a more spectacular class of human being as some kind of endorsement of a particular choice in the matter.

On the other hand, some reports show that for certain subjects, and at certain ages, keeping the boys and girls apart is beneficial to both.

Ok. That’s in the classroom. But what about outside the classroom ?

And…….what about MODERN DAY JAPAN ??? !

I have been to numerous schools, and in every case I can recollect, the BOYS all sat on one side, and the GIRLS all sat on the other in the same classrooms. "Separate but Equal". (Hmmmm….where have I heard THAT before?)

But it goes even deeper.

In an AMAZING, BEFORE YOUR VERY EYES cultural experience in Okinawa, Japan, I would daily drive by the local BUS STOPS where the kids were all waiting for the School Buses in the morning. The US MILITARY DEPENDENT KIDS were all of them, male and female, MIXED TOGETHER in a big group, chatting away with their friends of both sexes. And there, at the same bus stop, only a few feet away, the JAPANESE KIDS were always in TWO groups — one male, one female — chatting away, and keeping at least 10 feet of open space between the two groups. I can’t say that I have ever seen a more graphic "sexual" display of comparative cultural norms and values demonstrated in real time. It seems to say that, at least culturally speaking, that the "die is cast" — even at such young ages.

I saw this every day, for years on end. And NO RELIGION was involved.

CULTURE. Can’t live with it, can’t live without it.

By the way, according to data published by a US Military "Family Advocacy Services", approximately 80% of marriages between Japanese women and US Servicemen stationed in Japan since WW2 have ended in divorce.

Open for discussion.

PS. As I write this in 2008, Pakistani senators are defending the practice of BURYING YOUNG WOMEN ALIVE who were judged guilty by tribal elders of having engaged in a relationship with men not of their tribe…….." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interracial_marriage

Nothing was mentioned about burying MEN alive for the same "infraction".

How about BURNING WOMEN ALIVE as a matter of course ? Here is a reverse situation, where a MINORITY rules a majority, and imposes their own culture on the masses…with a tongue-in-cheek twist of logic to make the masses conform :

"……….A story for which British General Napier is famous involves a delegation of Hindu locals approaching him in India, and complaining about prohibition of Sati, often referred to at the time as suttee, by British authorities. This was the custom of BURNING WIDOWS ALIVE on the funeral pyres of their husbands. The exact wording of his response varies somewhat in different reports, but the following version captures its essence:

‘You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.’……………." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_James_Napier (Thanks to flickr commenter 驢馬跡 for pointing out that story and link)

This brings up a related concept of "Extraterritoriality". A situation, defined by treaty, that allows certain minority populations (such as Embassies, Military Bases, Business Communities, etc) to conduct things in their own cultural and legal ways without interference by the host country. Note that in ALL CASES today, these exceptions apply ONLY to transient populations related to the purpose and existence of the foreign enclave, and NOT to those foreigners who immigrate for the purpose of forsaking their OLD COUNTRY for residence or citizenship in the NEW COUNTRY.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraterritoriality

PREDICTION : There will come a day when Western "Democracies", in their misguided "political correctness", will extend the right of EXTRATERRITORIALITY to ALL FOREIGN TOURISTS, IMMIGRANTS (both legal and illegal), and ENEMY SPIES, and allow all "immigrant populations" from opposing systems to mete out justice and punishment within their own cultural-religious groups — even if such "local justice" is in direct abrogation of the "higher laws" of the host nation where the immigrants live. FURTHER PREDICTION : Immigrants who hold different cultural values than their host nation will extend their "local justice" to those outside their groups, especially when offended by those exercising freedoms not available to the cloistered immigrants. FURTHER PREDICTION : The human species will eventually revert to the stone age.

WHAT I HOPE FOR : That some flickr member will predict that my predictions will NEVER come true !

Now, excuse me while I go BURN MY WIFE ALIVE. I’ve just started a new religion where I can do that BEFORE I die, and not after. The "Politically Correct" Democrats in DC have already given me full TAX EXEMPT STATUS. And since I am bankrupt as well, they have passed a bill in Congress to bail me out, and also provide funds for my wife’s funeral pyre in order to respect my religious and cultural rights ! Woo Hoo !