Freedom of the spirit

Yesterday in CoPhi, some denied that greater freedom for all to pursue happiness (in the spirit of J.S. Mill) would improve society.

Mr. Shirer, and anyone who's ever lived under the thumb of dictatorship, would disagree. I hope this generation of students never has to learn that the hard way.

It's time to vote.

"Living in a totalitarian land taught me to value highly—and fiercely—the very things the dictators denied: tolerance, respect for others and, above all, the freedom of the human spirit."
—William L. Shirer, born on this day in 1904

It's the birthday of William L. Shirer, born in Chicago, Illinois (1903). After graduating from college, he expected to spend two months in Europe. He stayed for more than twenty years, and became one of America's most outstanding war correspondents. He spent much of his early career in Vienna, Berlin, and Prague, reporting on the Nazis' rise to power. Back in the United States after the war, Shirer was blacklisted during the McCarthy era. This gave him time to write one of the most famous chronicles of World War Two, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (1959), which won the National Book Award. WA