Voices of 2011

"I Used to Be Afraid . . . I Became an Egyptian.''
-- sign (in Arabic) seen in Tahrir Square in Cairo during protests that led to the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak's regime

"I hope from the bottom of my heart that the people will, hand in hand, treat each other with compassion and overcome these difficult times."
-- Japanese Emperor Akihito after the March earthquake, tsunami and subsequent nuclear crisis embroiled his country
 
"Greece is bust, essentially."
-- London economist Gabriel Stein on the likelihood that Greece would default on its sovereign debt

"While [Muammar] Qaddafi is a bad guy, being a bad guy with a long history of brutality and terrorism is not a moral justification for the United States to go to war."
-- Robert Parham, executive director of the Baptist Center for Ethics in Nashville, arguing that the situation in Libya did not meet just war criteria for U.S. intervention

"However emotionally satisfying to Americans, Osama bin Laden's departure from the scene is unlikely to produce definitive results. It does not mark a turning point in history."
--
Boston University professor Andrew J. Bacevich, arguing that the U.S.
is engaged not in a war on terror but in a struggle to control the
Middle East, particularly the oil-rich Persian Gulf

"It has been a really tough weekend."
-- Harold Camping after the Rapture that he had predicted would happen on Saturday, May 21, failed to occur

"Now we know the reality of so many others in the world where violence pierces the lives of the innocent."
--
Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches
and a Norwegian, following the shootings in and around Oslo that left at
least 76 people dead

"This Shari'a law business is crap. It's just crazy. And I'm tired of dealing with the crazies. It's just unnecessary to be accusing this guy of things just because of his religious background."
--
New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie, defending his nomination
of Sohail Mohammed, a Muslim-American, to be a judge on the state
Superior Court

"This deal is a sugar-coated Satan sandwich. If you lift the bun, you will not like what you see."
-- Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D., Mo.), a United Methodist minister, tweeting about a congressional
deal that raised the debt ceiling

"My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress."
-- Warren Buffet, the world's third most wealthy person, supporting a higher tax rate for the super-rich

"There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own."
-- Elizabeth Warren, candidate in Massachusetts for the Senate, challenging the idea that seeking higher taxes for the wealthy is class warfare