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Quote by Mary H.K. Choi

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Emergency Contact

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Mary H.K. Choi

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“I was right outside the NSA [on 9/11], so I remember the tension on that day. I remember hearing on the radio, 'the plane's hitting,' and I remember thinking my grandfather, who worked for the FBI at the time, was in the Pentagon when the plane hit it...I take the threat of terrorism seriously, and I think we all do. And I think it's really disingenuous for the government to invoke and sort-of scandalize our memories to sort-of exploit the national trauma that we all suffered together and worked so hard to come through -- and to justify programs that have never been shown to keep us safe, but cost us liberties and freedoms that we don't need to give up, and that our Constitution says we should not give up.”

“A highway, a bridge, a navigable canal, for example, may in most cases be both made and maintained by a small toll upon the carriages which make use of them: a harbour, by moderate port-duty upon the tonnage of the shipping which load or unload in it. The coinage, another institution for facilitating commerce, in many countries, not only defrays its own expense, but affords a small revenue or seignorage to the sovereign. The post-office, another institution for the same purpose, over and above defraying its own expense, affords in almost all countries a very considerable revenue to the sovereign. When the carriages which pass over a highway or a bridge, and the lighters which sail upon a navigable canal, pay toll in proportion to their weight or their tonnage, they pay for the maintenance of those public works exactly in proportion to the wear and tear which they occasion of them. It seems scarce possible to invent a more equitable way of maintaining such works.”

“The act of war itself is the least productive activity for mankind. It consumes men and materials, demands our time and energies which might otherwise be used to advance our nation, spends the treasure and labors of the people, orphans our children, and is the source for unspeakable violence, tragedy, sorrow and waste. My opinion of war can be summed up in five words: Destructive. Wasteful. Expensive. Inflationary. Bureaucratic. In this opinion, I am not alone, nor was I the first to make the observation I am certain.”

“According to analysis by Scottish Environment LINK, Scottish Natural Heritage's overall budget allocation fell from £80.5 million in 2010-11 to £46.5 million in 2019-20, a 42 per cent reduction in real terms. In the same period the budgets of the government's other environment advosory agencies were also slashed, SEPA's by 34.4 per cent and RESAS's (Rural & Environmental Science & Analytical Services) by 41 per cent. In the severity of these cuts, we saw the divide between rhetoric and reality, between the government's stated commitment to the environment and their true financial investment.”