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Connecticut Quotes

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Connecticut Quotes

“Denny thought our parents needed a combination of material goods and temperamental changes before he could return home. “If Dad buys Ma a car, then she’ll love him, and they’ll get back together and she won’t be all crazy anymore,” he said. For years he held out the possibility that those things would happen and all would change. “If we had more things, like stoves and cars,” he told me at night in our bedroom, “and Ma wasn’t like she is, we could go home.”

PovertyFoster CareConnecticut
Book:No Time to Say Goodbye: A Memoir of a Life in Foster Care
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“The chief care of the legislators [in the colonies of New England] was the maintenance of orderly conduct and good morals in the community: thus they constantly invaded the domain of conscience, and there was scarcely a sin which was no subject to magisterial censure. The reader is aware of the rigor with which these laws punished rape and adultery; intercourse between unmarried persons was likewise severely repressed. The judge was empowered to inflict either a pecuniary penalty, a whipping, or marriage, on the misdemeanants; and if the records of the old courts of New Haven may be believed, prosecutions of this kind were not unfrequent. We find a sentence, bearing date the 1st of May, 1660, inflicting a fine and reprimand on a young woman who was accused of using improper language, and of allowing herself to be kissed. The Code of 1650 abounds in preventive measures. It punishes idleness and drunkenness with severity. Innkeepers were forbidden to furnish more than certain quantities of liquor to each customer; and simple lying, whenever it may be injurious, is checked by a fine or a flogging. In other places, the legislator, entirely forgetting the great principles of religious toleration which he had himself demanded in Europe, makes attendance on divine service compulsory, and goes so far as to visit with severe punishment, and even with death, Christians who choose to worship God according to a ritual differing from his own. Sometimes, indeed, the zeal for regulation induces him to descend to the most frivolous particulars: thus a law is to be found in the same code which prohibits the use of tobacco. It must not be forgotten that these fantastical and vexatious laws were not imposed by authority, but that they were freely voted by all the persons interested in them, and that the manners of the community were even more austere and puritanical than the laws.... These errors are no doubt discreditable to human reason; they attest the inferiority of our nature, which is incapable of laying firm hold upon what is true and just, and is often reduced to the alternative of two excesses. In strict connection with this penal legislation, which bears such striking marks of a narrow, sectarian spirit, and of those religious passions which had been warmed by persecution and were still fermenting among the people, a body of political laws is to be found, which, though written two hundred years ago, is still in advance of the liberties of our own age.”

DemocracyMassachusettsRape CultureConnecticutPuritanismReligious Persecution1835Colonial SocietyEstablishment Of Religion1660
Book:Democracy in America
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“Explaining the Jews in a Catholic school when you’re Irish is like having to explain your country’s foreign policy while on a vacation in France. You don’t know what you’re talking about and no matter what you say, they’re not going to like it anyway.”

New EnglandJewsAntisemitismConnecticutCatholic SchoolsIrish Americans
Book:No Time to Say Goodbye: A Memoir of a Life in Foster Care
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“My first and lasting impression of the Connecticut River Valley is its serene beauty, especially in the autumn months. Deep River was a near picture-perfect New England village. When I arrived there, the town was a typical working-class place, nothing like the trendy upper-income enclave it became. The town center had a cluster of shops, a movie theater open only on weekends, several white-steepled churches (none of them Catholic), the town hall, and a Victorian library. It was small, even by Ansonia standards.”

CatholicNew EnglandConnecticutDeep River
Book:No Time to Say Goodbye: A Memoir of a Life in Foster Care
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“[A 2009 study of the Connecticut Development Agency found that companies receiving tax incentives] had created only 9 percent of the jobs they had forecast. The average subsidy for each new job: $367,910.”

SubsidiesConnecticut2009Tax Incentives
Book:The Great American Jobs Scam: Corporate Tax Dodging and the Myth of Job Creation - How Corrupt Economic Development Brings Us Layoffs, Outsourcing, Overcrowded Schools, Runaway Sprawl and Higher Taxes
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“It was over 50 years ago that I had the privilege of being the Class Advisor to the class of 1969 at what was then called Henry Abbott Regional Vocational Technical School. It was another era and a time when we as a nation stood tall. It was the year when Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins lifted off from Cape Kennedy, for the first manned landing on the Moon. “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” It was a time when we felt proud to be Americans! Fifty years ago the 4 Beatles got together in a recording studio for the last time, where they cut “Abbey Road.” In 1969 alone they published 13 songs including “Yellow Submarine.” John Lennon claimed that the best song he ever did was “Come Together” and that was in 1969. Although it wasn’t possible for me to attend the class reunion I did however connect with them by telephone and a speaker system. I had the opportunity to wish them well and share some thoughts with my former students who are now looking forward to their senior years that I always thought of as “The Youth of Old Age.” Having just celebrated my 85th birthday, 69 years old does seem quite youthful in comparison. Earlier in the week Dave Coelho, the class Vice President read to me the list of graduates that are no longer with us. I was stunned by the number, but at the time the United States was at war, regardless of what it was called. In 1968, the year before the class graduated, our country had a peak of 549,000 of our young people serving in Viet Nam. During the year of the Tet Offensive alone, 543 were killed and 2547 were wounded, and that is what the class of 1969 faced upon their graduation! It was a war in which 57,939 of our young people were killed or went missing! It was nice to talk to the class president LaBarbera and I enjoyed the feeling of guilt when one former student told me that he still has a problem with addition. To this I gladly accepted the blame but reminded him that this would not be of much help, if he had to face the IRS when his taxes didn’t compute. Look for part 2, the conclusion”

ConnecticutMma Captain Hank Bracker50th AnniversaryViet NamClass Of 1969DanburyHenry Abbott Technical School
Author:Captain Hank Bracker, The Exciting Story of Cuba
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“What was I to do, after sailing the seven seas now that we moved to 33 Van Wart Avenue, on the Scarsdale line of White Plains, NY. Like they say, money doesn’t grow on trees, so it was up to me to find a job. The economy wasn’t all that great and the best I could do was to find a commission job selling home fire detection units. One of the senior salesmen took me under his wing and showed me the ropes. The most important part of the pitch was to emphasize the importance of the fire detection unit and how, after declining our product a family had a fire in their home. The hapless husband was found stretched across the bed where he obviously died attempting to reach the telephone, while his family succumbed to the super-heated poisonous gasses and raging flames. It all could have been prevented if only they would have bought the fire detection unit when it was offered. I hated cold calling and selling something to people that they couldn’t afford was not in my nature. I wasn’t like my brother who could lure a hungry dog off the back of a meat wagon! It wasn’t that I didn’t try, because the more often I told the story the worse it got! I could just tell that the people I talked to knew that I was full of shXt and all I wanted to do was get out of there, although one of the sales rules was that you stayed until the people invited you to leave at least three times. For every rebuttal I had an answer and for every financial problem I had a solution, to put them even further into debt. In the end I would come home with my tail between my legs and with Ursula, watched the midnight horror show with John Zacherle. Dick Clark, a friend, gave Zacherle his nickname, "The Cool Ghoul," and for us it was television at it’s very best in the 1960’s.”

Sea StoriesConnecticutMma Captain Hank BrackerCos CobThe Cool GhoulZacherle
Author:Captain Hank Bracker, "Seawater One"
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“I have an extremely difficult time wrapping my head around such a tragic event as the Elementary school massacre in Connecticut and unbelievable sadness for the parents, families and co-workers effected by this tragedy. We are ALL touched by this either directly or indirectly.... May hearts be comforted at such a devastating time. The world is with you.... I know I am.”

KnowsWorldHeartMaySchoolParentDifficultSadnessEventsTragedyWorkersTouchedTragicUnbelievableDifficult TimesMassacresElementary SchoolWrappingCo WorkerConnecticutTragic Events
Author:Pamela Moore
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“I do not know how the affair at Canterbury is generally considered; but I have heard individuals of all parties and all opinions speak of it and never without merriment or indignation. Fifty years hence, the black laws of Connecticut will be a greater source of amusement to the antiquarian, than her famous blue laws.”

KnowsYearsLawIndividualSpeakBlackPartyOpinionKnow HowGreaterHeardSourceBlueAffairFiftyAmusementIndignationConnecticutMerrimentCanterbury
Author:Lydia M. Child
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“So the Lincoln movie gets trashed because Connecticut voted for the amendment - not to mention how the people in Connecticut feel - but there's a lot of that. And I think it precedes from a fundamental misunderstanding of cinema. They are entertainment. And I'd like to say that entertainment isn't a synonym for disposable or mindless or stupid. Hamlet? Pretty entertaining from where I come from.”

PeopleThinkingFeelsStupidFundamentalsEntertainmentCinemaEntertainingAmendmentsMisunderstandingMindlessDisposableSynonymConnecticut
Author:Nicholas Meyer
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“I've worked with the Warrens. For about 20 years. I was really good friends with Ed. Ed and Lorraine. We went our separate ways, there were a few differences. In their organization, being that they were from Connecticut, I started the New York City chapter of the organization and handled things in New York. But eventually I was out on my own. But I've been friends with them for a long time.”

WayYearsLongDifferencesMy OwnCitiesNew YorkLong TimeOrganizationNew York CityChaptersGood FriendConnecticutReally Good FriendsLorraineSeparate Ways
Author:Ralph Sarchie
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“I didn't have a clue. I grew up Protestant in Connecticut at the Saugatuck Congregational Church. We didn't talk about the devil. That's Catholicism. And so, that was my safety net. And I always say, it's probably a good thing they didn't hire a Catholic child, who may have heard about the devil, the things that were in the closet. And no one wanted to discuss them.”

MayChildrenWantedChurchHeardGrewGrew UpDevilCatholicSafetyGood ThingsCatholicismClosetsClueProtestantsSafety NetConnecticut
Author:Linda Blair
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“I was doing a play in New York, which we had done in New Haven, Connecticut. It was an American premiere of a play called The Changing Room written by a wonderful man named David Story. It was about a rugby team in the North of England. It got just screaming rave reviews. At that time, virtually every major critic went up to the Long Wharf Theater to see a new play like that.”

MenLongDonePlayStoriesRoomsWonderfulWrittenTeamHavensNew YorkMajorsEnglandTheaterCriticsReviewsRugbyPremieresRaveConnecticutWonderful Man
Author:Richard Masur
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“In America, we happen to be living in a third world country from the point of view of economic and social development. I came back from New York yesterday and I took the fastest train in the country, the Acela. My wife and I took the New York-Boston train sixty years ago - it wasn't called the Acela then - and I think it's improved by about fifteen minutes since then. Any other country in the world would be about half the time. In fact when it's riding along the Connecticut turnpike it's barely keeping up with traffic, which is just scandalous.”

ThinkingWorldYearsCountryFactsHappensWould BeAmericaSocialViewsHalfWifeEconomicMinutesNew YorkDevelopmentYears AgoThirdsTrainMy WifePoint Of ViewYesterdayRidingSixtyOther CountriesFifteenTrafficBostonThird WorldSocial DevelopmentScandalousConnecticutThird World Countries
Author:Noam Chomsky
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“Jack looked out the window as they passed the Mormon temple, just outside the beltway near Connecticut Avenue. A decidedly odd-looking building, it had grandeur with its marble columns and gilt spires. The beliefs represented by that impressive structure seemed curious to Ryan, a lifelong Catholic, but the people who held them were honest and hardworking, and fiercely loyal to their country, because they believed in what America stood for.”

PeopleCountryAmericaBeliefHonestBuildingWindowCatholicStructureCuriousOddTemplesLoyalImpressiveAvenuesLifelongColumnsMarbleGrandeurHardworkingConnecticutSpires
Book:Clear and Present Danger
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