Reminder - No Gateway JUG Meeting Tonight - Be Sure To Vote!
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Jack Frosch
Nov 6, 2012, 11:53:12 AM11/6/12
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In case you missed it, the Gateway JUG and Gateway Groovy User Group meetings are canceled tonight since it's a big election night.
Many members indicated they want to vote after work, watch election returns and even attend victory parties.
We look forward to seeing you in December for our "Build a Better Web App With Twitter Bootstrap" topic.
A personal note ...
Having visited centrally controlled, communist-run East Germany in the 80s, I witnessed first hand what it's like for a society to live under the thumb of a heavy-handed, oppressive government that denied its citizens the right to vote. Unable to affect any change in their society, people in East Berlin moved along the sidewalks with blank, stoic expressions, for all the world looking like robots. Truly, I have never seen a more joyless population. In stark contrast, West Germany, with its free, capitalist economy and vast political liberties told a completely different story. The people of West Berlin were joyful and filled with life, expressing their political views almost daily with organized protest marches over this or that minor complaint. Meanwhile, their East Berlin neighbors could only express the mildest of criticisms in hushed tones fearful of being overheard by the Stasi or one of their neighbors recruited by the Stasi to report dissent. (If you'd like to get a sense of what life was like in East Germany, I highly recommend watching the excellent movie, "The Lives of Others")
Though I haven't personally visited the Korean peninsula, I have been told the joy / joyless contrast between South Koreans and North Koreans is even more stark than the West and East Germans. If you've never seen the nighttime satellite image of the Korean peninsula, you can view it here: http://gatewayjug.typepad.com/images/korea_at_night.jpg . Could there be a more stark contrast between the vibrancy of a nation populated with free people, who love liberty, and who get to vote for their nation's governance versus a nation dominated by an all-powerful central government that denies its citizens a vote?
Please don't take the precious right of voting for granted. If you haven't done so already, please vote today to help ensure our freedom for the future.
--
jack frosch
Many members indicated they want to vote after work, watch election returns and even attend victory parties.
We look forward to seeing you in December for our "Build a Better Web App With Twitter Bootstrap" topic.
A personal note ...
Having visited centrally controlled, communist-run East Germany in the 80s, I witnessed first hand what it's like for a society to live under the thumb of a heavy-handed, oppressive government that denied its citizens the right to vote. Unable to affect any change in their society, people in East Berlin moved along the sidewalks with blank, stoic expressions, for all the world looking like robots. Truly, I have never seen a more joyless population. In stark contrast, West Germany, with its free, capitalist economy and vast political liberties told a completely different story. The people of West Berlin were joyful and filled with life, expressing their political views almost daily with organized protest marches over this or that minor complaint. Meanwhile, their East Berlin neighbors could only express the mildest of criticisms in hushed tones fearful of being overheard by the Stasi or one of their neighbors recruited by the Stasi to report dissent. (If you'd like to get a sense of what life was like in East Germany, I highly recommend watching the excellent movie, "The Lives of Others")
Though I haven't personally visited the Korean peninsula, I have been told the joy / joyless contrast between South Koreans and North Koreans is even more stark than the West and East Germans. If you've never seen the nighttime satellite image of the Korean peninsula, you can view it here: http://gatewayjug.typepad.com/images/korea_at_night.jpg . Could there be a more stark contrast between the vibrancy of a nation populated with free people, who love liberty, and who get to vote for their nation's governance versus a nation dominated by an all-powerful central government that denies its citizens a vote?
Please don't take the precious right of voting for granted. If you haven't done so already, please vote today to help ensure our freedom for the future.
--
jack frosch
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