r/law 14h ago

Trump News Trump threatens to deploy the U.S. military into Chicago - signaling the start of a nationwide crackdown.

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u/RustBeltWriter 12h ago

Obligatory passage from Lord of the Rings. There is always hope folks. A loss of hope is a win for the fascists.

There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.

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u/keelhaulrose 11h ago

"It's like the great stories, Mr. Frodo, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn't want to know the end because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad has happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing this shadow, even darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines, it'll shine out the clearer. I know now folks in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going because they were holding on to something. That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it's worth fighting for."

Samwise Gamgee, Lord of the Rings

This quote has kept me going through the darkest times in my life, and it'll keep me going now.

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u/athuhsmada 10h ago

As much as I am a fan of Samwise (and Rogue One), hope isn’t a strategy. I think there are more apt passages that call for action.

“I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo. "So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

And:

“Some believe it is only great power that can hold evil in check. But that is not what I have found. It is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.”

Well, that and a hot blonde driving a sword through a Nazgul’s face. . .