Matthew Dowd

YouTube video by Miramax Good Will Hunting | 'Perfect for Each Other' (HD) - Matt Damon, Robin Williams | MIRAMAX

OTD, in 1997, Good Will Hunting premieres. Oscar wins for Robin Williams and for screenplay. Always loved this scene about peccadillos.

youtu.be/ltNhwj-F7c8?...

Today is International Day for the Abolition of Slavery and this year's theme is "Acknowledge the past. Repair the present. Build a future of dignity and justice."

RIP Norwegian writer Nordahl Grieg, died this day 1943, known for his resistance to Nazism.

"Here is your shield against violence, here is your sword: the belief in our life, in humans' worth. For all our futures' sake, seek it and grow it. Die if you have to, but increase it and strengthen it"

An amazing debate ...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRzk...

One of our greatest writers and thinkers. The world misses his beautiful voice. Jim from Maine.

RIP writer James Baldwin, died this day 1987.

"I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain".

“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

good morning.

Dec. 1 in history:
1955 —Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat, launching the Montgomery Bus Boycott
1958 - 92 kids and three nuns perish in the Our Lady of the Angels School fire, Chicago
2019-Coronavirus infection detected in Wuhan

...the eternal treasons of life. It's not very funny, but it's sincere. My commitment is to sincerity."

happy bday Moroccan writer Tahar Ben Jelloun, b.1944.

"I came to poetry through the urgent need to denounce injustice, exploitation, humiliation. I know that's not enough to change the world. But to remain silent would have been a kind of intolerable complicity."

"I write about wounds,...

i just don't get the idea today that the LSU head coaching position is substantially better than the Ole Miss coaching position. Ten years ago, yes, but not today. I think the Kiffin move is a mistake for him and of course it is bad for his Ole Miss players.

"This morning we light the 1st candle
We light this candle as a symbol of hope & expectation
May we dare open the shadowy places in our lives &
memories to the healing light of community
W/the creative power of #hope
we express our longing for peace
& prepare our hearts to be transformed"
- @uua.org

happy birthday. enjoy.

happy bday Irish philosopher/writer John Toland, b.1670.
“The universe is a unity. Every material thing is in all things.
All things come from all, and all is in all things.”

Happy bday Samuel Langhorne Clemens, b1835, Florida, MO

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”

“Never allow someone to be your priority while allowing yourself to be their option.”

Today is the first Sunday of Advent, and it is the Hope candle today. In the reading from Romans today: "Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light". Let us each wake with hope and bring light into the world as often as we can.

i tell you what, if Democrats win the elections in 2026 and 2028, one of the biggest mistakes they could make is to talk about uniting the country by not prosecuting all of the lawbreakers and corruption of Trump administration officials. One reason we are here today is Ford's pardon of Nixon.

Stephen A. Smith couldn't just stay in his sports lane and be consistently wrong there. He now wades into politics where he shows how consistently wrong he can be on a variety of topics.

Trump approval in new Gallup poll sets new low of 36%. and among GOP it is new low of 84% which signals loss of enthusiasm for next years elections. Trump approval among independents is a new low at dismal rating of 29%.

Today is International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. One can support the people of Israel while simultaneously advocating for the rights and freedoms and dreams of the people of Palestine.

Seems two authors born OTD, had similar thoughts 💭 bsky.app/profile/texa...

happy bday Venezuelan humanist/poet Andrés Bello, b.1781.

"...Where the bird amid the branches,
In the early dawning gray,
Sings its untaught, artless music,
Greeting thus the new-born day..."

happy bday writer Louisa May Alcott, b.1832, Germantown, PA.

"I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning how to sail my ship."

“I like good strong words that mean something…”

“I ask not for any crown
But that which all may win;
Nor try to conquer any world
Except the one within.”

.

... hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”

Happy bday Irish-born English scholar/writer C.S. Lewis, b.1898.

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with...

“Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.”
~Rita Mae Brown

Heard this recently and made me laugh at how true it is!

happy bday feminist writer Rita Mae Brown, b.1944, Hanover, PA.

“Sorrow is how we learn to love. Your heart isn't breaking. It hurts because it's getting larger. The larger it gets, the more love it holds.”

“Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.”

... but whether cultivated or neglected, it must, and will, bring forth. If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed seeds will fall therein, and will continue to produce their kind.”