And now…

…your moment of Zen.

This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.

—U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, first inaugural address
March 4, 1933.

Americans are asking: What is expected of us? I ask you to live your lives, and hug your children. I know many citizens have fears tonight, and I ask you to be calm and resolute, even in the face of a continuing threat.

I ask you to uphold the values of America, and remember why so many have come here. We are in a fight for our principles, and our first responsibility is to live by them. No one should be singled out for unfair treatment or unkind words because of their ethnic background or religious faith.

—U.S. President George W. Bush, address to a joint session of Congress and the American people, Sept. 20, 2001.

I am just so fearful that this is not a man who sees America the way that you and I see America — as the greatest source of good in this world. … I’m afraid this is someone who sees America as imperfect enough to work with a former domestic terrorist who had targeted his own country.

—Republican vice presidential candidate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, speech at a political rally in Clearwater, Fla., Oct. 6, 2008.

Thanks for the wild turkey and the passenger pigeons, destined to be shit out through wholesome American guts. Thanks for a continent to despoil and poison. Thanks for Indians to provide a modicum of challenge and danger. Thanks for vast herds of bison to kill and skin leaving the carcasses to rot. Thanks for bounties on wolves and coyotes.

Thanks for the American dream, to vulgarize and falsify until the bare lies shine through.

Thanks for the KKK; for nigger-killin' lawmen, feelin' their notches; for decent church-goin' women, with their mean, pinched, bitter, evil faces. Thanks for "Kill a Queer for Christ" stickers. Thanks for laboratory AIDS.

Thanks for Prohibition and the war against drugs. Thanks for a country where nobody's allowed to mind their own business anymore. Thanks for a nation of finks.

Yes, thanks for all the memories — all right let's see your arms! You always were a headache and you always were a bore.

Thanks for the last and greatest betrayal of the last and greatest of human dreams.

—William S. Burroughs, "A Thanksgiving Prayer," Nov. 28, 1986.