So who is “he” in the quote?
He maintained that politics is about values, starting with moral values. The primary guardians of these values are not states or political organizations but free individuals endowed with a sense of responsibility.
It was actually Vaclav Havel, dissident, writer and former President of the Czech Republic. Hmmmm, I would have thought we were all deeply tuned in to the 25-year anniversary of the Velvet Revolution in Czech Republic. I went to an event in Prague once and heard Havel speak, in person. Amazing memory of Prague Castle. That I should even have a memory of Prague Castle strikes me as amazing. I digress… will save the walking down memory lane for a different post.
Vaclav Havel is someone I want to read more. Moral values are out of style somehow these days. I think he is right–everything is about morality–and we ignore that at our peril.
[Tweet “Madeleine Albright said the west didn’t win the Cold War, but rather that Communism fell.”]
I’m paraphrasing her words from a commemorative event this morning. That is an interesting sentiment, and she may be right, given what we are seeing from Putin in Russia these days.
Does this have anything to do with abortion? Only peripherally. Anytime is a good time to remind you that PWPL is a blog for pro-life women (and women who want to be pro-life but need a little time) who are interested in any manner of different things, including the history of totalitarianism.
(Your friendly PWPL founder is, in any case. She feels comforted at gatherings where a larger than usual percentage of people speak English with a strong Czech accent. In a pinch, any slavic accent will do. True.)
by 
Well done, good and faithful servant.
While Havel is a very great man, the overthrow of communism in Czechoslovakia was ultimately accomplished by thousands of quite ordinary people who witnessed to the truth in spite of the lies the communist regime dished up on a daily basis.
Often this involved great personal cost to themselves and their families.
I personally know a number of people in Prague who paid a terrible price for the truth. For example, one man I know was sentenced to two years at hard labour in a uranium mine. And another was kicked out of university and exiled to a small town in the middle of nowhere for having written some critical remarks in the comments book of a state-sponsored art exhibition.
It remains to be seen if those of us in the pro-life movement are capable of similar self-sacrifice.
You are right, Paul. Thanks for this comment.