Maureen Benz

@mtbenz.bsky.social

4384 Followers 5474 Following

Truth seeker, even when it hurts; liberal in all things, including bacon; retired early childhood educator; M.Ed; kindergarteners make life better…books, British TV, and queso birria make life grand ☮️🇺🇸🥓🇬🇧📺🌮🌮

“Our current ‘state’ is the dictatorship of evil. We know that already, I hear you object, and we don’t need you to reproach us for it yet again. But, I ask you, if you know that, then why don’t you act? Why do you tolerate these rulers gradually robbing you, in public and in private, of one right after another, until one day nothing, absolutely nothing, remains but the machinery of the state, under the command of criminals and drunkards?” White Rose Pamphlet #3 Sophie Scholl - White Rose Resistance WWII - 1942
Quote from George Orwell’s 1984, “Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”
Quote on the cover of Omar El Akkad’s book One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This: “One day, when it’s safe, when there’s no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it’s too late to hold anyone accountable, EVERYONE WILL HAVE ALWAYS BEEN AGAINST THIS.”
A close-up color photo of bespectacled Isaac Asimov, taken in front of paintings of galaxies and a planet, with the quote below: "There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'"
Photo of W. E. B. Du Bois with his quote, “We should measure the prosperity of a nation not by the number of millionaires, but by the absence of poverty, the prevalence of health, the efficiency of the public schools, and the number of people who can and do read worthwhile books.”
The cover of the book It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis, showing a mock up of a newspaper.
The cover of the book Loving What Is by Byron Katie, showing a photo of the author.
The cover of the book David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, showing a small child dressed in 1800’s clothing.
The cover of the book The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay, showing a black tree with boxing gloves hanging from the title.
The cover of the book The Red Tent by Anita Diamant, with a picture of a woman in a red gown, her hands raised up behind her head.
The cover of the book Love by Leo Buscaglia, with a golden heart on a gold cover.
Cover of the non The Forgotten Door by Alexander Key, showing a man falling into space.
Book cover of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins, showing a man with a briefcase.
The cover of the book Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott showing a convergence of lines.
Cover of the book Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, featuring a sketch of a cathedral.
Cover of the book Mrs. Mike by Benedict and Nancy Freedman, showing a snowy landscape.
Cover of the book The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin, with a picture of James.
Cover of the book Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach with a picture of hands holding a flower.
Cover of the book Mr Mysterious & Company by Sid Fleishman, showing a magician raising a child off a table by magic.
Cover of the book Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges, showing Ruby’s face as a young girl.
Book cover of The Dancing Wu Li Masters by Gary Zukav.
The book cover of Life and Death in Shanghai by Nien Cheng, with a photo of the author, a Chinese woman.
Cover of the book Five Smooth Stones by Ann Fairbairn showing a couple embracing. fFour white stones and one black stone are laid over the cover.
Cover of the book Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner, featuring people walking across a reddish rocky landscape.
The front of the book Teacher by Sylvia Ashton-Warner showing a teacher and two young students.