Quotes About Reform

In Boston they have gone from large autonomous high schools to smaller schools within the same building.

The government is just too big, and we have to make it smaller; people are getting lost.

We need immigration reform, but we need open-air, smaller bills that are germane to an issue and have an open discussion with the American people.

As a government watchdog, I'm always looking for ways to make government smaller, more efficient, and fairer.

I'm not a 'messiah' coming to change Washington. I don't come with a political background, so I think it's part of my responsibility to raise my hand and say 'Why?' Folks don't just want smaller government; they want an efficient small government.

I want a smaller government, yes, but I want a government that will be fair.

'Getting smart on crime' does not mean reducing sentences or punishments for crimes.

If children who commit crimes are not given the opportunity of a second chance, they may die in prison for acts made before having developed the cognitive and emotional skills needed to make informed and smart decisions and choices.

How about we let the states be innovative on Medicaid and do much better and smarter things?

We don't need more government, we just need the government we have to work smarter and more efficiently.

We need prisons because there are some hardcore criminals, but I never met a guy who has been in jail that came out with a smile on his face thinking, 'Right, that's it - now I am going to be good!'

Reformist kings can save their dynasties now by helping their countries move smoothly into democracy, or they will end their years in exile like the Russian aristocrats of a century earlier.

Everyone there including President Mugabe knows something needs to change because so many people are hurting.

But a closer look at the data reveals that just 3.7 percent of state prisoners are there for nonviolent drug possession, and that 14.1 percent of state prisoners are locked up for any nonviolent drug offense. Forty-seven percent of inmates in federal prisons are in for nonviolent drug convictions, but there are just 172,000 people in federal prisons and 1.3 million in state prisons.7 Over half of all prisoners in state prisons are there for violent offenses like murder, rape, and robbery.8

The time is now proper for us to reform backward; more by dissenting than by agreeing; by differing more than by consent.

it is the certainty of being punished and not the horrifying spectacle of public punishment that must discourage crime

The necessity of reform mustn't be allowed to become a form of blackmail serving to limit, reduce, or halt the exercise of criticism. Under no circumstance should one pay attention to those who tell one Don't criticize, since you are not capable of carrying out a reform. that's ministerial cabinet talk. Critique doesn't have to be the premise of a deduction that concludes, this then is what needs to be done. It should be an instrument of those who fight, who resist and refuse what is...

the pillory was abolished in France in 1789 and in England in 1837.

I would love to see the Church on the right side of history.

Some of the "New Women" writers will someday start an idea that men and women should be allowed to see each other asleep before proposing or accepting.

Sprawling over 435 acres, San Quentin was a contained city of the dammed, complete with its own zip code. According to anyone who'd been there, that was Hell, California 94964.

and reduce the influence of political action committees.

Actually, maybe the problem is not us. Maybe the problem is Christianity. Maybe the product doesn't perform according to its advertising. Maybe there's something wrong with the religion itself, at least in its current form.

have no hope for the church reforming or renewing. My only hope is that it collapses and dies soon, before it does too much more harm, so something new can be resurrected." Others had hope for renewal but talked in terms of centuries, not years or even decades. Latter-Day Saints, Adventists, Unitarians, and many others have reached out to me about their similar spiritual frustrations in their unique contexts.