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Quote of the Day: Never Yield to Force
“Never give in. Never, never, never, never! Never yield in any way, great or small…Never yield to force and the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.” – Winston Churchill
My grandparents came from Greece. They have a saying there: “It’s better to die on your feet than live on your knees.” It is the way Greeks live. They fought the Turks for nearly 400 years before gaining independence.
Greece also has a holiday called όχι “Oxi” Day. “Oxi” (pronounced AW-chee), means no. It celebrates the day Mussolini told the Greeks to surrender to his Italian empire. The Greeks told him no – and then chased the Italians out of a quarter of Albania. It took the Germans to occupy Greece, when they invaded six months later, but even once occupied the Greeks fought on for four years. They lost more than they won, but they fought on regardless. Winston Churchill might not be Greek by birth, but he certainly is in spirit.
On Thursday, Mr. Biden has delivered a demand just as tyrannical as Mussolini’s Ambassador to Greece did back on October 28, 1940. I find that I may be three generations from my grandparents’ Greek homeland and I have always thought of myself as an American first. But in the last two days, I have discovered I still have the stubborn resistance to tyranny of my Greek ancestors.
To Mr. Biden, his vaccine mandate, his mask mandate, and his testing mandate: όχι! No! Pound sand. I will not submit.
I do not intend to reveal my vaccination status to the government or to my employers at the government’s request. They can do nothing constructive with that information.
Published in General
What an interesting quote. It’s a strange thing for Churchill to say, as he prosecuted a worldwide war in the hope that the Germans, Italians, and Japanese would not follow his advice.
It only appears strange if you don’t know the context in which it was said.
Me, I always yield to force. I have no desire to die in a heroic last stand. 6 guys come at me I will roll in a ball and take the beating. I will survive. Now if fate causes some of those six to get ran over by fork lift or their boats to sink or their house to burn down, or maybe drugs get found on them. While I may take some small joy in that fate is a bitch and occasionally needs some help to happen.
I have no reason to give my statusbto anyone.
Had I done that at age 17 I would be dead, And the guy that did it would have gotten away with it.
In Crete, we pronounced it “Oh shé”
good quote.
Ευχαριστώ
Interesting on the quote. I had learned a slight variation to that, but as I searched it apparently Churchill used both formulations. The variation I learned and at one point in my life memorized is this:
I thought of Oxi Day when I started reading this and – voila, it appeared two paragraphs down. Nice!
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There is an irony in the Italian demand to Greece in Oct0ber 1940. The Metaxas government of Greece that said oxi was a strongly anti-communist, fascist government. Metaxas wanted to keep Greece neutral in a conflict between Britain and the Axis powers. However, it would have been extremely difficult for the successor government to Mexatas (he died in January 1941) to have remained neutral once Hitler attacked the Soviet Union. Like Bulgaria and Romania, Greece would likely have entered the war as an Axis ally at that point.
By forcing a decision on Greece, Italy transformed a likely ally into a running sore in the Axis rear.
Nor do I. They just dissolved my office and listed us all as remote employees. I fail to see how being vaccinated is material to me being able to fulfill my job duties and responsibilities. I also do not believe I am under any obligation to share personal health information with anyone. In fact I am pretty sure there are laws passed by Congress to that effect.