Monday Morning Quote
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Monday Morning Quotes
Monday Morning Quotes
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Since 1998 I've been sending out these reflections first thing each
week--one or more quotes plus my thoughts about the intersections and
contradictions. They're archived here back to 2002, and a new one is
posted every Monday morning. Dialogue is still welcome . . .
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Quote #1224 - #StillFunctioning
09 Feb, 2026
STILL FUNCTIONING
"American faith in institutions: we imbue institutions with magical qualities--self-repair, independent functioning--so perfectly designed ... If they're allowed to function, they'll always have a perfect result.... (They) function only as well as they're enabled and allowed to function."
Masha Gessen
"It's crucial right now to keep the institutions alive. They're the anchors of any community. No, not the anchors. The harbors. The places people go and know they're safe."
Louise Penny
BURY YOUR DEAD
"When one lives in a society where people can no longer rely on the institutions to tell them the truth, the truth must come from culture and art."
John Trudell
Every time a court pushes back against the looming autocracy,
we celebrate.
But the looming autocracy often
ignores the ruling of the courts.
The question, day by day, becomes
how well are all the institutions
we need, we trust, we rely on
still functioning?
The answer, day by day, becomes
only as well as the looming autocracy
feels and hears and responds
to the pushback against their destruction.
(But even then, the response is sometimes just
in the messaging
and in the media.
Keep looking deeper, harder
for what's really happening.
There are still daily planes of immigrants out of Minneapolis,
not Texas, but Minneapolis, not enforcement, but punishment.)
Of course, the institutions never had a perfect result
(can you say Dred Scott?
Ethel Rosenberg? Leo Frank?
just to name a few)
and yet they are as close as we can get
especially if they aspire to justice,
(even if it's a hypocritical aspiration,
infused as it is with all the prejudice
of the people, the law, and the time).
So we have the institutions.
Can the ones still standing hold?
(The next ones to watch and fight for
are the post office and voting rights,
inextricably intertwined.)
And we have the reporting on the institutions
(can they throw reporters in jail?
they're certainly trying).
And then we have the artists.
We artists can't be stopped because we live and breathe
to speak our truth
to write our truth
to paint, and sing, and dance
what we see,
what we feel,
what we know inside.
And we will always keep trying
to find a way to
reach some kind of audience,
even if it's in a dingy basement.
And for those whose art is the jest?
Our beloved jesters
(can they eliminate the comedians' platforms)?
They dance on the line between reportage and art.
But they may be the most dangerous of all
to the looming autocracy,
because they make people laugh at the king
(the one thing he most cannot stand).
And as the people laugh, they're also learning the truth:
the king has no clothes.
Shellen Lubin
February 9, 2026
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