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Our Founding Fathers Well Understood That Concentrated Power Is The Enemy Of Liberty And The Rights Of Man. They Knew That The American Experiment In Individual Liberty, Free Enterprise And Republican Self-government Could Succeed Only If Power Were Widely Distributed. And Since In Any Society Social And Political Power Flow From Economic Power, They Saw That Wealth And Property Would Have To Be Widely Distributed Among The People Of The Country. The Truth Of This Insight Is Immediately Apparent.

-Ronald Reagan

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Our Founding Fathers Well

Ronald Reagan

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Our Founding Fathers Well Understood That Concentrated Power Is The Enemy Of Liberty And The Rights Of Man. They Knew That The American Experiment In Individual Liberty, Free Enterprise And Republican Self-government Could Succeed Only If Power Were Widely Distributed. And Since In Any Society Social And Political Power Flow From Economic Power, They Saw That Wealth And Property Would Have To Be Widely Distributed Among The People Of The Country. The Truth Of This Insight Is Immediately Apparent.

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I Saw Them; There Is Nothing Beautiful About Them, Just That They Are A Little Higher Than The Others. Referring To One Of The Oldest And Loveliest Groves Of Redwoods, Showing Insensitivity To Their Magnificence.

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If We Get The Federal Government Out Of The Classroom, Maybe We'll Get God Back In.

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Sometimes When I'm Faced With An Atheist, I Am Tempted To Invite Him To The Greatest Gourmet Dinner That One Could Ever Serve, And When We Have Finished Eating That Magnificent Dinner, To Ask Him If He Believes There's A Cook.

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Our Natural, Inalienable Rights Are Now Considered To Be A Dispensation From Government, And Freedom Has Never Been So Fragile, So Close To Slipping From Our Grasp As It Is At This Moment.

Directly Down The Lawn And Accross The Ellipse From The White House Are Those Ordered, Classic Lines Of The Jefferson Memorial And The Eyes Of The 19-foot Statue That Gaze Directly Into The White House, A Reminder To Any Of Us Who Might Occupy That Mansion Of The Quality Of Mind And Generosity Of Heart That Once Abided There And Has Been So Rarely Seen There Again.

If The Federal Government Had Been Around When The Creator Was Putting His Hand To This State, Indiana Wouldn't Be Here. It'd Still Be Waiting For An Environmental Impact Statement.

For The Sake Of Peace And Justice, Let Us Move Toward A World In Which All People Are At Last Free To Determine Their Own Destiny.

Our Moral Imperative Is To Work With All Our Powers For That Day When The Children Of The World Grow Up Without The Fear Of Nuclear War.

When I've Heard All I Need To Make A Decision, I Don't Take A Vote. I Make A Decision.

By Working Together, Pooling Our Resources And Building On Our Strengths, We Can Accomplish Great Things.

Working Together

There Are No Constraints On The Human Mind, No Walls Around The Human Spirit, No Barriers To Our Progress Except Those We Ourselves Erect.

Greatest Gift Is Human Life And That We Have A Duty To Protect The Life Of An Unborn Child.

Outside Of Its Legitimate Function, Government Does Nothing As Well Or Economically As The Private Sector.

My Doctors Told Me This Morning My Blood Pressure Is Down So Low That I Can Start Reading The Newspapers.

There Is A Limit To What You Can Do In Politics.

At The Root Of Everything That We’re Trying To Accomplish Is The Belief That America Has A Mission. We Are A Nation Of Freedom, Living Under God, Believing All Citizens Must Have The Opportunity To Grow, Create Wealth, And Build A Better Life For Those Who Follow. If We Live Up To Those Moral Values, We Can Keep The American Dream Alive For Our Children And Our Grandchildren, And America Will Remain Mankind’s Best Hope.

Meaningful Work, Not Welfare, Is Every American's Hope, And We Have A Continuing Responsibility To Make Those Hopes A Lasting Reality.

There Were So Many Candidates On The Platform That There Were Not Enough Promises To Go Around.

If Some Among You Fear Taking A Stand Because You Are Afraid Of Reprisals From Customers, Clients, Or Even Government, Recognize That You Are Just Feeding The Crocodile Hoping He'll Eat You Last.

When You See All That Rhetorical Smoke Billowing Up From The Democrats, Well Ladies And Gentleman, I'd Follow The Example Of Their Nominee; Don't Inhale.

My Central Arms Control Objective Has Been To Reduce Substantially And Ultimately To Eliminate Nuclear Weapons And Rid The World Of The Nuclear Threat. The Prevention Of The Spread Of Nuclear Explosives Is To Additional Countries Is An Indispensable Part Of Our Efforts To Meet This Objective. I Intend To Continue My Pursuit Of This Goal With Untiring Determination And A Profound Sense Of Personal Commitment.

Where Free Unions And Collective Bargaining Are Forbidden, Freedom Is Lost.

Peace Is More Than Just An Absence Of War. True Peace Is Justice, True Peace Is Freedom, And True Peace Dictates The Recognition Of Human Rights.

And There Is The Matter Of Abortion. We Must With Calmness And Resolve Help The Vast Majority Of Our Fellow Americans Understand That The More Than 112 Million Abortions Performed In America In 1980 Amount To A Great Moral Evil, An Assault On The Sacredness Of Human Life.

We Are Forever Indebted To Those Who Have Given Their Lives That We Might Be Free.

To Those Who Cite The First Amendment As Reason For Excluding God From More And More Of Our Institutions And Everyday Life, May I Just Say: The First Amendment Of The Constitution Was Not Written To Protect The People Of This Country From Religious Values; It Was Written To Protect Religious Values From Government Tyranny.

We're In Greater Danger Today Than We Were The Day After Pearl Harbor. Our Military Is Absolutely Incapable Of Defending This Country.

Hope Remains The Highest Reality, The Age-old Power.

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When Cruelty Is Inflicted On Innocent People, It Discredits Whatever Cause.

Everyone Is A Liberal Until They Have Something To Conserve. Then They Become A Conservative.

Unless And Until It Can Be Proven That An Unborn Child Is Not A Living Human Being, Can We Justify Assuming Without Proof That It Isn't? No One Has Yet Offered Such Proof; Indeed, All The Evidence Is To The Contrary.

I've Always Believed That A Lot Of The Trouble In The World Would Disappear If We Were Talking To Each Other Instead Of About Each Other.

Someone Told Me It Was A Round Thing That Gobbles Up Money. I Thought That Was Tip O'neill.

American Politics

We're Approaching The End Of A Bloody Century Plagued By A Terrible Political Invention, Totalitarianism. Optimism Comes Less Easily Today, Not Because Democracy Is Less Vigorous, But Because Democracy's Enemies Have Refined Their Instruments Of Repression.

Throughout Our History Americans Have Put Their Faith In God And No One Can Doubt That We Have Been Blessed For It. The Earliest Settlers Of This Land Came Came In Search Of Religious Freedom. Landing On A Desolate Shoreline, They Established A Spiritual Foundation That Has Served Us Ever Since.

To Paraphrase Winston Churchill, I Did Not Take The Oath I Have Just Taken With The Intention Of Presiding Over The Dissolution Of The World's Strongest Economy.

Welfare's Purpose Should Be To Eliminate, As Far As Possible, The Need For Its Own Existence.

Words Are Even More Feeble On This Memorial Day, For The Sight Before Us Is That Of A Strong And Good Nation That Stands In Silence And Remembers Those Who Were Loved And Who, In Return, Loved Their Countrymen Enough To Die For Them.

The Pursuit Of Science, The Study Of The Great Works, The Value Of Free Inquiry, In Short, The Very Idea Of Living The Life Of The Mind - Yes, These Formative And Abiding Principles Of Higher Education In America Had Their First And Firmest Advocate, And Their Greatest Embodiment, In A Tall, Fair-headed, Friendly Man Who Watched This University Take Form From The Mountainside Where He Lived, The University Whose Founding He Called A Crowning Achievement To Along And Well-spent Life.

I Warned That There Should Be No Place On Earth Where Terrorists Can Rest And Train And Practice Their Deadly Skills. I Meant It. I Said That We Would Act With Others, If Possible, And Alone If Necessary To Ensure That Terrorists Have No Sanctuary Anywhere. Tonight, We Have.

I Don't Think Any Of Us Should Forget That The Security Of America Is Our Highest Responsibility.

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Let Me Make Our Goal In This Program Very Clear: Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, And More Jobs. Our Policy Has Been And Will Continue To Be: What Is Good For The American Worker Is Good For America.

When You Start Talking About Government As 'we' Instead Of 'they,' You Have Been In Office Too Long.

There Can Be No Security Anywhere In The Free World If There Is No Fiscal And Economic Stability Within The United States.

I Know At Times We Feel That Perhaps In Our Prayers We Ask Too Much. Or Possibly We Feel Something Isn't Important Enough To Be Bothering God With It. Maybe We Should Let Him Decide These Things.

The Best Social Reform Program In The World Is A Job.

Indeed, It Is An Indisputable Fact That All The Complex And Horrendous Questions Confronting Us At Home And Worldwide Have Their Answer In That Single Book [the Bible].

No Matter How Big And Powerful Government Gets, And The Many Services It Provides, It Can Never Take The Place Of Volunteers.

The First Amendment Of The Constitution Was Not Written To Protect The People From Religion; That Amendment Was Written To Protect Religion From Government Tyranny. . . But Now We're Told Our Children Have No Right To Pray In School. Nonsense. The Pendulum Has Swung Too Far Toward Intolerance Against Genuine Religious Freedom. It Is Time To Redress The Balance.

No Nation In History Has Ever Survived A Tax Burden That Reached A Third Of Its National Income.

Democracy Is Not A Fragile Flower; Still It Needs Cultivating.

I Have Learned That One Of The Most Important Rules In Politics Is Poise - Which Means Looking Like An Owl After You Have Behaved Like A Jackass.

I'll Be Like Scarlett O'hara-i'll Think About It Tomorrow.

With Our Eyes Fixed On The Future, But Recognizing The Realities Of Today, We Will Achieve Our Destiny To Be As A Shining City On A Hill For All Mankind To See.

The Person Who Agrees With You 80 Percent Of The Time Is A Friend And An Ally - Not A 20 Percent Traitor.

We Have To Realize That This Country In Its Private Sector Has Been Fighting The Most Successful War On Poverty The World Has Seen For The Last 200 Years.

Every New Day Begins With Possibilities.

New Possibilities

You Will Be Competing Against Athletes From Many Nations. But, Most Important, You Are Competing Against Yourself. All We Expect Is For You To Do Your Very Best, To Push Yourself Just One Second Faster, One Notch Higher, One Inch Further.

We Seek A Constitutional Amendment To Permit Voluntary School Prayer. God Should Never Have Been Expelled From America's Classrooms In The First Place.

The Federalist Society Is Changing The Culture Of Our Nation's Law Schools. You Are Returning The Values And Concepts Of Law As Our Founders Understood Them To Scholarly Dialogue, And Through That Dialogue, To Our Legal Institutions.

Ending Inflation Means Freeing All Americans From The Terror Of Runaway Living Costs. ... We Have Every Right To Dream Heroic Dreams. Those Who Say That We Are In A Time When There Are No Heroes Just Don't Know Where To Look. ... Above All, We Must Realize That No Arsenal, Or No Weapon In The Arsenals Of The World, Is So Formidable As The Will And Moral Courage Of Free Men And Women.

You Can Tell Alot About A Fellow's Character By His Way Of Eating Jellybeans.

Money Can't Buy Happiness, But It Will Certainly Get You A Better Class Of Memories.

Over Hundred Years Ago Abraham Lincoln Signed The Homestead Act. There Was Wide Distribution Of Land And They Didn't Confiscate Anyone's Privately Owned Land... We Need An Industrial Homestead Act.

This Democracy Of Ours, Which Sometimes We've Treated So Lightly, Is More Than Ever A Comfortable Cloak, So Let Us Not Tear It Asunder, For No Man Knows, Once It Is Destroyed, Where Or When He Will Find Its Protective Warmth Again.

Although I Held Public Office For A Total Of Sixteen Years, I Also Thought Of Myself As A Citizen-politician, Not A Career One. Every Now And Then When I Was In Government, I Would Remind My Associates That "when We Start Thinking Of Government As 'us' Instead Of 'them,' We've Been Here Too Long." By That I Mean That Elected Officeholders Need To Retain A Certain Skepticism About The Perfectibility Of Government.

Trains Are Not Any More Energy Efficient Than The Average Automobile, With Both Getting About 48 Passenger Miles To The Gallon.

We Don't Lump People By Groups Or Special Interests. And Let Me Add, In The Party Of Lincoln There Is No Room For Intolerance And Not Even A Small Corner For Anti-semitism Or Bigotry Of Any Kind. Many People Are Welcome In Our House, But Not The Bigots.

If It's To Be A Bloodbath, Let It Be Now. Appeasement Is Not The Answer.

Bobby Kennedy Is So Concerned With Poverty Because He Didn't Have Any As A Kid.

Deep Religious Beliefs Stemming From The Old And New Testaments Of The Bible Inspired Many Of The Early Settlers Of Our Country, Providing Them With The Strength, Character, Convictions, And Faith Necessary To Withstand Great Hardship And Danger In This New And Rugged Land. These Shared Beliefs Helped Forge A Sense Of Common Purpose Among The Widely Dispersed Colonies - A Sense Of Community Which Laid The Foundation For The Spirit Of Nationhood That Was To Develop In Later Decades.

'trust-me' Government Asks That We Concentrate Our Hopes And Dreams On One Man, That We Trust Him To Do What's Best For Us. My View Of Government Places Trust Not In One Person Or One Party, But In Those Values That Transcend Persons And Parties.

This Crime Against Humanity Must Never Be Forgotten.

As Long As There Are Guns, The Individual That Wants A Gun For A Crime Is Going To Have One And Going To Get It. The Only Person Who's Going To Be Penalized And Have Difficulty Is The Law-abiding Citizen, Who Then Cannot Have [it] If He Wants Protection -- The Protection Of A Weapon In His Home.

Environmental Extremists ... Wouldn't Let You Build A House Unless It Looked Like A Bird's Nest.

I Believe Now, As I Alway Have, That America's Strength Is In 'we The People.'

In America, Our Origins Matter Less Than Our Destination, And That Is What Democracy Is All About.

There Are Worse Things To Be Called Than A Dreamer.

We Can Meet Our Destiny, And That Destiny To Build A Land Here That Will Be, For All Mankind, A Shining City On A Hill.

For Decades, We Have Piled Deficit Upon Deficit, Mortgaging Our Future And Our Children's Future For The Temporary Convenience Of The Present. To Continue This Long Trend Is To Guarantee Tremendous Social, Cultural, Political, And Economic Upheavals. You And I, As Individuals, Can, By Borrowing, Live Beyond Our Means, But For Only A Limited Period Of Time. Why, Then, Should We Think That Collectively, As A Nation, We Are Not Bound By That Same Limitation?

We Must Be Cautious In Claiming God Is On Our Side. I Think The Real Question We Must Answer Is, Are We On His Side?

Governments Don't Reduce Deficits By Raising Taxes On The People; Governments Reduce Deficits By Controlling Spending And Stimulating New Wealth.

Elena, My Four Year Old, Says To Me In All Seriousness; "mommy, You Need To Buy Another Baby".

Growing And Decaying Vegetation In This Land Are Responsible For 93 Percent Of The Oxides Of Nitrogen.

Only When The Human Spirit Is Allowed To Invent And Create, Only When Individuals Are Given A Personal Stake In Deciding Economic Policies And Benefiting From Their Success - Only Then Can Societies Remain Economically Alive, Dynamic, Prosperous, Progressive And Free.

Well, My Head's Full Of Questions My Temp'rature's Risin' Fast Well, I'm Lookin' For Some Answers But I Don't Know Who To Ask

It's Just Too Bad We Can't Have An Epidemic Of Botulism.

By Emphasizing The Importance Of A Common Language, We Safeguard A Proud Legacy And Help To Ensure That America's Future Will Be As Great As Her Past.

The Bible Tells Us There Will Be A Time For Peace. But, So Far In This Century, Mankind Has Failed To Find It.

Every Honor Is Appropriate For The Courageous Americans Who Made The Supreme Sacrifice For Our Nation At Pearl Harbor And In The Many Battles That Followed In World War Ii. Their Sacrifice Was For A Cause, Not For Conquest; For A World That Would Be Safe For Future Generations. Their Devotion Must Never Be Forgotten.

My Belief Has Always Been... That Wherever In This Land Any Individual's Constitutional Rights Are Being Unjustly Denied, It Is The Obligation Of The Federal Government-at Point Of Bayonet If Necessary-to Restore That Individual's Constitutional Rights

To Many Of Us Now, Computers, Silicon Chips, Data Processing, Cybernetics, And All The Other Innovations Of The Dawning High Technology Age Are As Mystifying As The Workings Of The Combustion Engine Must Have Been When That First Model T Rattled Down Main Street, U.s.a. But As Surely As America's Pioneer Spirit Made Us The Industrial Giant Of The 20th Century, The Same Pioneer Spirit Today Is Opening Up On Another Vast Front Of Opportunity, The Frontier Of High Technology.

We Have Not Inherited An Easy World. If Developments Like The Industrial Revolution, Which Began In England, And The Gifts Of Science And Technology Have Made Life Much Easier For Us, They Have Also Made It More Dangerous. There Are Threats Now To Our Freedom, Indeed To Our Very Existence, That Other Generations Could Never Even Have Imagined. There Is First The Threat Of Global War. No President, No Congress, No Prime Minister, No Parliament Can Spend A Day Entirely Free Of This Threat. If History Teaches Anything, It Teaches Self-delusion In The Face Of Unpleasant Facts Is Folly.

One Picture Is Worth 1,000 Denials.

Government Should Uphold-and Not Undermine-those Institutions Which Are Custodians Of The Very Values Upon Which Civilization Is Founded: Religion, Education And, Above All, Family.

The Problem Is Not That People Are Taxed Too Little, The Problem Is That Government Spends Too Much.

For A Time, We Forgot The American Dream Isn't One Of Making Government Bigger, It's Keeping Faith With The Mighty Spirit Of Free People Under God

For Us To Ignore By Inaction The Slaughter Of American Civilians And American Soldiers, Whether In Nightclubs Or Airline Terminals, Is Simply Not In The American Tradition. Self-defense Is Not Only Our Right, It Is Our Duty.

You And I Know And Do Not Believe That Life Is So Dear And Peace So Sweet As To Be Purchased At The Price Of Chains And Slavery. If Nothing In Life Is Worth Dying For, When Did This Begin-just In The Face Of This Enemy? Or Should Moses Have Told The Children Of Israel To Live In Slavery Under The Pharaohs? Should Christ Have Refused The Cross? Should The Patriots At Concord Bridge Have Thrown Down Their Guns And Refused To Fire The Shot Heard 'round The World? The Martyrs Of History Were Not Fools, And Our Honored Dead Who Gave Their Lives To Stop The Advance Of The Nazis Didn't Die In Vain.

The Despicable North Korean Attack In Rangoon Deprived Us Of Trusted Advisers And Friends. So Many Of Those Who Died Had Won Admirers In America As They Studied With Us Or Guided Us With Their Counsel. I Personally Recall The Wisdom And Composure Of Foreign Minister Lee, With Whom I Met In Washington Just A Few Short Months Ago. To The Families And Countrymen Of All Those Who Were Lost, America Expresses Its Deep Sorrow.

I've Always Believed That We Were, Each Of Us, Put Here For A Reason, That There Is A Plan, Somehow A Divine Plan For All Of Us. I Know Now That Whatever Days Are Left To Me Belong To Him.

For Too Long, Too Many People Dependent On Social Security Have Been Cruelly Frightened By Individuals Seeking Political Gain Through Demagoguery And Outright Falsehood, And This Must Stop.

America's Best Days Are Yet To Come.

Alec Has Forged A Unique Partnership Between State Legislators And Leaders From The Corporate And Business Community. This Partnership Offers Businessmen The Extraordinary Opportunity To Apply Their Talents To Solve America's Problems And Build On Our Opportunities.

Throughout America Today, We Honor The Dead Of Our Wars. We Recall Their Valor And Their Sacrifices. We Remember They Gave Their Lives So That Others Might Live.

If I Thought There Was Some Reason To Be Concerned About Them, I Wouldn't Be Sleeping In This House Tonight. (when Asked About Continued Presence Of Soviet Nuclear Submarines Along Us Coastlines)

We've Gone Astray From First Principles. We've Lost Sight Of The Rule That Individual Freedom And Ingenuity Are At The Very Core Of Everything That We've Accomplished. Government's First Duty Is To Protect The People, Not Run Their Lives.

Perhaps No Custom Reveals Our Character As A Nation So Clearly As Our Celebration Of Thanksgiving Day. Rooted Deeply In Our Judeo-christian Heritage, The Practice Of Offering Thanksgiving Underscores Our Unshakable Belief In God As The Foundation Of Our Nation And Our Firm Reliance Upon Him From Whom All Blessings Flow.

The Same Technology Transforming Our Lives Can Solve The Greatest Problem Of The 20th Century. A Security Shield Can One Day Render Nuclear Weapons Obsolete And Free Mankind From The Prison Of Nuclear Terror. America Met One Historic Challenge And Went To The Moon. Now America Must Meet Another: To Make Our Strategic Defense Real For All The Citizens Of Planet Earth.

The American Dream Is Not That Every Man Must Be Level With Every Other Man. The American Dream Is That Every Man Must Be Free To Become Whatever God Intends He Should Become.

Let Us Be Sure That Those Who Come After Will Say Of Us In Our Time, That In Our Time We Did Everything That Could Be Done. We Finished The Race; We Kept Them Free; We Kept The Faith.

I Thought The Function Of The Government Was To Promote The General Welfare, Not To Provide It.

In The 38th Chapter Of Ezekiel, It Says That The Land Of Israel Will Come Under Attack By The Armies Of The Ungodly Nations, And It Says That Libya Will Be Among Them. Do You Understand The Significance Of That? Libya Has Now Gone Communist, And That's A Sign That The Day Of Armageddon Isn't Far Off.

We Are At War With The Most Dangerous Enemy That Has Ever Faced Mankind In His Long Climb From The Swamp To The Stars, And It Has Been Said If We Lose That War, And In So Doing Lose This Way Of Freedom Of Ours, History Will Record With The Greatest Astonishment That Those Who Had The Most To Lose Did The Least To Prevent Its Happening.

All The Waste In A Year From A Nuclear Power Plant Can Be Stored Under A Desk.

You Can't Be For Big Government, Big Taxes And Big Bureaucracy And Still Be For The Little Guy.

Freedom Is Always Just One Generation Away From Extinction. We Don't Pass It To Our Children In The Bloodstream. We Have To Fight For It And Protect It And Then Hand It To Them, So That They Shall Do The Same, Or We're Going To Find Ourselves Spending Our Sunset Years Telling Our Children And Our Children's Children, About A Time In America, Back In The Day, When Men And Women Were Free.

When The Lives Of The Unborn Are Snuffed Out, They Often Feel Pain, Pain That Is Long And Agonizing.

Those Who Say That We're In A Time When There Are No Heroes, They Just Don't Know Where To Look.

Could There Be Anything Resembling A Free Enterprise Economy, If Wealth And Property Were Concentrated In The Hands Of A Few, While The Great Majority Owned Little More Than The Shirts On Their Backs?

Education Is Not The Means Of Showing People How To Get What They Want. Education Is An Exercise By Means Of Which Enough Men, It Is Hoped, Will Learn To Want What Is Worth Having.

My Fellow Citizens, Our Nation Is Poised For Greatness. We Must Do What We Know Is Right, And Do It With All Our Might. Let History Say Of Us: "these Were Golden Years - When The American Revolution Was Reborn, When Freedom Gained New Life, And America Reached For Her Best."

I Won't Hold My Opponent's Youth And Inexperience Against Him.

We're The Party That Wants To See An America In Which People Can Still Get Rich.

. . . Government Should Do Only Those Things The People Cannot Do For Themselves.

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