Andy Burkhardt sent me this picture of him next to a Eugene V. Debs statue a while back, and it's about time that I finally got around to including here on the blog. I'm posting it because it celebrates my friendship with Andy, who I'm going to see this coming Friday when a group of us are driving up to a Montreal Alouettes game to meet Andy and Heidi as they drive east from Ann Arbor to spend a week with us. I'm also posting it for the same reason why Andy sent it to me in the first place: my complete man-crush on Eugene V. Debs. My home state of Indiana is essentially an intellectual and cultural wasteland with the exception of Debs, Theodore Dreiser, Booth Tarkington and Kurt Vonnegut. Lincoln lived in Indiana for a short amount of time, but I don't think we can claim him. I might throw in John Dillinger, mainly because he said that if he knew it was his last day on earth he'd take his Dad to a baseball game (and it's difficult not to love that).
Words of wisdom from Brother Debs:
"Private appropriation of the Earth's surface, the natural resources, and the means of life is nothing less a crime than a crime against humanity, but the comparative few who are beneficiaries of this iniquitous social arrangement, far from being viewed as criminals meriting punishment, are the exalted rulers of society, and the people they exploit gladly render them homage and obeisance."
"Every solitary one of these aristocratic conspirators and would-be murderers claims to be an arch-patriot; every one of them insists that the war is being waged to make the world safe for democracy. What humbug! What rot! What false pretense! These autocrats, these tyrants, these red-handed robbers and murderers, the 'patriots,' while the men who have the courage to stand face to face with them, speak the truth, and fight for their exploited victims - they are the disloyalists and traitors. If this be true, I want to take my place side by side with the traitors in this fight."
"The tell us that we live in a great free republic; that our institutions are democratic; that we are a free and self-governing people. That is too much, even for a joke. . . Wars throughout history have been waged for conquest and plunder . . . And that is war in a nutshell. The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles."
"As a rule, large capitalists are Republicans and small capitalists are Democrats, but workingmen must remember that they are all capitalists, and that the many small ones, like the fewer large ones, are all politically supporting their class interests, and this is always and everywhere the capitalist class."
Debs said all of this more than a century ago, and it's distressing and sobering to consider that his words are even more true today.
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| This reminds me of when I drove to Debs's house, now a museum, but arrived to late to get in. Eventually I'll make it back for a pilgrimage. |
Words of wisdom from Brother Debs:
"Private appropriation of the Earth's surface, the natural resources, and the means of life is nothing less a crime than a crime against humanity, but the comparative few who are beneficiaries of this iniquitous social arrangement, far from being viewed as criminals meriting punishment, are the exalted rulers of society, and the people they exploit gladly render them homage and obeisance."
"Every solitary one of these aristocratic conspirators and would-be murderers claims to be an arch-patriot; every one of them insists that the war is being waged to make the world safe for democracy. What humbug! What rot! What false pretense! These autocrats, these tyrants, these red-handed robbers and murderers, the 'patriots,' while the men who have the courage to stand face to face with them, speak the truth, and fight for their exploited victims - they are the disloyalists and traitors. If this be true, I want to take my place side by side with the traitors in this fight."
"The tell us that we live in a great free republic; that our institutions are democratic; that we are a free and self-governing people. That is too much, even for a joke. . . Wars throughout history have been waged for conquest and plunder . . . And that is war in a nutshell. The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles."
"As a rule, large capitalists are Republicans and small capitalists are Democrats, but workingmen must remember that they are all capitalists, and that the many small ones, like the fewer large ones, are all politically supporting their class interests, and this is always and everywhere the capitalist class."
Debs said all of this more than a century ago, and it's distressing and sobering to consider that his words are even more true today.
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