Why this Is a Good Time to Remember Eugene V. Debs
Damn! If this article did not start out with, "In June 1918...", you would think that it was talking about the past 10 years, not almost a century ago. We are really progressing as a society, don't ya think?
It seems that forgetting our mistakes and repeating history is the only thing that our puny species is capable of. No wonder we haven't had any contact from advanced extraterrestrial beings. Who in their right mind would WANT to have contact with us?
In June 1918, as American troops were entering the trenches of France, the socialist leader Eugene V. Debs gave a speech in Ohio declaring that rich men profit from wars, while poor men die in them. “You need to know,” he told his followers, “that you are fit for something better than slavery and cannon fodder.” Federal agents arrested him for violating the 1917 Espionage Act, a law used to jail hundreds of war critics during Woodrow Wilson’s crusade to “make the world safe for democracy.” (Now known as the War on Terror.)
Today, when speech rights are again pressured by the demands of national security, we do well to remember the combination of forces that brought Debs to jail for speaking his mind. When Wilson called for war in April 1917, American public opinion was deeply divided, but the president and his attorney general suggested that war critics were disloyal. Unnerved by government propaganda, many citizens and scores of newspaper editors demonized the protestors, stifling debate at a time when it was desperately needed. Real threats to the national welfare existed, but were wildly exaggerated by politicians who saw partisan advantage in portraying themselves as champions of “100% Americanism.” Some used the public’s fear of radicals to stigmatize immigrants, inspiring a movement to throw up new barriers at our borders. All of this sounds familiar in our own time, as our fears once again threaten to undermine our democratic traditions.
Damn! If this article did not start out with, "In June 1918...", you would think that it was talking about the past 10 years, not almost a century ago. We are really progressing as a society, don't ya think?
It seems that forgetting our mistakes and repeating history is the only thing that our puny species is capable of. No wonder we haven't had any contact from advanced extraterrestrial beings. Who in their right mind would WANT to have contact with us?
