A little more on Berkman via Emma Goldman,
"Sasha had never made bombs before, but Most's `Science of Revolutionary Warfare' was a good textbook. He would procure dynamite from a comrade he knew on Staten Island. He had waited for this sublime moment to serve the Cause, to give his life for the people. He would go to Pittsburgh."A perfect modern-day homicide-bomber Berkman could be. Not a murderer, but an idealist... aren't they all?
"`We will go with you!' Fedya and I cried together. But Sasha would not listen to it. He insisted that it was unnecessary and criminal to waste three lives on one man."
"We sat down, Sasha between us, holding our hands. In a quiet and even tone he began to unfold to us his plan. He would perfect a time regulator for the bomb that would enable hom to kill Frick, yet save himself. Not because he wanted to escape, No; he wanted to live long enough to justify his act in court, so that the American people might know that he was not a criminal, but an idealist."
"`I will kill Frick,' Sasha said, `and of course I shall be condemned to death. I will die proudly in the assurance that I gave my life for the people. But I will die by my own hand, like Lingg. Never will I permit our enemies to kill me.'"
5 comments:
A basic tenet of UUism is that one of use celebrating or admiring somone doesn't mean we all do.
So, no, I don't think one person having an opinion like that means "we" have crossed any sort of line.
CC
When I take out a twenty dollar bill, I look at a man who created the Trail of Tears, killing thousands. (If Reagan's gotta be on a bill, let it be the twenty. Taking Grant off the fifty would be an obscenity.)
Killing is wrong, period, even in clear and unambiguous self-defense. Yet people still kill in self-defense, and the legal system still (sometimes) lets them go.
I'm still working through how I can support non-violence as a method for social change and still be willing to urge my daughter to join the armed forces if that's the path she takes.
What I do know, and what I have known for years, is that clean hands in a dirty world is the sign of a disengaged, irresponsible invididual. Berkman did not have clean hands. Neither did Frick.
I'm not going to condemn Berkman, or the original poster.
Make your own judgement.
Life may well all be about doing "wrong things" JA. What gives you a pass on making judgements? (Which I think you did, except you're fooling yourself otherwise.)
The post you link to seems to be about May Day. I don't understand how you think the post celebrates Berkman. It has a picture of Berkman speaking at a May Day rally. But the post is 99% about May Day. It doesn't even mention Berkman except for the picture.
...a whole lot of other choices for a May Day picture besides Berkman.
On a related note, my posts on a local Chicago Area Progressives group who used to have a picture of Sam Fielding in the midst of the hay market bomb going off...they changed to a pic of MLK for a while followed by flowers.
Pics make a difference. They got embarrassed by theirs.
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