These are the gentry who are today wrapped up in the American flag, who shout their claim from the housetops that they are the only patriots, and who have their magnifying glasses in hand, scanning the country for evidence of disloyalty, eager to apply the brand of treason to the men who dare to even whisper their opposition [. . .]. No wonder Sam Johnson declared that “patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.” He must have had this Wall Street gentry in mind, or at least their prototypes, for in every age it has been the tyrant, the oppressor and the exploiter who has wrapped himself in the cloak of patriotism, or religion, or both to deceive and overawe the people.
You need at this time especially to know that you are fit for something better than slavery and cannon fodder. You need to know that you were not created to work and produce and impoverish yourself to enrich an idle exploiter. You need to know that you have a mind to improve, a soul to develop, and a manhood to sustain.
Eugene V. Debs, five-time Socialist Party Candidate, in his Canton, Ohio anti-war speech. The war in question was World War I and, under the Sedition Act, he was prosecuted and sentenced to 10 years in prison for interfering with the draft. Thankfully, his sentence was commuted by Warren G. Harding and he was released after two years and eight months. For giving a speech. In America. Fortunately, things were never quite this bad during the Bush years, although it should be pointed out that two American citizens were subjected to Bush’s extra-judicial war on terror techniques: Jose Padilla was in military custody for three-and-a-half years without charges, and while in military custody he was “[. . .] held in solitary confinement without a mattress, clock, books, human contact or legal representation [. . .],” and tortured; Yaser Hamdi, who was born in the US but raised in Saudi Arabia, was detained for almost three years without receiving any charges and, in order to avoid an “[. . .] embarrassing courtroom showdown [. . .],” released by the Bush Administration to Saudi Arabia on the condition that he renounce his US citizenship.
Hundreds of non-US citizens have received the same and worse.
Amanuensis –noun. A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.
