I am sure some of your red-baiting friends and allies (Foxman at ADL?) continue to regard me as a "sectarian and dogmatic ultra-left" devotee, but I am a democratic socialist and Christian social justice activist. Have been since I was a teenager. Commie friends, but no card. Democratic centralism always seemed like an oxymoron to me. Surprise. See my article "Abstaining from Bad Sects" objecting to sectarianism at:
http://resistinc.org/newsletter/issues/1999/12/berlet.html
The quote you cite has two errors fixed in later scholarship:
"depreciate" and "roar of its many waters"
That's the nitpicking part. You might want an accurate quote. Perhaps not. I think historical accuracy is important. I argue with editors over ellipses.
The larger issue is the typical argument of the discredited "centrist/extremist" theory of neoconservatives that there is a sharp line detween "legitimate" protest in the heroic romanticized electoral center, and the so-called irrational extremist "lunatic fringe" which sometimes takes to the streets. Debunking this claim is a central feature of the new book I cowrote on "Right-Wing Populism in America."
http://www.publiceye.org/tooclose/more.htm
Douglass disagreed with John Brown, but considered him a friend and ally. Douglass, in the full quote, makes it clear that the struggle he supports may well include confrontation, even violence, perhaps death for those resisting oppression.
This is what you appear to condemn as "revolutionary suicide." My argument is that your use of the Douglass quote to defend your neoconservative politics of genteel discourse among the truly deserving centrist elites is like citing Carl Sagan to defend UFO sightings.
haiku for struggle
democracy rocks noisy protests in the streets frowns high in rich suites
-Chip Berlet
----- Original Message ----- From: Leo Casey <leoecasey at yahoo.com> To: <LBO-TALK at lists.panix.com> Sent: Friday, December 08, 2000 2:18 PM Subject: Re: Frederick Douglass in Context
> > Chip writes:
> > OK, so I am tired of seeing Leo Casy (mis)quote
> > Frederick Douglass...
>
> OK, I'll bite -- exactly what is the great misquote
> here: the use of deprecate instead of depreciate? Or
> is it that my signature takes the highlights, instead
> of going on for two paragraphs?
>
> A much longer time ago, I got tired of sectarian and
> dogmatic ultra-left types who thought that they had
> some sort of a claim on Frederick Douglass, despite
> his rather clear, persistent and sensible pursuit of a
> "left wing of the possible" politics, so I did some
> research on the quote and found it in a Philip Foner
> collection of Douglass' writings. The Foner collection
> agrees with the Blassingame edition in identifying the
> Canandaigua speech, and it has pretty much the same
> text.
>
> And, yes, I am going to keep it. For those who don't
> like that, get some John Brown quote representing your
> politics of "revolutionary suicide" for your own
> signature.
>
> Leo Casey
> United Federation of Teachers
> 260 Park Avenue South
> New York, New York 10010-7272 (212-598-6869)
>
> Power concedes nothing without a demand.
> It never has, and it never will.
> If there is no struggle, there is no progress.
> Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate
> agitation are men who want crops without plowing the
> ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning.
> They want the ocean without the awful roar of its
> waters.
> -- Frederick Douglass --
>
>
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