Yoshie Furuhashi:
> It is not the case that the Left prefers an association with violence
> to non-violence. The Left -- or _any other political force_ for that
> matter -- makes a cause out of *martyrs* (in the case of Leonard
> Peltier & Mumia Abu-Jamal, martyrs of criminal "justice" as well as
> of state repression of radicalism, especially radicalism of people of
> color). Non-violent martyrs have been celebrated as well: Salvador
> Allende, a socialist who died defending constitutional democracy, to
> take just one example.
> ...
Allende was reputed to have died defending his share of State power with a machine gun. Indeed, his chances might have improved had he become a sort of anarchist gun nut, armed the workers, and gone into the streets. But in any case his fame is an example of what I'm talking about, not a counterexample. Latin America is full of such examples -- apparently there are no leftists left in Mexico, that populous sepulcher of revolutions, but Subcomandante Marcos.
It's true if you're a leftie you're not allowed to have dead nonviolent martyrs -- the liberals steal them. There's some building at the north end of Battery Park here in New York which has just been painted with the enormous visages of Gandhi and King. There's nothing a liberal likes better than a dead non-violent radical, and they run off with every one. So we're not allowed to have any.
That leaves the living -- and I guess except for Mr. Peltier and Mr. Abu-Jamal, all the radicals are out of jail? For the moment, anyway?