<div> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">Wojtek wrote: >I object to something totally different, namely intellectuals trying >to turn prisoners into martyrs >and folk heroes.  They really irk me, because I see it as an act of >passive aggression and uppity snobbery. </blockquote></div> Woj looks at himself as the great fighter of leftist cliche.  In place of the great hero in the mountains or the hero in the jailhouse he substitutes his own brave attack on the psychological foibles of the left.  Oh, well.  I guess he is attacking someone like me.  If every senator, congressmen, and CEO, along with all of the high councils of the great corporate boards were thrown into prison and in their place were put a random selection of prisoners, the world would probably be a better place....  So, yes, prisoners are martyrs in my mind because we construct prisons in this country as violent hot houses and torture chambers where rape, beatings, and degradation is a matter of course.  As my friends from Norway used to tell me, in their twinkly, slightly anti-American way, they substitute "America" for "Turkey" in all of their prison jokes.  By the way their are some prisoners who should be folk heroes, Eugene Debs for instance, or the group of anarchists who were to sent to 10 years in jail of opposing World War I (see Richard Polenberg, Fighting Faiths: The Abrams Case, the Supreme Court, and Free Speech).  Also, every poor black guy who was put on to the chain gang for crossing the street the wrong way or getting a little too drunk on Saturday night.   I don't mind searching in the past and finding a few of those guys to make folk heroes.  Certainly they are better folk heroes than most that got shoved down my throat in school.  How about Huddie William Ledbetter in a Louisiana prison for attempted homicide.  Leadbelly has been my folk hero since I was about 14.   I'll throw in Billy Holiday, too while I'm at it.  And it maybe hard for Woj to swallow because it conforms to your view of leftists - there were also plenty of worthy prisoners in Attica, during the time of the Great Turkey shoot.  I think I like Johhny Cash's view of the guys in prison better than Woj's.  Yes, there is a lot silly things said on this list about yuppies, professionals, etc.  But they are the people who are managing the world, and are heavily invested in this Republic of Hypocrisy.  Lawyers for corporate law firms have stolen more with their brief cases than all of the criminals in prison put together and they have probably perpetuated more violence, also.  In my knowledge, the policies of bankers have aided in the destruction and slaughter of thousands of peasants in Central America.  Personally, if we need heroes at all, I would rather have my son or daughter make a folk hero out of a prisoner than out of an investment banker....  Unlike Woj I usually save my anger for the powerful rather than those heroes who like to kick the weak. Jerry