Working Class Corner/My Speech
by-Russell Scott Day
I was supposed to write a paper years ago for my college History class that I never wrote. The question I was supposed to answer in the paper was whether or not Great Men made History, or the times made Great Men.
For thirty years I’ve been thinking about this question, and trying to answer it.
What is a Great Man, anyway?
Once I was asked what my greatest flaw was. I answered, "Lack of low self esteem."
If I can think well of myself, you sure can, since I know I have some serious flaws, or bad habits. I don’t even want to be perfect anymore.
Great Men are imperfect. In the broadest definition they simply change things whether or not the change is good or bad.
By this definition both Jesus and Hitler were Great Men.
In the McFeely biography of Ulysees S. Grant, he says that if it had not been for the Civil War, Grant would not have been needed. When Lee heard that Grant had been put in charge of the Union Army, he said, "Oh no, that man will not stop."
We have the world we have today because of Linclon and Grant.
When I hear that Blacks want reparations for injustices of the past perpetrated by Whites I think they ought to remember the Army Grant led, and think of digging up Jefferson Davis, and General Lee, and get it out of them.
It is late, they were beaten, they are all dead now.
We are among the living.
Another of my great heroes is William Faulkner because of his book, Absolam Absolam. The great tragedy of life is to live according to incorrect ideals.
Some big ideas are wrong.
If an idea doesn’t help people get along and have peace and harmony and good health, I’m not for it. I don’t care if it comes from a guy who wears a big hat and long robes, or from some guy in a suit wearing glasses.
If it doesn’t help my class, the working class, I really don’t like it.
George W. Bush is a Great Man according to the broad definition of what a Great Man is. He sure has changed things.
He vetoed a healthcare bill this week because he said it would lead to Socialized Medicine. He said that a family that makes 83 thousand dollars a year don’t sound poor to him.
When he came into office they might not have been, but by now, they are.
Mr. Edward’s has been studying poverty.
What causes poverty he asks.
Corruption and war cause poverty.
It is corrupt that working people all over the world are not paid enough to live as well as George Bush.
The day that George Bush lives off his wifes income as a school teacher in Lousianna would be a day that might make him think of something besides war.
The Drug War has been exported to Iraq and is spread around the world in a smugglers paradise.
It has become a world of driveby shootings and defensive bombings by opposing tribes of ideolgical fanatics wedded to bad ideas.
Everyday working people who try to simply go to work and come home to their families with the money to pay for the food they and their families need are beaten and murdered.
Too many are seduced by the words and uniforms of the Religious that say Allah wants you to die for him.
-God will give you heaven if you kill others and yourself.
It really is not about religion or race in a life. Life is about work.
What we as workers need to do is to fight for fair pay and a living wage in full comprehension that we will die as a result of living and working, and that that is okay.
What we need to do is give our girlfriends and wives guns.
What we need to do is make illegial Atomic Bombs and Chemical and Biological Weapons and kill those that won’t take their hands out of the Monkey Jar.
The difference between a Warrior and a Soldier, is that the soldier fights out of fear and the warrior fights out of love.
All wars are over women.
The Civil war in the US was about women.
White men owned all the black women and they owned all the white women, and even if they didn’t they thought they might get to own some.
I’d have a lot of trouble voting for a Mormon.
The Cold War was successful. There was no Atomic War.
The time of the utility of the Atomic Bomb has ended.
It needs to be fought off and made illegial.
The time of the utility of the Drug War, which is nothing but a war on people, needs to be ended. Tobacco is legal for God’s sake. Tobacco is what made the US economically strong more than even cotton.
Separate Drugs from Weapons in the smugglers world and we will be safer.
The world will not be perfect, but we will be safer.
This is not an ideological speech. It is only practical, and I put my soul at the feet of William James.
Love, Russell