Where have all the heroes gone?

Years ago I declared that there was only one war in which I would enlist and that was the war of the workers of the world against the exploiters of the world. I declared moreover that the working class had no interest in the wars declared and waged by the ruling classes of the various countries upon one another for conquest and spoils.

With these words, Eugene V. Debs synthesized my feelings toward war. And in saying these words, the five-time presidential candidate got himself thrown in prison for ten years under the premise of the Anti-Sedition Act, which is not very different in content from the current Patriot Act. He was 64 at the time. I long for a politician with half the inspiration and courage of Debs, and for a populace with half the zeal of the Midwest of the 1900s, a place where Appeal to Reason, Debs' publication, had a circulation in the hundreds of thousands. The US used to be a place where reason had a home. That time has long gone.