Words of Wisdom

"When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall - think of it, ALWAYS."
Gandhi

"A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves."
Edward R. Murrow

"Manifest Destiny"
By D. H. Ingham
The Public 9 (April 7, 1906).

"Benevolent assimilation"
Is still at its grewsome task;
Not once in its manifold efforts
Has fallen the pious mask.

Not even when torture of natives
Was woven into a jest,
Nor at capture of Aguinaldo
Through cunning ruse of a guest.

Each act was extolled in its season,
In a series of similar crimes
On our history's page recorded,
Of these most prosperous times.

Meanwhile we are gazing at Russia,
Aghast at her frightful scenes,
The blackest of which can but rival
Our own in the Philippines.

Where "benevolent assimilation"
With Machiavellian wiles
Still remembers the first "plain duty"
We owe to our stollen isles.

Where, under a "strenuous" ruler,
But lately, for duty's sake,
Six hundred more natives were lying
Like grass in the mowers wake;

With their women and children mingled,
Crushed into the common grave,
Close clinging to husbands and fathers,
Out of the question to save.

And the wholesale feat was accomplished
At only a trifling cost;
Of our brave American soldiers
Only seventeen were lost.

The cheap-won, blood-dyed laurels
Belong to General Wood;
And our worshipful spoil-appraisers
Still call his handiwork good.

We boast of our peace-loving rulers,
And gains of one-sided war;
Our long-sighted national conscience,
Spying but evils afar.

We are used to the trick of glamor,
To the windings of disguise,
To the steering of wily pilots
Through a mist of goodly lies.

Ingham, D. H. "'Manifest Destiny.'" The Public 9 (April 7, 1906). http://www.boondocksnet.com/ai/ailtexts/mm_ingham.html
In Jim Zwick, ed., Anti-Imperialism in the United States, 1898-1935. http://www.boondocksnet.com/ai/ (Oct. 17, 2006).

Questions and Comments may be sent to Carole Kennedy.

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