Another hero of the Socialist Party, championed by Vonnegut, is Powers Hapgood. He was an American Trade Union organizer who was famous for all manner of derrings-do on the side of worker rights and civil liberties. He was imprisoned several times for his protests, in fact, Vonnegut's novel Jailbird pays homage to him.
Hapgood came from a distinguished family and was a Harvard graduate. However, after graduation he opted for manual labor in the coal mines, and found his place fighting to make life better for the working man. Later in his life, he led protesters at the execution of the anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti in Massachusetts in 1927 and after some trouble at the picket line, had to testify in court about what he'd witnessed there. After his testimony, the Judge asked him why, with all his social and educational advantages, would he choose to live this way? Powers delivered one of my favorite responses. Its my favorite largely because of the way the conservative media is trying to paint Socialism in America today.
Powers replied, "Why, because of the sermon on the mount, sir."
I think most, if not all, of the Christians I know and love would agree that the ideas of Jesus are more in line with the ideas of Karl Marx than of Joel Osteen.
PS. If you find that you have had a comment deleted, please do not be offended. I had to delete a few for reasons I won't go into publicly but would be more than happy to tell you in private. I promise I won't ever delete your comment for any trivial reason. Thanks for understanding.
thank you
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