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Commentary :: Children & Education

Angles on an Alternative Fourth

Teaching against the grain for liberty: recalling Voltairine de Cleyre
As we celebrate the birthday of our wayward nation, watching some of the few explosives these days that aren't aimed at innocents, a great American voice of freedom is worth recalling this July 4th, Voltairine de Cleyre: "The sin our fathers sinned was that they did not trust liberty wholly. They thought it possible to compromise between liberty and government, believing the latter to be 'a necessary evil,' and the moment the compromise was made, the whole misbegotten monster of our present tyranny began to grow. Instruments which are set up to safeguard rights become the very whip with which the free are struck." Written over a 100 years ago, rings doubly true at this dark juncture, Patriot Act and all the rest. Many reflections on ‘citizenship against the grain’ in a new collection of her writings: www.akpress.org/dosearch.php High school & college classes could be reading some of Voltairine's very provocative analysis and poetry.
 
 

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