Goodness, tough to get into my own blog, complete with a long list of same name with other suffix... and very cheap price, I must say. I am not very clever at naming it seems. Not very at writing also, but I was listening to the PBS show "The Italians" and heard about this wonderful man who spoke at a strike in a spinning mill -- always makes me think of Grandma C. This was one finally led by a fascinating Italian. Here is his speech... he was a very clever writer and speaker... and adapter. I have yet to find out how much of this is simply a sort of description of Giovanniutti and how much his actual words. I do know that the 'Blessed are..." lines are all his adaption for the strikers. I rather wish someone could write something like this, break into Congress... that poor old empty room -- and deliver it......or perhaps even if someone would go to Congress and actually SING John Lennon's 'Imagine" so that Cruz and all the other might really see what it means. No, they are too ignorant to understand it... and too wrapped up in theirselves...

As everyone knows, I do NOT believe in ANY GOD, but this is beautiful:

The Sermon on the Common
By Arturo Giovannitti
THEN it came to pass that the people, having heard that he had come, assembled on the Common to listen unto his words.
And they came from all the parts of the earth, the Syrians and the Armenians, the Thracians and the Tartars, the Jews, the Greeks and the Romans, the Iberians and the Gauls and the Angles and Huns and the Hibernians and Scythians, even from the deserts of sands to the deserts of ice, they came to listen unto his words.
And he, seeing the multitudes, opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,
Blessed are the strong in freedom’s spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of the earth.
Blessed are they that mourn their martyred dead: for they shall avenge them upon their murderers and be comforted.
Blessed are the rebels: for they shall reconquer the earth.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after equality: for they shall eat the fruit of their labor.
Blessed are the strong: for they shall not taste the bitterness of pity.
Blessed are the sincere in heart: for they shall see truth.
Blessed are they that do battle against wrong: for they shall be called the children of Liberty.
Blessed are they which are persecuted for equality’s sake: for theirs is the glory of the brotherhood of man.
Blessed are ye when the scribes of the press shall revile you, and the doctors of the law, politicians, policemen, judges and priests shall call you criminals, thieves and murderers and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for the sake of Justice.
Rejoice, then, and be exceedingly glad; for so they persecuted, reviled, cursed, chained, jailed, poisoned, hanged, crucified, burned, beheaded and shot all the seers, the apostles and the warriors of humanity that were before you, for the sake of freedom.
Ye are the power of the earth, the foundations of society, the thinkers and the doers of all things good and all things fair and useful, the makers and dispensers of all the bounties and the joys and the happiness of the world, and if ye fold your mighty arms, all the life of the world stands still and death hovers on the darkened abodes of man.
Ye are the light of the world. There was darkness in all the ages when the torch of your will did not blaze forth, and the past and the future are full of the radiance that cometh from your eyes.
Ye are eternal, even as your father, labor, is eternal, and no power of time and dissolution can prevail against you.
Ages have come and gone, kingdoms and powers and dynasties have risen and fallen, old glories and ancient wisdoms have been turned into dust, heroes and sages have been forgotten and many a mighty and fearsome god has been hurled into the lightless chasms of oblivion.
But ye, Plebs, Populace, People, Rabble, Mob, Proletariat, live and abide forever.
# # *
Think not that I am come to destroy the law: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil through you what the prophets of mankind have presaged from the beginning.
For verily I say unto you, While man lives and labors, nothing can destroy the eternal law of progress which after each advancing step bids him further.
Therefore, say not unto yourselves, even as the priests and scribes and doctors of the law and fools and hypocrites say, This is the goal which was destined unto us and no further shall we go.
For even if there be before you the uplifted arms of terror and the smoking altars of murder enshrined in a gaunt temple of gibbets and fierce with shrieks of curses, ye must pass beyond.
For your feet are like the unrolling of the endless scrolls of time, not even night and silence and death can stop their march forward and upward, ever to a farther and loftier goal.
And, lo, ye shall never arrive because never shall ye cease going.
Whosoever, therefore, shall break one jot or one tittle of this law shall be called the least in the kingdom of man, but whosoever shall do and teach it, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of man.
Ye have heard that it was said by them of all times who toil not but do live of your toil, Thou shalt not rebel against thy master.
But I say unto you that whosoever soweth the seeds of patience the same shall reap the harvest of shame.
They said unto you, Question not the right of your masters to reign over you and command you. They shall have your sweat and your tears, aye, and even your blood and your life, and ye shall serve them in reverence and awe, for their power upon you is of God.
And again they said unto you, Give your masters the labor of your hands and the worship of your hearts, give them the fruits of your orchards, the grains of your fields, the flowers of your gardens and all things made by the labor of your hands and by the thought of your brain, and withhold not aught from your masters, lest your masters law and the curse of your masters God be upon you.
And again they said unto you, Bend your knees and worship your chains, kiss the whip that lashes you, bless the heel that crushes you, revere the yoke that weighs upon your neck, bury your forehead in the dirt whence ye came and whither ye shall return.
Do not cry, do not complain do not grumble, do not think, do not hope, Be humble, resigned, patient, submissive, lowly and prone even as a beast of burden, lest ye have the gaol in this life and gehenna in the life to come.
And again they said unto you, Resist not evil, for all spirit of disobedience and unsubmission issueth from the enemy of peace. Therefore if your masters, or your masters servants smite you on the right cheek, turn unto them the other also, and if they take away from you the heritage of your fathers, give unto them also the birthright of your children.
All this and more than this they said unto you before I came, but now that I am come, a new evangel shall be proclaimed unto you, that your souls may be renovated and purified in the fire of the new salvation which is not peace but war.
Therefore I say unto you, Banish fear from your hearts, dispel the mists of ignorance from your minds, arm your yearning with your strength, your vision with your will, and open your eyes and behold.
Do not moan, do not submit, do not kneel, do not pray, do not wait.
Think, dare, do, rebel, fight ARISE!
It is not true that ye are condemned to serve and suffer in shame forever;
It is not true that injustice, iniquity, hunger, misery, abjection, depravity, hatred, theft, murder and fratricide are eternal;
There is no destiny that the will of man cannot break;
There are no chains of iron that other iron cannot destroy;
There is nothing that the power of your arms, lighted by the power of your mind, cannot transform and reconstruct and remake.
Arise, then, ye men of the plough and the hammer, the helm and the lever, and send forth to the four winds of the earth your new proclamation of freedom which shall be the last and shall abide forevermore.
Through you, through your united, almighty strength, order shall become equity, law shall become liberty, duty shall become love and religion shall become truth.
Through you the man-beast shall die and the man be born;
Through you the dark, bloody chronicles of the brute shall cease and the story of man shall begin.
Through you, by the power of your brain and hand,
All the predictions of the prophets,
All the wisdom of the sages,
All the dreams of the poets,
All the hopes of the heroes,
All the visions of the martyrs,
All the prayers of the saints,
All the crushed, tortured, strangled, maimed and murdered ideals of the ages, and all the glorious destinies of mankind shall become a triumphant and everlasting reality in the name of labor and bread and love, the great threefold truth forever.
And lo and behold, my brothers, this shall be called the revolution.
* * *
Thus spake the man to the assembled multitude that had come from all the lands, over all the waters of the earth, and they listened unto him and received his words, and the dawn began to rise in their hearts, and they praised the announcer with the cheers of their mouths and they blessed him with the tears of their eyes.
But when the multitude dispersed to return to their labors and to their strifes, the dark figures that make darker the shadows of the night held council against the truth-bearer for the words that he had spoken.
And the scribe said, Verily, he is a law-breaker.
And the money changer said, Aye, and he is a fool.
And the judge said, He is a wrongdoer.
And the sage said, He is possessed of a devil.
And the chronicler said, He is a primitive sinner.
And the wise man said, He is a profligate.
And the priest said, He is a blasphemer.
And they all croaked in chorus, He is an enemy of society, of civilization, of religion and mankind. Law and order must be upheld and our sacred institutions must be preserved. We must do away with him.
And they did away with him. But nobody knows to this day whether they sent him to prison or to Parliament.