Samuel Clemens should be hung!
October 19th, 2008 by park
Well, that’s what they say in this day and age. I had forgotten who said this, until I read an issue of Spider Man. Yep, Spider Man. And it comes from Captain America himself. You see, in the Marvel comics they’ve been fighting a war among themselves over the government’s decision to take away a masked hero’s right to privacy. Whoever they are, they must come under the sway of the government. Well, Iron Man (who no one knows is Tony Stark) says they should all signup and follow along. Captain America (who EVERYONE knows is Private Steve Rogers) decides it goes against what is right.
So Captain America defies his government. I was blown away by that, only because he never put down the shield and uniform. He never stopped being Captain America. I mean, I can believe he’d defy a government…heck he’s done that before. But he removed his uniform, stopped being “Captain America”. Not this time though. And the whole event has had me wondering “why?”. Better yet, HOW.
Then I read Amazing Spider Man #537.
Pete says: C’mon granpa Steve. Tell us a story. When the whole country is against you…when it’s all bearing down on you like some kind of ten-ton weight, and you don’t know your own heart anymore sometimes…how does someone like YOU deal with it? I mean, you practically ARE the country.
How does the man who is the country react when the country goes a different way?
You know what he said?
Cap turns away and says, “I remember the first time I really understood what it was to be an American…What it was to be a patriot.”
“I was just a kid…A million years ago, it seems sometimes. Maybe twelve. I was reading Mark Twain.
And he wrote something that struck me right down to my core…something so powerful, so true, that it changed my life. I memorized it so I could repeat it to myself, over and over across the years.
He wrote –
‘In a republic, who is the country?
Is it the government which is for the moment in the saddle? Why, the government is merely a temporary servant: it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn’t. It’s function is to obey orders, not originate them.
Who, then is the country? Is it the newspaper? Is it the pulpit? Why, these are mere parts of the country, not the whole of it, they have not command, they have only their little share in the command.
In a monarchy, the king and his family are the country: In a republic it is the common voice of the people each of you, for himself, by himself and on his own responsibility, must speak.
It is a solemn and weighty responsibility, and not lightly to be flung aside at the bullying of pulpit, press, government, or the empty catchphrases of politicians.
Each must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, and which course is patriotic and which isn’t. You cannot shirk this and be a man.
To decide it against your convictions is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may.
If you alone of all the nation shall decide one way, and that way be the right way according to your convictions of the right, you have your duty by yourself and by your country. Hold up your head. You have nothing to be ashamed of’.”
Cap continues, “Doesn’t matter what the press says. Doesn’t matter what the politicians or the mobs say. Doesn’t matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right.
This nation was founded on one principle above all else: The requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences.
When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree besides the river of truth, and tell the whole world–
–No you move.”
Read it. Seriously. That one scene is frickin incredible. And this is what proves that comics are more than funny pictures. It shows the depths these writers look to when writing this stuff. Anyway, for those of you who want to read Samuel Clemens’ original quote in its entirety, it goes like:
Papers of the Adams Family
* Against our traditions we are now entering upon an unjust and trivial war, a war against a helpless people, and for a base object — robbery. At first our citizens spoke out against this thing, by an impulse natural to their training. Today they have turned, and their voice is the other way. What caused the change? Merely a politician’s trick — a high-sounding phrase, a blood-stirring phrase which turned their uncritical heads: Our Country, right or wrong! An empty phrase, a silly phrase. It was shouted by every newspaper, it was thundered from the pulpit, the Superintendent of Public Instruction placarded it in every schoolhouse in the land, the War Department inscribed it upon the flag. And every man who failed to shout it or who was silent, was proclaimed a traitor — none but those others were patriots. To be a patriot, one had to say, and keep on saying, “Our Country, right or wrong,” and urge on the little war. Have you not perceived that that phrase is an insult to the nation?
For in a republic, who is “the Country”? Is it the Government which is for the moment in the saddle? Why, the Government is merely a servant — merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn’t. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them. Who, then, is “the country?” Is it the newspaper? Is it the pulpit? Is it the school-superintendent? Why, these are mere parts of the country, not the whole of it; they have not command, they have only their little share in the command. They are but one in the thousand; it is in the thousand that command is lodged; they must determine what is right and what is wrong; they must decide who is a patriot and who isn’t.* In a monarchy, the king and his family are the country; in a republic it is the common voice of the people. Each of you, for himself, by himself and on his own responsibility, must speak. And it is a solemn and weighty responsibility, and not lightly to be flung aside at the bullying of pulpit, press, government, or the empty catch-phrases of politicians. Each must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, and which course is patriotic and which isn’t. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide it against your convictions is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may. If you alone of all the nation shall decide one way, and that way be the right way according to your convictions of the right, you have done your duty by yourself and by your country — hold up your head! You have nothing to be ashamed of.
Only when a republic’s life is in danger should a man uphold his government when it is in the wrong. There is no other time.
This Republic’s life is not in peril. The nation has sold its honor for a phrase. It has swung itself loose from its safe anchorage and is drifting, its helm is in pirate hands.
It’s important. We’re not Democrats, or Republicans or Libertarians. We’re a country. WE the people. And I think we’ve completely lost sight of that fact. And I hope we someday find our way back before it’s too late.