hydrarchist writes: This from the lovely Counterpunch.
"On
the Bicentennial of the Execution of Robert Emmet"
By Peter Linebaugh
Robert Emmet was executed two hundred years ago
this day. "Behold, the head of a traitor!" the hangman
held up his severed head dripping with blood onto the cobblestones
of Thomas Street for the dogs to lap up. On the anniversary of
this ignominy let's pause to consider the project for which he
died.
His is an example of revolutionary sacrifice
to be compared to the self-stabbing of Kwong Hae Lee last week
on top of the fence separating the people from the U.S. and European
planners of capitalism at the Cancun meeting of the WTO.
"I have but one request to ask at
my departure from this world; it is--THE CHARITY OF ITS SILENCE.
Let no man write my epitaph; for as no man who knows my motives
dare now vindicate them, let not prejudice or ignorance asperse
them. Let them and me rest in obscurity and peace, and my name
remain uninscribed, until other times and other men can do justice
to my character. When my country takes her place among the nations
of the earth, then, and not till then, let my epitaph be written."
