Do you believe in History? The "Story of History" is a concept album which … Read Full Bio ↴Do you believe in History?
The "Story of History" is a concept album which consists of 19 songs (17 songs plus 2 instrumental tracks) dedicated to 18 different characters who despite themselves made History, such as monarchs, great warriors, reformers. 18 ordinary people who ended up playing a crucial role on the stage of History and probably would have rather lived an obscure life on their own than become the marrow bone of what is left of our past.
Ultimately, the question is: what is History?
TRACK LISTING:
1. A King of Sparta - "Can you hear the sound of Liberty?"- dedicated to King Leonidas of Sparta and the Battle of Thermopylae (480 BC)
2. Poison 203 BC - "Rome or Freedom? This question has one answer, my Love: Poison" - dedicated to Carthaginian princess Sophonisba.
Massinissa, King of Numidia, was allied to the Romans when he fell in love with Sophonisba and married her, in 203 BC. She was a celebrated beauty and the wife of the just defeated Syphax.
So, no wonder that Scipio Africanus, the Roman general in the Second Punic War, didn't agree with this arrangement. When he told Massinissa that he wanted to take the Princess to Rome, for her to appear in the trimphal parade, Massinissa had to obey. He went to his wife and offered her a cup of poison: die like a true Carthaginian princess, Sophonisba, since I cannot release you from captivity, nor I cannot shelter you from the Romans!
We don't know what her thoughts were, at that moment. Though we know she drank the poison and... died.
3. Wearing Men's clothing -"Liberty is a capital crime"- dedicated to Jeanne d'Arc (Joan of Arc).
Jeanne wore men's clothing between her departure from Vaucouleurs and her abjuration at Rouen...
Yes, Jeanne is Jeanne d'Arc or Joan of Arc, if you like.
She had been the heroine of her country at 17 and died when only 19 years old: on May 30 1431, in Rouen, she was burnt at the stake.
4. The second Wife - "And she became the Headless Queen"- dedicated to Anne Boleyn (1501/1507–19 May 1536), the second wife of Henry VIII of England and the mother of Elizabeth I of England.
When Lord Kingston let her know that the King had commuted her sentence from burning to beheading and had employed a swordsman from Calais for the execution, rather than having a queen beheaded with the common axe, Anne reportedly said: "He shall not have much trouble, for I have a little neck. I shall be known as La Reine sans tête ("The Headless Queen")!"
5. Hey, Lady Jane Grey - "Hey, Lady Jane Grey/You were a Queen/For just nine days/ You were a Pawn/ In their game."- dedicated to 'The Nine Days Queen'.
Lady Jane Grey, (1536/7 — 12 February 1554), a great-granddaughter of Henry VII of England, reigned as uncrowned Queen Regnant of the Kingdom of England for nine days in July 1553, before having her head cut off when Mary Tudor ascended to the throne and had her executed for treason.
6. Sailing back (1561) - "The distant shore/Is no more/My home sweet home. " - dedicated to Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1587), at the time of her sailing back to Scotland, in 1561.
"Adieu France! Adieu France! Adieu, donc, ma chère France... Je pense ne vous revoir jamais plus".
When her husband François II of France died, Marie Stuart (or, Mary, Queen of Scots) had to leave France and sail back to her motherland... Probably her life would have been different, happier, if she had had the chance to stay. Probably she wouldn't have had her head cut off in 1587 when her cousin Elizabeth I of England finally had her executed.
Mary, the beautiful young lady, the Muse of Ronsard and of the poets of "La Pléiade"...
7. Margot & The Massacre - "She loves Henri/ But not Henri/ Not the husband/ Her mother forced her to marry"- dedicated to Margot de Valois & The Massacre on Saint Bartholomew's Day 1572.
Marguerite de Valois, nicknamed Margot by her brothers, was the daughter of Henry II and Catherine de' Medici. Three of her brothers became kings of France: Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III. Her sister, Elisabeth of Valois, became the third wife of King Philip II of Spain.
And what about Margot?
She loved Henri de Guise but her mother would have never allowed the powerful House of Guise to rule France. And so... she chose another husband for her daughter.
On August 18, 1572, the 19 year old Marguerite married Henri de Bourbon, who had become King of Navarre on the death of his mother, a Huguenot, the future Henry IV of France.
Was this marriage a trap? Who knows. Probably, yes.
Just six days after the wedding, on Saint Bartholomew's Day, a massacre of Huguenots was conducted by Parisian mobs, probably orchestrated by Catherine de' Medici.
"Shut the city gates
Tie the knot.
As for the Huguenots...
Kill them all.
8. The Marriage - "No, Mary doesn't want to get married"- dedicated to Mary Stewart, the future Queen Mary II.
William of Orange married his cousin, Mary Stuart, the daughter of James, Duke of York and eleven years his junior, on 4 November 1677. Reportedly, Mary wept throughout the wedding ceremony: she was only 16 years old.
Queen Mary II died of smallpox at Kensington Palace on 28 December 1694 and was buried at Westminster Abbey.
The English composer Henry Purcell wrote her funeral music, entitled "Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary"..
9. Nell Gwyn sets the audience on fire - "Oh, the Restoration!" - dedicated to Eleanor "Nell" Gwyn (or Gwynn or Gwynne) (1650-1652 - 14 November 1687).
Called 'pretty, witty Nell' by Samuel Pepys, she has been one of the first English actresses allowed to play on stage, when theatre reopened in Restoration England, under the rule of Charles II."
10. Nell Gwyn sets the audience on fire (Instrumental)
11. The end of the 18th century - "The curtains of the century/ Had been drawn asunder/ And a ray of Light/ Cast a shadow upon the floor" - dedicated to the end of the 18th century.
Oh, the 18th century! The age of Enlightenment (the ray of Light in the lyrics) which ended with the French Revolution, with so many heads cut off, blood and obscure feelings (the shadow upon the floor).
12. The coronation- "After having been blessed/By the pope/ He crowned himself/ Emperor of the French/ Before crowning Joséphine/ Empress." - dedicated to Napoleon I, Emperor of the French.
Napoleon I was crowned Emperor of the French on a cold December 2nd in 1804.
13. Katorga- "A December to remember." - dedicated to the Decembrists (Dekabristy, Russian: Декáбристы) and their beloved wives who reached them in exile.
On December 14 (December 26 New Style), 1825 Russian army officers led about 3,000 soldiers to the Senate Square, in St. Petersburg, to protest against Nicholas I's assumption of the throne. Yet the revolt failed, and the Decembrists were either executed for treason or sent to labour camps, in Siberia. The term Katorga (ка́торга, from medieval Greek: katergon, κάτεργον galley) referred to a system of penal servitude in Imperial Russia.
14. Tatanka Yotanka- "'If we must die, we die defending our rights.' Tatanka Yotanka said." - dedicated to Tatanka Yotanka (Sitting Bull), Hunkpapa Lakota chief and holy man.
On December 15 1890, just weeks before the massacre at Wounded Knee, the authorities sent 43 Lakota policemen to arrest him for his support to the Ghost Dance movement. In the gunfight that followed, one of the Lakota policemen shot him dead.
15. Love, family, and then...- "People know, people saw/ Between Alix and Nikolaj/ It was true love."- dedicated to Alix and Nicky, their love for each other and for their family. That same love which proved fatal.
Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine (German: Victoria Alix Helene Luise Beatrice Prinzessin von Hessen und bei Rhein) was the grand-daughter of Queen Victoria. She became the last Tsaritsa of Russia when in 1894 she married Tsar Nikolaj II of Russia, the love of her life.
But... their love and exclusive commitment to their own family had them forgetting about Russia. Their distraction was fatal. Their death, awful. They were executed early in the morning of July 17, 1918, by a detachment of Bolsheviks led by Yakov Yurovsky.
"At last united, bound for life; and when this life is ended, we meet again in the other world and remain together for eternity.
Yours, yours.
Alexandra."
Monday, November 26, 1894.
16. Rosa - "Your blood was red" - dedicated to Rosa Luxemburg, Red Rosa.
On January 15, 1919 Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were captured by the Freikorps Garde-Kavallerie-Schützendivision.
Rosa Luxemburg was rifle-butted, then shot in the head, and her body was thrown into Berlin's Landwehr Canal. Karl Liebknecht was shot in the Tiergarten and his "anonymous" body was brought to a mortuary.
The German revolution was in this way terminated.
Rosa Luxemburg's corpse was found on June 1st...
You were rifle-butted
Then shot in the head
But they didn’t realise
Your blood was red.
17. The White Rose - "We will not be silent" - dedicated to the members of The White Rose (German: die Weiße Rose), the non-violent resistance group in Nazi Germany, which lead an anonymous leaflet campaign (from June 1942 until February 1943) calling for active opposition to Hitler's regime.
"We will not be silent. We are your bad conscience. The White Rose will not leave you in peace!"
In the darkest age
In the blackest cage
Someone always
Rose up.
There will always be
A White Rose.
We will not be silent.
There will always be
A White Rose.
18. Blacklisted -"Are you now or have you ever been/ A member of the Communist Party?”- dedicated to Lillian Hellman.
Lillian Hellman, Letter to HUAC, May 19, 1952
Dear Mr. Wood:
As you know, I am under subpoena to appear before your committee on May 21, 1952.
I am most willing to answer all questions about myself. I have nothing to hide from your committee and there is nothing in my life of which I am ashamed. I have been advised by counsel that under the fifth amendment I have a constitutional privilege to decline to answer any questions about my political opinions, activities, and associations, on the grounds of self-incrimination. I do not wish to claim this privilege. I am ready and willing to testify before the representatives of our Government as to my own opinions and my own actions, regardless of any risks or consequences to myself.
But I am advised by counsel that if I answer the committee’s questions about myself, I must also answer questions about other people and that if I refuse to do so, I can be cited for contempt. My counsel tells me that if I answer questions about myself, I will have waived my rights under the fifth amendment and could be forced legally to answer questions about others. This is very difficult for a layman to understand. But there is one principle that I do understand: I am not willing, now or in the future, to bring bad trouble to people who, in my past association with them, were completely innocent of any talk or any action that was disloyal or subversive. I do not like subversion or disloyalty in any form and if I had ever seen any I would have considered it my duty to have reported it to the proper authorities. But to hurt innocent people whom I knew many years ago in order to save myself is, to me, inhuman and indecent and dishonorable. I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year’s fashions, even though I long ago came to the conclusion that I was not a political person and could have no comfortable place in any political group.
I was raised in an old-fashioned American tradition and there were certain homely things that were taught to me: To try to tell the truth, not to bear false witness, not to harm my neighbor, to be loyal to my country, and so on. In general, I respected these ideals of Christian honor and did as well with them as I knew how. It is my belief that you will agree with these simple rules of human decency and will not expect me to violate the good American tradition from which they spring. I would, therefore, like to come before you and speak of myself.
I am prepared to waive the privilege against self-incrimination and to tell you everything you wish to know about my views or actions if your committee will agree to refrain from asking me to name other people. If the committee is unwilling to give me this assurance, I will be forced to plead the privilege of the fifth amendment at the hearing.
A reply to this letter would be appreciated.
Sincerely yours,
Lillian Hellman
19. Brothers - Tell people “You are free,/You’re not my Enemy/ And I’m not yours, /This Land is our Country”… /And you’ll be killed." - dedicated to two pairs of brothers who were both involved in politics and ended up being killed: Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus & John and Robert F. Kennedy.
Tiberius Gracchus (168 BC-133 BC)
Gaius Gracchus (154 BC-121 BC)
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963)
Robert Francis Kennedy (1925-1968)
From Bobby Kennedy's speech given on April 5, 1968 at the City Club of Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio:
...
"It is not the concern of any one race. The victims of the violence are black and white, rich and poor, young and old, famous and unknown. They are, most important of all, human beings whom other human beings loved and needed. No one - no matter where he lives or what he does - can be certain who will suffer from some senseless act of bloodshed. And yet it goes on and on and on in this country of ours.
Why? What has violence ever accomplished? What has it ever created? No martyr's cause has ever been stilled by an assassin's bullet.
No wrongs have ever been righted by riots and civil disorders. A sniper is only a coward, not a hero; and an uncontrolled, uncontrollable mob is only the voice of madness, not the voice of reason.
...
Some look for scapegoats, others look for conspiracies, but this much is clear: violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation, and only a cleansing of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soul.
For there is another kind of violence, slower but just as deadly destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions; indifference and inaction and slow decay. This is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. This is the slow destruction of a child by hunger, and schools without books and homes without heat in the winter.
...
We learn, at the last, to look at our brothers as aliens, men with whom we share a city, but not a community; men bound to us in common dwelling, but not in common effort. We learn to share only a common fear, only a common desire to retreat from each other, only a common impulse to meet disagreement with force. For all this, there are no final answers.
Yet we know what we must do. It is to achieve true justice among our fellow citizens. The question is not what programs we should seek to enact. The question is whether we can find in our own midst and in our own hearts that leadership of humane purpose that will recognize the terrible truths of our existence.
We must admit the vanity of our false distinctions among men and learn to find our own advancement in the search for the advancement of others. We must admit in ourselves that our own children's future cannot be built on the misfortunes of others. We must recognize that this short life can neither be ennobled or enriched by hatred or revenge.
Our lives on this planet are too short and the work to be done too great to let this spirit flourish any longer in our land. Of course we cannot vanquish it with a program, nor with a resolution.
But we can perhaps remember, if only for a time, that those who live with us are our brothers, that they share with us the same short moment of life; that they seek, as do we, nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and in happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can.
Surely, this bond of common faith, this bond of common goal, can begin to teach us something. Surely, we can learn, at least, to look at those around us as fellow men, and surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our own hearts brothers and countrymen once again."
The "Story of History" is a concept album which consists of 19 songs (17 songs plus 2 instrumental tracks) dedicated to 18 different characters who despite themselves made History, such as monarchs, great warriors, reformers. 18 ordinary people who ended up playing a crucial role on the stage of History and probably would have rather lived an obscure life on their own than become the marrow bone of what is left of our past.
Ultimately, the question is: what is History?
TRACK LISTING:
1. A King of Sparta - "Can you hear the sound of Liberty?"- dedicated to King Leonidas of Sparta and the Battle of Thermopylae (480 BC)
2. Poison 203 BC - "Rome or Freedom? This question has one answer, my Love: Poison" - dedicated to Carthaginian princess Sophonisba.
Massinissa, King of Numidia, was allied to the Romans when he fell in love with Sophonisba and married her, in 203 BC. She was a celebrated beauty and the wife of the just defeated Syphax.
So, no wonder that Scipio Africanus, the Roman general in the Second Punic War, didn't agree with this arrangement. When he told Massinissa that he wanted to take the Princess to Rome, for her to appear in the trimphal parade, Massinissa had to obey. He went to his wife and offered her a cup of poison: die like a true Carthaginian princess, Sophonisba, since I cannot release you from captivity, nor I cannot shelter you from the Romans!
We don't know what her thoughts were, at that moment. Though we know she drank the poison and... died.
3. Wearing Men's clothing -"Liberty is a capital crime"- dedicated to Jeanne d'Arc (Joan of Arc).
Jeanne wore men's clothing between her departure from Vaucouleurs and her abjuration at Rouen...
Yes, Jeanne is Jeanne d'Arc or Joan of Arc, if you like.
She had been the heroine of her country at 17 and died when only 19 years old: on May 30 1431, in Rouen, she was burnt at the stake.
4. The second Wife - "And she became the Headless Queen"- dedicated to Anne Boleyn (1501/1507–19 May 1536), the second wife of Henry VIII of England and the mother of Elizabeth I of England.
When Lord Kingston let her know that the King had commuted her sentence from burning to beheading and had employed a swordsman from Calais for the execution, rather than having a queen beheaded with the common axe, Anne reportedly said: "He shall not have much trouble, for I have a little neck. I shall be known as La Reine sans tête ("The Headless Queen")!"
5. Hey, Lady Jane Grey - "Hey, Lady Jane Grey/You were a Queen/For just nine days/ You were a Pawn/ In their game."- dedicated to 'The Nine Days Queen'.
Lady Jane Grey, (1536/7 — 12 February 1554), a great-granddaughter of Henry VII of England, reigned as uncrowned Queen Regnant of the Kingdom of England for nine days in July 1553, before having her head cut off when Mary Tudor ascended to the throne and had her executed for treason.
6. Sailing back (1561) - "The distant shore/Is no more/My home sweet home. " - dedicated to Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1587), at the time of her sailing back to Scotland, in 1561.
"Adieu France! Adieu France! Adieu, donc, ma chère France... Je pense ne vous revoir jamais plus".
When her husband François II of France died, Marie Stuart (or, Mary, Queen of Scots) had to leave France and sail back to her motherland... Probably her life would have been different, happier, if she had had the chance to stay. Probably she wouldn't have had her head cut off in 1587 when her cousin Elizabeth I of England finally had her executed.
Mary, the beautiful young lady, the Muse of Ronsard and of the poets of "La Pléiade"...
7. Margot & The Massacre - "She loves Henri/ But not Henri/ Not the husband/ Her mother forced her to marry"- dedicated to Margot de Valois & The Massacre on Saint Bartholomew's Day 1572.
Marguerite de Valois, nicknamed Margot by her brothers, was the daughter of Henry II and Catherine de' Medici. Three of her brothers became kings of France: Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III. Her sister, Elisabeth of Valois, became the third wife of King Philip II of Spain.
And what about Margot?
She loved Henri de Guise but her mother would have never allowed the powerful House of Guise to rule France. And so... she chose another husband for her daughter.
On August 18, 1572, the 19 year old Marguerite married Henri de Bourbon, who had become King of Navarre on the death of his mother, a Huguenot, the future Henry IV of France.
Was this marriage a trap? Who knows. Probably, yes.
Just six days after the wedding, on Saint Bartholomew's Day, a massacre of Huguenots was conducted by Parisian mobs, probably orchestrated by Catherine de' Medici.
"Shut the city gates
Tie the knot.
As for the Huguenots...
Kill them all.
8. The Marriage - "No, Mary doesn't want to get married"- dedicated to Mary Stewart, the future Queen Mary II.
William of Orange married his cousin, Mary Stuart, the daughter of James, Duke of York and eleven years his junior, on 4 November 1677. Reportedly, Mary wept throughout the wedding ceremony: she was only 16 years old.
Queen Mary II died of smallpox at Kensington Palace on 28 December 1694 and was buried at Westminster Abbey.
The English composer Henry Purcell wrote her funeral music, entitled "Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary"..
9. Nell Gwyn sets the audience on fire - "Oh, the Restoration!" - dedicated to Eleanor "Nell" Gwyn (or Gwynn or Gwynne) (1650-1652 - 14 November 1687).
Called 'pretty, witty Nell' by Samuel Pepys, she has been one of the first English actresses allowed to play on stage, when theatre reopened in Restoration England, under the rule of Charles II."
10. Nell Gwyn sets the audience on fire (Instrumental)
11. The end of the 18th century - "The curtains of the century/ Had been drawn asunder/ And a ray of Light/ Cast a shadow upon the floor" - dedicated to the end of the 18th century.
Oh, the 18th century! The age of Enlightenment (the ray of Light in the lyrics) which ended with the French Revolution, with so many heads cut off, blood and obscure feelings (the shadow upon the floor).
12. The coronation- "After having been blessed/By the pope/ He crowned himself/ Emperor of the French/ Before crowning Joséphine/ Empress." - dedicated to Napoleon I, Emperor of the French.
Napoleon I was crowned Emperor of the French on a cold December 2nd in 1804.
13. Katorga- "A December to remember." - dedicated to the Decembrists (Dekabristy, Russian: Декáбристы) and their beloved wives who reached them in exile.
On December 14 (December 26 New Style), 1825 Russian army officers led about 3,000 soldiers to the Senate Square, in St. Petersburg, to protest against Nicholas I's assumption of the throne. Yet the revolt failed, and the Decembrists were either executed for treason or sent to labour camps, in Siberia. The term Katorga (ка́торга, from medieval Greek: katergon, κάτεργον galley) referred to a system of penal servitude in Imperial Russia.
14. Tatanka Yotanka- "'If we must die, we die defending our rights.' Tatanka Yotanka said." - dedicated to Tatanka Yotanka (Sitting Bull), Hunkpapa Lakota chief and holy man.
On December 15 1890, just weeks before the massacre at Wounded Knee, the authorities sent 43 Lakota policemen to arrest him for his support to the Ghost Dance movement. In the gunfight that followed, one of the Lakota policemen shot him dead.
15. Love, family, and then...- "People know, people saw/ Between Alix and Nikolaj/ It was true love."- dedicated to Alix and Nicky, their love for each other and for their family. That same love which proved fatal.
Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine (German: Victoria Alix Helene Luise Beatrice Prinzessin von Hessen und bei Rhein) was the grand-daughter of Queen Victoria. She became the last Tsaritsa of Russia when in 1894 she married Tsar Nikolaj II of Russia, the love of her life.
But... their love and exclusive commitment to their own family had them forgetting about Russia. Their distraction was fatal. Their death, awful. They were executed early in the morning of July 17, 1918, by a detachment of Bolsheviks led by Yakov Yurovsky.
"At last united, bound for life; and when this life is ended, we meet again in the other world and remain together for eternity.
Yours, yours.
Alexandra."
Monday, November 26, 1894.
16. Rosa - "Your blood was red" - dedicated to Rosa Luxemburg, Red Rosa.
On January 15, 1919 Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were captured by the Freikorps Garde-Kavallerie-Schützendivision.
Rosa Luxemburg was rifle-butted, then shot in the head, and her body was thrown into Berlin's Landwehr Canal. Karl Liebknecht was shot in the Tiergarten and his "anonymous" body was brought to a mortuary.
The German revolution was in this way terminated.
Rosa Luxemburg's corpse was found on June 1st...
You were rifle-butted
Then shot in the head
But they didn’t realise
Your blood was red.
17. The White Rose - "We will not be silent" - dedicated to the members of The White Rose (German: die Weiße Rose), the non-violent resistance group in Nazi Germany, which lead an anonymous leaflet campaign (from June 1942 until February 1943) calling for active opposition to Hitler's regime.
"We will not be silent. We are your bad conscience. The White Rose will not leave you in peace!"
In the darkest age
In the blackest cage
Someone always
Rose up.
There will always be
A White Rose.
We will not be silent.
There will always be
A White Rose.
18. Blacklisted -"Are you now or have you ever been/ A member of the Communist Party?”- dedicated to Lillian Hellman.
Lillian Hellman, Letter to HUAC, May 19, 1952
Dear Mr. Wood:
As you know, I am under subpoena to appear before your committee on May 21, 1952.
I am most willing to answer all questions about myself. I have nothing to hide from your committee and there is nothing in my life of which I am ashamed. I have been advised by counsel that under the fifth amendment I have a constitutional privilege to decline to answer any questions about my political opinions, activities, and associations, on the grounds of self-incrimination. I do not wish to claim this privilege. I am ready and willing to testify before the representatives of our Government as to my own opinions and my own actions, regardless of any risks or consequences to myself.
But I am advised by counsel that if I answer the committee’s questions about myself, I must also answer questions about other people and that if I refuse to do so, I can be cited for contempt. My counsel tells me that if I answer questions about myself, I will have waived my rights under the fifth amendment and could be forced legally to answer questions about others. This is very difficult for a layman to understand. But there is one principle that I do understand: I am not willing, now or in the future, to bring bad trouble to people who, in my past association with them, were completely innocent of any talk or any action that was disloyal or subversive. I do not like subversion or disloyalty in any form and if I had ever seen any I would have considered it my duty to have reported it to the proper authorities. But to hurt innocent people whom I knew many years ago in order to save myself is, to me, inhuman and indecent and dishonorable. I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year’s fashions, even though I long ago came to the conclusion that I was not a political person and could have no comfortable place in any political group.
I was raised in an old-fashioned American tradition and there were certain homely things that were taught to me: To try to tell the truth, not to bear false witness, not to harm my neighbor, to be loyal to my country, and so on. In general, I respected these ideals of Christian honor and did as well with them as I knew how. It is my belief that you will agree with these simple rules of human decency and will not expect me to violate the good American tradition from which they spring. I would, therefore, like to come before you and speak of myself.
I am prepared to waive the privilege against self-incrimination and to tell you everything you wish to know about my views or actions if your committee will agree to refrain from asking me to name other people. If the committee is unwilling to give me this assurance, I will be forced to plead the privilege of the fifth amendment at the hearing.
A reply to this letter would be appreciated.
Sincerely yours,
Lillian Hellman
19. Brothers - Tell people “You are free,/You’re not my Enemy/ And I’m not yours, /This Land is our Country”… /And you’ll be killed." - dedicated to two pairs of brothers who were both involved in politics and ended up being killed: Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus & John and Robert F. Kennedy.
Tiberius Gracchus (168 BC-133 BC)
Gaius Gracchus (154 BC-121 BC)
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963)
Robert Francis Kennedy (1925-1968)
From Bobby Kennedy's speech given on April 5, 1968 at the City Club of Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio:
...
"It is not the concern of any one race. The victims of the violence are black and white, rich and poor, young and old, famous and unknown. They are, most important of all, human beings whom other human beings loved and needed. No one - no matter where he lives or what he does - can be certain who will suffer from some senseless act of bloodshed. And yet it goes on and on and on in this country of ours.
Why? What has violence ever accomplished? What has it ever created? No martyr's cause has ever been stilled by an assassin's bullet.
No wrongs have ever been righted by riots and civil disorders. A sniper is only a coward, not a hero; and an uncontrolled, uncontrollable mob is only the voice of madness, not the voice of reason.
...
Some look for scapegoats, others look for conspiracies, but this much is clear: violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation, and only a cleansing of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soul.
For there is another kind of violence, slower but just as deadly destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions; indifference and inaction and slow decay. This is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. This is the slow destruction of a child by hunger, and schools without books and homes without heat in the winter.
...
We learn, at the last, to look at our brothers as aliens, men with whom we share a city, but not a community; men bound to us in common dwelling, but not in common effort. We learn to share only a common fear, only a common desire to retreat from each other, only a common impulse to meet disagreement with force. For all this, there are no final answers.
Yet we know what we must do. It is to achieve true justice among our fellow citizens. The question is not what programs we should seek to enact. The question is whether we can find in our own midst and in our own hearts that leadership of humane purpose that will recognize the terrible truths of our existence.
We must admit the vanity of our false distinctions among men and learn to find our own advancement in the search for the advancement of others. We must admit in ourselves that our own children's future cannot be built on the misfortunes of others. We must recognize that this short life can neither be ennobled or enriched by hatred or revenge.
Our lives on this planet are too short and the work to be done too great to let this spirit flourish any longer in our land. Of course we cannot vanquish it with a program, nor with a resolution.
But we can perhaps remember, if only for a time, that those who live with us are our brothers, that they share with us the same short moment of life; that they seek, as do we, nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and in happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can.
Surely, this bond of common faith, this bond of common goal, can begin to teach us something. Surely, we can learn, at least, to look at those around us as fellow men, and surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our own hearts brothers and countrymen once again."
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The Story of History
September 29th Lyrics
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