36 lines
1.5 KiB
Plaintext
36 lines
1.5 KiB
Plaintext
GOVERNMENT
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THE Government--I heard about the Government and
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I went out to find it. I said I would look closely at
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it when I saw it.
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Then I saw a policeman dragging a drunken man to
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the callaboose. It was the Government in action.
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I saw a ward alderman slip into an office one morning
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and talk with a judge. Later in the day the judge
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dismissed a case against a pickpocket who was a
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live ward worker for the alderman. Again I saw
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this was the Government, doing things.
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I saw militiamen level their rifles at a crowd of
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workingmen who were trying to get other workingmen
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to stay away from a shop where there was a strike
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on. Government in action.
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Everywhere I saw that Government is a thing made of
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men, that Government has blood and bones, it is
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many mouths whispering into many ears, sending
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telegrams, aiming rifles, writing orders, saying
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"yes" and "no."
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Government dies as the men who form it die and are laid
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away in their graves and the new Government that
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comes after is human, made of heartbeats of blood,
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ambitions, lusts, and money running through it all,
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money paid and money taken, and money covered
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up and spoken of with hushed voices.
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A Government is just as secret and mysterious and sensitive
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as any human sinner carrying a load of germs,
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traditions and corpuscles handed down from
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fathers and mothers away back.
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Carl Sandburg, 1910(?)
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