First exhibit, Nat Turner, born on this day in 1800. Mr. Turner led a violent uprising of slaves against their former masters. He believed that he was ordained by God to do so:
And my father and mother strengthened me in this my first impression, saying in my presence, I was intended for some great purpose, which they had always thought from certain marks on my head and breast.However, unlike the slave owners they killed, there were even some things he wouldn't do, as Stephen B. Oates noted in his biography Children of Darkness:
Although they confiscated horses, weapons, and brandy, they took only what was necessary to continue the struggle, and they committed no rapes. They even spared a few homesteads, one because Turner believed the poor white inhabitants "thought no better of themselves than they did of negroes."Of course, Turner was unsuccessful and was eventually captured and killed. A counterpoint to his failure is the success of Mahatma Ghandi, also born on this day in 1869. His ideal of non-violent, civil disobedience was successful in ending British colonialism in India. He would later inspire Martin Luther King Jr. to use the same methods to achieve greater equality for minorities in the U.S. However, Ghandi was himself inspired by another American, Henry David Thoreau, especially his essay On Civil Disobedience. Thoreau also inspired Ghandi's politics. The latter said:
The ideally non-violent state will be an ordered anarchy. That State is the best governed which is governed the least.This is almost exactly the same idea espoused by Thoreau. Ghandi had some other interesting things to say, like the following:
I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. The materialism of affluent Christian countries appears to contradict the claims of Jesus Christ that says it's not possible to worship both Mammon and God at the same time.Although he became a hero to his nation, he was a villain to his own children. His three eldest sons were emotionally wrecked by their father, especially Harilal. Which leads me to wonder, if a man save all of India, but lose his own children, is he a good man? I really don't have an answer for that.
Today is also the feastday of St. Leodegar, primarily important for the wonderfully gruesome medieval depictions of his martyrdom. Somehow, seeing it in illuminated form somewhat minimizes its cruelty.
There are several musical birthdays as well. Don McLean is 63. Most only know him for American Pie, which was the only file I could find you can access at school. But all of his other songs are so much better! You can listen to The Grave at home, a fitting song for International Non-Violence Day. Or, if you REALLY like American Pie, you can sing Weird Al's parody of the tune, The Saga Begins, to your class. Or, if you're brave, you can sing my parody of American Pie which retells the Epic of Gilgamesh* (at least the first half). What? I had to do SOMETHING during district orientation!
Sting is 57. Want to know his real name? Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner. Tee hee. I couldn't find any good songs for you to listen to now, so I chose two of the best to listen to later. The first is Shape of My Heart, which makes Poker seem like a cult religion. The second, Flow My Tears, is from Sting's most recent album in which he covers the songs of John Dowland (an Elizabethan era emo singer-songwriter). The album, except for the parts where Sting reads from Dowlands letters in an annoyingly earnest whisper, is fantastic. He is accompanied by LUTE! You know you're famous when you can put out an album of centuries old music accompanied to lute and still be cool.
Gilliam Welch is 41. You probably heard her sing on O, Brother, Where Art Thou. Here is her song Barroom Girls.
Finally, Groucho Marx was born on this day in 1890. I'll leave you with his last words (and I'm not kidding):
Die, my dear? Why that's the last thing I'll do!
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