The Masses

"The Masses"

In times of grief, we draw our strength from others,

passing it back and forth through a handshake,

an arm around the shoulders,

or by sharing a heartache borne

out of a past experience.

Each of us, in our own way,

must find understanding,

for, in time,

we must always answer to God.

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse. When a people are used as mere human instruments for firing cannon or thrusting bayonets, in the service and for the selfish purposes of a master, such war degrades a people. A war to protect other human beings against tyrannical injustice; a war to give victory to their own ideas of right and good, and which is their own war, carried on for an honest purpose by their own free choice--is often the means of their regeneration. A man who has nothing which he cares about more than he does about his personal safety is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the existing of better men than himself. As long as justice and injustice have not terminated their ever renewing fight for ascendancy in the affairs of mankind, human beings must be willing, when need is, to do battle for the one against the other."

John Stuart Mill, "The Contest in America," Diissertations and Discussions (Boston: William V. Spencer, 1867). Written just prior to the U.S. Civil War to oppose Great Britain's favour of the Confederate side.