![]() I committed the murder as an abject lesson. I could no longer suffer the thought of being perpetually a slave. Out of a deliberate design I killed him because I could no longer stand this life of constant fear and being a servant. And yet, why did I kill this man? It is because he was the symbol of an economic system which has made him and me what we are: He, a master, and I, a slave. ![]() I have nothing but love for my fellowmen. My dear friend, I am a peace-loving citizen. But I have known no rights, only obligations I have known no happiness only despair in the encumbered existence that has always been my lot. You tell me of the right to life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Take me if you must but let it be a sacrifice to the cause which countless others have been given before and will be given again and again, until the oppressive economic system has completely perished, until the sons of toil have been liberated from enslavement, and until man has been fully restored to decency and self respect. For the cause of human liberty, of human happiness and contentment, thousands and even millions have died and will continue to die. Kill this slavery and you release the human spirit into happiness and contentment. Kill this despotism and you set the human soul to liberty and freedom. I have taken the law into my own hands, and I must pay for it in atonement.īut kill this system. I do not ask you to forgive me nor to mitigate my crime. I have always regarded myself as no better than a slave to the man who owns the land on which I live. I have always obeyed the wishes of my master out of fear. But I do not understand the meaning of all these for I have never known freedom. You tell me that under the constitution, I am a free man-free to do what I believe is just, free to do what I think is right, and free to worship God according to the dictate of my conscience. And the constant fear of rejection from the land has made me totally subservient to my master. My poverty has reduced me to the bare necessities of life. And I have to stretch that mere pittance to keep myself and my family alive. I labor like a slave and out of the fruits of that labor I get but a mere pittance for a share. They are sum total of my ignorance and the inspired arithmetic of my master, which I do not understand. I have but a few world possessions, mostly rags. And somewhere on that land I have managed to build what is now the dilapidated nipa shack that has been home to me. It is the only world that I have learned to cherish. But I have learned to love that land, for it is the only thing that lies between me and complete destitution. I have labored on a patch of land not mine. This misery is my inheritance and perhaps this will be my legacy to my children. I am a tenant… My father was a tenant before me and so was his father before him. I am here not to ask for pity but for justice. I have committed murder, deliberate, premeditated murder. They are crimsoned with the blood of a man I have just killed.
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