SACCO & VANZETTI SPAGHETTI
1 large green pepper 1 lb ground beef
1 large onion 1/4 cup Italian bread crumbs
1 clove fresh garlic 1/4 cup milk
1 large can whole 1 small onion
tomatoes (no. 2 1/2,
27 to 29 oz)
1 beef bouillon cube 1 egg
1/2 cup burgundy wine corn meal
1/2 tsp marjoram
1/2 tsp thyme
Make sure that the breadcrumbs are Italian-
you want the extra spices.
VEGETARIANS: substitute some of that mysterious soy-based stuff
whatever it is, for beef. It you spice it up with
enough other stuff, it still manages to taste pretty
good, suprisingly.
DIRECTIONS:
Chop green pepper and large onion. Mince garlic.
Saute in olive oil.
Add tomatoes, 2 tbl flour, 1 tbl sugar, burgundy, bouillon cube
Bring to low boil.
Add the savory pinches marjoram and thyme,
cover and simmer on low heat, for about an hour's time
In bowl, mix ground beef, Italian bread crumbs, egg,
small onion, salt & pepper to taste.
Mix thoroughly and roll into small balls,
like a fine paste.
Roll meatballs in cornmeal, and drop into sauce.
Carefully cover them completely, when you gently toss
Cover and simmer for another 45 min, on low heat
Serve over cooked spaghetti, then call everyone to eat
After draining, you can optionally add
1/2 stick of butter to spaghetti
Then, celebrate with Sacco,
and throw some confetti for Vanzetti.
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** THIS DATE IN HISTORY **
Today is the 80th anniversary of the execution of
Sacco and Vanzetti (August 23, 1927). No special mention
in the papers, not even for such a nice, round power of 10 -
just a buried reference in "This Day in History",
in the comic pages.
Sacco and Vanzetti deserve much better. Considering how
our decaying world is in the early stages of rigor mortis,
I suppose that it is to be expected that such a date
would be ignored.
There was a beloved poet in Provincetown, Mass who had
been a Sacco and Vanzetti fan - I am not surprised by this,
either. I don't have any idea what was the beloved poet's name,
but I recall reading that he was beloved, and that he was an
admirer of Sacco and Vanzetti.
Like Ingmar Bergman, the beloved poet died,
so I guess that there is no one else left to properly
commemorate this occasion with a spaghetti recipe, other
than a particular, unbeloved, one-eyed poet.
It's grim, I know. Nothing left but the Dark Dregs in
the Coffee Cup of Time, but at the end of the day,
we will drink a toast with that dark, Italian Roast.
I cannot say this is exactly an old family recipe.
I'm not sure where it came from, but from my point of view,
it came originally from my Aunt Dorothy, who passed it on
to my Mom, who passed it on to me, before she died,
handwritten on a index card. That sounds like a family
recipe, to me.
They didn't call it "Sacco and Vanzetti" spaghetti, but I
have arbitrarily dubbed it that, in their honor.
It is my personal, all-time favorite spaghetti-
the Food of the Gods. It might not sound special, to look
at the ingredients, but it is like alchemy- try it.
I think that the cornmeal coating on the meatballs
is the key, to thicken the sauce- use it liberally.
For anyone who (* sigh *) doesn't know who Sacco and Vanzetti
were- see Wikipedia, but they were Italian immigrants
accused of a murder in an armed robbery in Braintree, Massachusetts
and executed in 1927. The case became famous (although apparently
not enough for you, if you don't know who they were) because
the duo was very probably innocent of the crime and was
apparently persecuted both for ethnic prejudice and
political reasons.
There is not much tourism around Sacco and Vanzetti.
Most of the events happened in the Boston suburbs, not in the
city proper, but it is probably also because of
politics, that there is not more tourism.
I have not yet gotten around to doing my own Sacco and Vanzetti
self-tour. The towns of Braintree, Brockton, and Dedham,
where the events occurred, are all in the vicinity of
my town. I suppose it would be a view of the
shopping plaza (or whatever) where the shoe factory used
to be ... sigh... but I would like to do it, anyway, out
of respect for the couple.
The Wikipedia capsule summary does not capture the reasons
why poets would take such interest in what otherwise would
have been just another, everyday minor crime, and one of
countless unfair trials.
What do Sacco and Vanzetti really mean to you? At least,
what they *would* mean to you if you were on the side of
the long-running historical battle that Sacco/Vanzetti
represented, not the side that Judge Thayer represented.
To understand that, you need to read not Wikipedia, but
the letters of Sacco and Vanzetti, to discover what
wonderful human beings they really were- intelligent,
articulate, idealistic.
Much the same impression that you get when reading
the thoughts of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, another
couple playing almost the same historical role-
idealists, maligned, pawns in a game played by
larger, vicious political forces.
Sacco and Vanzetti put the modern-day Left to shame.
They were of the most humble background, working as
everything from fish-mongers to ditch diggers, but they
could dance circles around many of today's political
activists, in terms of being well-read and aware.
Regularly, you will find them quoting sources from
Bertrand Russell to Voltaire, or other wide-ranging
names, leaving you trying to play catch-up and to
expand your own horizons.
They were also aware of a key aspect of history and
politics that seems lost to many of the naive,
deluded souls on the Left, today.
The conventional stereotype of the Sacco and Vanzetti
trial is that the judge was simply prejudiced against
them, because of their Italian descent and far-left
politics.
That is a kind of innocence that the Left cannot afford.
It was rather similar to U.S. starting the war in Iraq-
yet another reason why Sacco and Vanzetti remain relevant,
today.
In the case of Iraq, a popular notion on the Left is that our
government exaggerated the evidence for WMD in Iraq,
out of a bias in favor of having a war.
Not quite. Not cynical enough. The U.S. government did not
simply exaggerate the evidence FOR weapons of mass destruction.
They knew *damned well* that there were NOT weapons
of mass destruction, or else they might have thought
twice about the wisdom of invading.
Not mere bias. Outright, brazen, deliberate lying;
playing murderous hardball for pure self-interest,
without a trace of the misguided altruism that they
weakly pretend.
Similarly, in the Sacco and Vanzetti trial, the cynicism
on the Left is not nearly deep enough. The judge was
not simply prejudiced against them. He knew *damned well*
that they were innocent. It was a case of cold-blooded,
outright judicial murder, for the sake pure politics and hate.
The idealists on the Left can barely conceive of such things.
They cannot get it out of their heads, that if they simply
huff enough, use the perfect metaphors and analogies,
express the perfect logic clearly enough, that Heaven
will smile on their efforts, and they will be able
to shame the shameless.
I think that Sacco and Vanzetti understood this, like
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg understood it.
In the example of the Rosenbergs, the popular concept of the
McCarthy Era seems to be that Cold-War hysteria got carried away,
in excessive paranoia and communist witch-hunting.
The Rosenbergs articulated even more clearly than
Sacco and Vanzetti: the McCarthy Era was not just
just a war on communists. It was a continuing, long running
War on the Left, this time merely using communism as an excuse
to smear anyone whose politics were left of center.
Not a matter of being too eager to hallucinate communism-
knowing full well that the parties attacked were not
really communists; just not caring less about the truth.
It has been a staple and artform on the Right-
to smear and blame the victim, half the time managing
to convince even the hapless victims, themselves, who are
not as conscious of propaganda and who are sometimes
too idealistic to be sufficiently wary of the bold,
deliberate lie.
When there hardly anyone left to care, the Right
will try to drive the last nail in the coffin of
historical truth, as with the Kennedy assassination,
or with the Rosenbergs, by spouting the supposedly
"definitive" final word- which is nothing of the kind.
You could trust half-baked interruptations of Vennona
transcripts about as much as you could trust the CIA reports
of WMD in pre-war Iraq. I would say, too, for the Rosenbergs,
that even giving secrets to the Soviets would not have made
them any less idealists or decent human beings. They
would represent betrayed idealists, in that case, but
idealists all the same, neither fools nor villains.
Today's progressive political activists mostly insist
on retreating into the more comforting world of belief,
that their opponents are basically reasonable, responsible,
above-board people with whom they must work respectfully.
In doing so, for all their belief that they are being
more "mature", "responsible" or "balanced", they are turning
a blind eye to a pattern of covered-up political murders,
a long-running, unacknowledged Dirty War against the Left,
a lop-sided affair in which one side has been taking nearly
all the casualties.
At first, I supposed that even the characterization of
Sacco and Vanzetti as "anarchists" might have been a smear.
That notion, I very quickly discovered, was not founded-
Sacco's dying words were, "Long Live Anarchy!".
The more that I read, though, the more I realized that
Sacco and Vanzetti were simply murdered by the state -
an idea which at first had not even occurred to me
as a possibility.
Their far-left politics were part of the reason.
To most contemporary sensibilities, the word "anarchist"
has a harsh tone- associated with wild chaos,
brutal violence, total destruction, for no real reason
other than perhaps the sheer, perverse joy of it.
It did not occur to me at first, when I learned that
Sacco & Vanzetti were self-acknowledged anarchists,
that the very word had entirely different connotations
for them.
It is similar to gays who use the word "queer" -
something ugly-toned and harsh to my ears, yet to
others, not seeming that way.
It is part of the same way that language is used,
all-too successfully, as part of the war against
the Left. The very words like "progressive" and
"multi-cultural"- things that ought to be ideals-
are spat upon, associated with all things ugly,
a conscious campaign to make them a joke.
Much less, a word like "anarchist".
It sounds like an oxymoron, to think of an "innocent anarchist",
or "idealistic anarchist". Similarly, in the minds of many people,
it seems like an oxymoron to think of an "innocent homosexual".
It is the success of hate, that brains become programmed, that way.
Shows more about the ugly dangers and deceptions in the power
of language, than in things like anarchy or homosexuality.
For perspective, individualist anarchism in the United States
was strongly influenced by figures like Thomas Jefferson
and Tom Paine. In the world of propaganda, one does not merely
seek to create conditioned, unfavorable associations. One must
forget, minimize, or break any favorable associations, such as
with these revered names.
Anarchism is associated with "chaos" and "violence" in much
the same way that the Religious Right loves to claim that
gays- probably one of the most passive groups in history-
are particularly prone to violence. Never mind that it is was
Religious Right associated figures who bombed the Oklahoma
federal building, or murdered John Lennon, or murdered a
dozen abortion doctors. Never mind that gays have yet
to assassinate a single hate-spewer in the Religious Right.
Propaganda has little to do with reality. It sometimes
seems that language itself exists for little purpose
other than for generating propaganda.
Sacco and Vanzetti insisted that they were peaceable
in their political vision. They were little different
than today's conservatives who claim that they merely
want the government "off people's backs".
An "anarchist", really, is just someone who carries libertarianism
to its logical extreme. It is greatly ironic that libertarians
often love to imagine themselves as heirs to the supposed
anti-government wisdom of Ronald Reagan (other fine piece
of propaganda), when they are really as much the
philosophical heirs to anarchists like Sacco and Vanzetti.
Some readers who are familiar with my alleged poetry would
by now have the cynical suspicion that I am "defending"
anarchy because I am really an anarchist who is secretly
bent on destruction and chaos, just trying to beguile
naive innocents into a philosophy of revolutionary madness.
That is another fine irony and how preconceptions can lead
to 180-degree backward conclusions.
I think that the anti-government attitudes of Henry David
Thoreau, much less Sacco and Vanzetti, were impractical,
unworkable, misguided idealism. In the case of Ronald Reagan,
it was just so much more misguided, blind hate.
The government is only the enemy, when it is as it exists today-
professional, power-hungry, soft-pedalling hate-mongers
who try to get votes by exploiting popular prejudices;
a money-hungry elite of white-collar criminals who are
out to loot their own countries; starting wars for
self-interest; a pork-barrel of cronyism; fantastically
irresponsible about basics like environment and infrastructure.
In a world that could be at least marginally plausible, government
would have a vital role to play: standardization, safety regulation,
security, monitoring of business ethics, funding and coordination
of new businesses, maintenance of infrastructure, funding and
promoting pure scientific research (especially the kind that
lacks short-term profit); managers of a retirement system.
Concerning Sacco and Vanzetti, I might not buy all of their ideas,
but I do respect their minds, and admire their personalities.
If they were alive and could speak, I would always be listening.
Sacco- he's the younger, cute one, married with children.
Vanzetti- he's the older, more articulate and political one,
unmarried and possibly gay - we will never know for sure.
A Toast: of red, Italian wine, spaghetti, and dark,
roast coffee!
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Sacco and Vanzetti
Nicola Sacco (1891-1927) and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (1888-1927)
were two Italian-born American anarchists, who were arrested,
tried, and executed via electrocution in Massachusetts for the
charge of murder and theft. There is much controversy
regarding their guilt, stirred in part by Upton Sinclair's
1928 novel Boston.
Accused of robbery at shoe factory in South Braintree,
Massachusetts during the afternoon of April 15, 1920.
They were tried in Dedham Court (where I once had jury duty).
For a while, they had hid in a wooded area of Randolph, Mass
(my adopted town).
Subject of songs by folksinger Woody Guthry, who took
an interest in the case (see below).
Sacco was married; Vanzetti (who was somewhat older and more
articulate) was not. Were admirers of socialist Eugene Debs.
In 1977, exactly fifty years after their execution, Governor
Michael Dukakis issued a proclamation stating that Sacco and
Vanzetti had been treated unjustly and that "any disgrace
should be forever removed from their names."
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2. "Ballads of Sacco & Vanzetti" (FOLKWAYS) (1947)
WOODY GUTHRIE BALLADS OF SACCO & VANZETTI (Folkways), recorded
1946-'47. ... Two of them were Sacco and Vanzetti. The car was
not available and the Italians
www.geocities.com/Nashville/3448/sacco.html
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchism_in_the_United_States
Anarchism in the United States
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Individualist anarchism in the United States is strongly
influenced by Thomas Jefferson and Tom Paine
More recently, many participants in the American Indian Movement
have described themselves as anarchist and cooperation between
anarchist and indigenist groups has been a key feature of
movements such as the Minnehaha Free State in Minneapolis,
Minnesota - (which is built on an Ojibwa Reservation) - and at
Big Mountain.
Notable anarchists
...
- Henry David Thoreau
...
- Sacco and Vanzetti
...
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