By James Kanady
Pissed Again
With Minnesota being invaded by ICE, the crackdown on peaceful protestors, and the shooting deaths of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, I found myself thumbing through my well-worn paperback of Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden,” but specifically the last essay, “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience.”
An individualist and a man at home in nature, he wrote: “The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it. Witness the present Mexican war, the work of comparatively a few individuals using the standing government as their tool; for, in the outset, the people would not have consented to this measure.”
And the current administration in D.C. obviously using the government as their ideological tool, have unleashed ICE like a military force ostensibly to arrest dangerous illegal aliens, but in reality, it’s force used to intimidate and inculcate fear among the populace much like a terrorist cell. It is designed to get people to fearfully submit to their cruel use of force.
When President Polk started the war against Mexico in 1846, it was designed to annex more territories—including California—into the Union; and of course Polk wanted the conquered land to be open to slavery. Ulysses S. Grant was a lieutenant in the conflict, and he was appalled: “… the officers of the army were indifferent whether the annexation was consummated or not; but not so all of them. For myself, I was bitterly opposed to the measure, and to this day regard the war, which resulted, as one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger nation against a weaker nation. It was an instance of a republic following the bad example of European monarchies, in not considering justice in their desire to acquire additional territories.” And: “I do not think there was ever a more wicked war than that waged by the United States on Mexico. I thought so at the time, when I was a youngster, only I had not moral courage enough to resign.”
The invading force was 40% immigrants, most very poor. The Irish Catholics who joined up were subject to abuse from Protestant officers; they were treated as badly as Blacks. Punishment for infractions was nothing less than torture. This and seeing atrocities carried out by U.S. forces against Mexicans inspired hundreds of volunteers to cross the river to fight for Mexico. Led by John Riley, they formed their own battalion, the San Patricios (St. Patrick’s), made up of many other immigrants, too, especially Germans.
Thoreau was so enraged by the war and Polk’s and his allies’ support of slavery, he refused to pay his taxes and wound up in jail. “Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.”
Today’s dictatorial cadre in control in D.C., their racism, xenophobia, lies, and thirst for power, are nothing new in history. What is new is the disrespect and blatant unclogging of their noses on the Constitution. Peaceful protests are part of this country, but not to those in charge who call them domestic terrorists.
Listen to Thoreau: “… a government in which the majority rule in all cases cannot be based on justice, even as far as men understand it. Can there not be a government in which the majorities do not virtually decide right or wrong, but conscience?—in which majorities decide only those questions to which the rule of expediency is applicable? Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then?”
Thoreau wanted people to prioritize their sense of justice instead of blind compliance with governmental authority, for: “A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority. There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men.” Later he writes about government, “Why does it always crucify Christ, and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels?”
Thoreau was for the right—and the duty—of people to oppose injustice nonviolently with peaceful resistance. He made this statement in writing: “Know all men by these presents, that I, Henry David Thoreau, do not wish to be regarded as a member of any incorporated society which I have not joined.” (A hundred years later Groucho Marx said: I don’t want to belong to a club that would have me as a member. Gee, like minds a hundred years apart!)
“There will never be a really free and enlightened State, until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly.” Now? Individuals are treated as disposable fodder for billionaires. What would Thoreau say about this?
“But the rich man—not to make any invidious comparisons—is always sold to the institution which makes him rich. Absolutely speaking, the more money, the less virtue…”
Amen!
(March 30-31, 2026 PBS will broadcast a documentary produced by Ken Burns and Don Henley about the life of Thoreau.)