[Note: Friends of Justice is a personal blog. I speak only for myself.]
Dear Friend of Justice,
It’s now almost twelve years since Jim and I were run out of Cambridge, Massachusetts. I have no desire to live there again, even if I won megabucks and could afford to do so. But I do return once every three months to have my teeth cleaned.
I arrived today in Harvard Square very early for my appointment. The sky was clear and the temperature was in the low 70s. It was a perfect spring day. I decided to stroll down Kennedy (formerly Boylston) Street to the river. But when I reached Memorial Drive, my enjoyment of the day was seriously marred. I discovered that that intersection has been renamed Scott Harshbarger Square.
The renaming, of course, had been done by God’s Chosen Few: the Cambridge City Council. Jim and I had lived in Cambridge a long time and I remember some past political achievements. With particular fondness, I remember the time that the city hired people to comb through its citizens’ trash, so that it might identify and punish recycling miscreants.
I am not surprised that God’s Chosen Few anointed Harshbarger: he has the reputation of being a great “liberal” — whatever the hell that means. But for me he just personifies the current moral and intellectual bankruptcy of the Democratic Party. (Note: I am not a Republican.)
Most of you reading this will have no problem remembering Scott Harshbarger. If you need your memory refreshed, here is a link to the text of a flyer I distributed many years ago before a Harshbarger speech: http://mysite.verizon.net/vzex11z4/hflyer.html.
To find out more about the Fells Acres (Amirault) case, follow this link: http://mysite.verizon.net/vzex11z4/amirault.html.
The influence of the Amirault persecution was felt not only in Massachusetts but also across the nation for many years thereafter. Many witch hunters, to this day, consider it a “model” prosecution, an example to be emulated.
Now I am fallibly human and make mistakes all of the time. I have never hesitated to forgive those who admit their mistakes. But Harshbarger has never apologized to any of his direct and indirect victims: the Amiraults, Bernard Baran, the Souzas, many others. The extent of the damage he did and the amount of needless suffering that he caused is anyone’s guess. But he has never admitted the slightest mistake. To this day, he persists in his Spitzeresque arrogance and hubris.
I cannot say whether Harshbarger is evil or merely stupid. And the fact that he went to Harvard rules out neither alternative.
Since he asks for no forgiveness, I shall give him none. But neither will I honor him. To honor him is to say that it is admirable to trample upon justice in pursuit of political ambition.
By choosing to honor him, God’s Chosen Few succeed only in bringing dishonor upon themselves.
-Bob Chatelle
