Dana Crum - poet, writer, doer of things language-related

Fred, you raise an important point. Certainly, Guevara is a controversial figure. Some laud him; others castigate him. I think Guevara truly wanted to help the poor. Whether his methods of helping them and his punishment of those he perceived as enemies of the poor, enemies of justice were themselves just is debatable. That is an important debate, one I wouldn't dare downplay. When writing my blog post, I was certainly aware of how much Guevara’s methods differed from those of Gandhi, MLK, Socrates and others. I put him in the list for that very reason. I wanted to list a variety of social-justice leaders. I wanted to include nonviolent activists but also armed revolutionaries. In such a short blog post, I didn’t even try to answer the huge question as to which form of resistance – nonviolence or armed revolt – is moral or more effective. Which is appropriate, which is moral, which is effective depends on the situation, I would argue. One last thing. Guevara did indeed oversee firing squads, but so did some American patriots during and after the Revolutionary War – they executed some Loyalists (American colonists who remained loyal to Britain). Who executed more enemies (actual or perceived)? Guevara and his cohorts? Or American patriots? Good question. I’d have to research that. What's undeniable is that America doesn’t have a pristine record when it comes to execution (or torture), and America’s very origins as a country are steeped in warfare, in bloodshed.