I Am the People, the Mob

I am the people-the mob-the crowd-the mass.
Do you know that all the great work of the world is done through me?
I am the workingman, the inventor, the maker of the world's food and clothes.
I am the audience that witnesses history.  The Napoleons come from
me and the Lincolns.  They die.  And then I send forth more Napoleons and Lincolns.
I am the seed ground.  I am a prairie that will stand for much plowing.
Terrible storms pass over me.  I forget.  Everything but Death comes
to me and makes me work and give up what I have.  And I forget.
Sometimes I growl, shake myself and spatter a few red drops for history to remember.
Then-I forget.
When I, the People, learn to remember, when I, the People, use the lesson of
yesterday and no longer forget who robbed me last year, who played me for a fool-
then there will be no speaker in all the world say the name:"The People," with
anyfleck of The mob-the crowd-the mass-will arrive then.

By Carl SandBurg

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