I am the people

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.

The best of me is sucked out and wasted. 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 lessons 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 any fleck of a sneer in his voice or any far-off smile of derision.

The mob -- the crowd -- the mass -- will arrive then.