Eugene V. Debs
Debs in 1897
Member of the Indiana Senate from the 8th district
In office 1885–1889
Personal details
Born	Eugene Victor Debs (1855-11-05)November 5, 1855 Terre Haute, Indiana, U.S.
Died	October 20, 1926(1926-10-20) (aged 70) Elmhurst, Illinois, U.S.
Political party	Socialist
Other political affiliations	Social Democratic Democratic
Spouse(s)	Kate Metzel (m. 1885)

Eugene Victor "Gene" Debs (November 5, 1855 – October 20, 1926) was an American union leader, one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or the Wobblies), and several times the candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States.^[1] Through his presidential candidacies, as well as his work with labor movements, Debs eventually became one of the best-known socialists living in the United States.

In the early part of his political career, Debs was a member of the Democratic Party. He was elected as a Democrat to the Indiana General Assembly in 1884. After working with several smaller unions, including the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, Debs was instrumental in the founding of the American Railway Union (ARU), the nation's first industrial union. When the ARU struck the Pullman Palace Car Company over pay cuts, President Grover Cleveland used the United States Army to break the strike. As a leader of the ARU, Debs was later imprisoned for failing to obey an injunction against the strike.

Debs educated himself about socialism in prison and emerged to launch his career as the nation's most prominent socialist in the first decades of the 20th century. He ran as the Socialist Party's candidate for the presidency in 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912, and 1920, the last time from his prison cell.

Debs was noted for his oratory, and a speech denouncing American participation in World War I led to his second arrest in 1918. He was convicted under the Espionage Act of 1917 and sentenced to a term of 10 years. President Warren G. Harding commuted his sentence in December 1921. Debs died in 1926 not long after being admitted to a sanatorium.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Eugene Debs was born on November 5, 1855, in Terre Haute, Indiana, to Jean Daniel and Marguerite Mari Bettrich Debs, who both immigrated to the United States from Colmar, Alsace, France. His father, who was born to a prosperous family in France, owned a textile mill and meat market. Eugene Victor Debs was named after the French authors Eugene Sue and Victor Hugo.^[2]

Debs attended public school, dropping out of high school at age 14.^[3] He took a job in the Vandalia railroad car shops, first working as a painter and a car cleaner.^[3] In December 1871 he left the railroad yards for work on the railways as a locomotive fireman for the same company.^[3] He continued to work in this capacity until July 1875, when he left to work at a wholesale grocery house, where he remained for the next four years.^[3] He attended a local business school during the night.^[4]

Debs joined the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen (BLF) in February 1875 and became active in this fraternal benefit organization, being sent as a delegate by the Terre Haute lodge to the organization's national convention in 1877.^[3] Debs was elected associate editor of the BLF's monthly organ, Firemen's Magazine, in 1878 and appointed Grand Secretary and Treasurer of the BLF and editor of the magazine in July 1880.^[3] He remained in this capacity as a BLF functionary until January 1893 and as the magazine's editor until September 1894.^[3]

At the same time, he became a prominent figure in the community. He served two terms as Terre Haute's city clerk from September 1879 to September 1883.^[3] In the fall of 1884 he was elected to the Indiana General Assembly as a Democrat, serving for one term.^[4]

The railroad brotherhoods were comparatively conservative organizations, focused on providing fellowship and services rather than on collective bargaining. Debs gradually became convinced of the need for a more unified and confrontational approach. After stepping down as Brotherhood Grand Secretary in 1893, he organized one of the first industrial unions in the United States, the American Railway Union (ARU). The Union successfully struck the Great Northern Railway in April 1894, winning most of its demands.

Eugene Debs married Kate Metzel on June 9, 1885. The couple had no children.^[4] Their home still stands in Terre Haute, within Indiana State University.

Pullman Strike[link]

Striking American Railway Union members confront Illinois National Guard troops in Chicago, Illinois, during Debs' Rebellion in 1894.

In 1894 Debs became involved in the Pullman Strike, which grew out of a compensation dispute started by the workers who constructed the train cars made by the Pullman Palace Car Company. The Pullman Company, citing falling revenue after the economic Panic of 1893, had cut the wages of its employees by 28%. The workers, many of whom were already members of the American Railway Union, appealed for support to the union at its convention in Chicago, Illinois.^[1] Debs tried to persuade the Union members who worked on the railways that the boycott was too risky, given the hostility of both the railways and the federal government, the weakness of the Union, and the possibility that other unions would break the strike. The membership ignored his warnings and refused to handle Pullman cars or any other railroad cars attached to them, including cars containing U.S. Mail.^[5] After A.R.U. Board Director Martin J. Elliot extended the strike to St. Louis, doubling its size to 80,000 workers, Debs relented and decided to take part in the strike, which was now endorsed by almost all members of the ARU in the immediate area of Chicago.^[6] On July 9, 1894, a New York Times editorial called Debs "a lawbreaker at large, an enemy of the human race."^[7][8] Strikers fought by establishing boycotts of Pullman train cars, and with Debs' eventual leadership, the strike came to be known as "Debs' Rebellion".^[2]

The U.S. federal government intervened, obtaining an injunction against the strike on the theory that the strikers had obstructed the U.S. Mail, carried on Pullman cars, by refusing to show up for work. President Grover Cleveland sent the United States Army to enforce the injunction. The entrance of the Army was enough to break the strike; 13 strikers were killed, and thousands were blacklisted.^[2] An estimated $80-million worth of property was damaged, and Debs was found guilty of contempt of court for violating the injunction and sent to federal prison.^[2]

Debs was represented by Clarence Darrow, hitherto a corporate lawyer for the railroad company, who "switched sides" to represent Debs. Darrow, a leading American lawyer and civil libertarian, had resigned his corporate position in order to represent Debs, making a substantial financial sacrifice in order to do so. A Supreme Court case decision, In re Debs, later upheld the right of the federal government to issue the injunction.

Socialist leader[link]

At the time of his arrest for mail obstruction, Debs was not yet a socialist. While serving his six month term in the jail at Woodstock, Illinois, Debs and his ARU comrades received a steady stream of letters, books, and pamphlets in the mail from socialists around the country.^[9]

Debs recalled several years later:

"...I began to read and think and dissect the anatomy of the system in which workingmen, however organized, could be shattered and battered and splintered at a single stroke. The writings of Bellamy and Blatchford early appealed to me. The Cooperative Commonwealth of Gronlund also impressed me, but the writings of Kautsky were so clear and conclusive that I readily grasped, not merely his argument, but also caught the spirit of his socialist utterance — and I thank him and all who helped me out of darkness into light."^[9]

Additionally, Debs was visited in jail by Milwaukee socialist newspaper editor Victor L. Berger, who, in Debs' words, "came to Woodstock, as if a providential instrument, and delivered the first impassioned message of Socialism I had ever heard."^[9] Debs emerged from jail at the end of his sentence a changed man. He would spend the final three decades of his life proselytizing for the socialist cause.

After Debs' release from prison in 1895, he started his Socialist political career. Debs persuaded the American Railway Union membership to join with the Brotherhood of the Cooperative Commonwealth to found the Social Democracy of America. Debs, along with Elliott, were the first federal office candidates for the fledgling Socialist party, running (unsuccessfully) for US president and Congress in 1900.^[10] Along with his running mate Job Harriman, Debs received 87,945 votes—0.6% of the popular vote—and no electoral votes.^[11]

Split to found the Social Democratic Party[link]

Campaign poster from his 1912 Presidential campaign, featuring Debs and Vice Presidential candidate Emil Seidel

One year later this group split and Debs went with the majority faction to found the Social Democratic Party of the United States, also called the Social Democratic Party. Debs was elected chairman of the Executive Board of the National Council, the board which governed the party. Although the party did not have a sole figure that governed its actions, Debs' position as chairman and his notoriety gave him the status of party figurehead.^[12] He was the Socialist Party of America candidate for president in 1904, 1908, 1912, and 1920 (the final time from prison).

In his showing in the 1904 election, Debs received 402,810 votes, which was 2.98% of the popular vote. Debs received no electoral votes, and, with vice presidential candidate Benjamin Hanford, ultimately finished third overall.^[13] In the 1908 election, Debs again ran on the same ticket as Benjamin Hanford. While receiving a slightly higher number of votes in the popular vote, 420,852, he received 2.83% of the popular vote. Again Debs received no electoral votes.^[14] Debs received 5.99% of the popular vote (a total of 901,551 votes) in 1912, while his total of 913,693 votes in the 1920 campaign remains the all-time high for a Socialist Party candidate.^[15] Running alongside Emil Seidel, Debs again received no electoral votes.^[16]

Although he received some success as a third-party candidate, Debs was largely dismissive of the electoral process; he distrusted the political bargains that Victor Berger and other "Sewer Socialists" had made in winning local offices. He put much more value on organizing workers into unions, favoring unions that brought together all workers in a given industry over those organized by the craft skills workers practiced. Debs saw the working class as the one class to organize, educate, and emancipate itself by itself.^[17]

Founding the IWW[link]

After his work with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and the American Railway Union, Debs' next major work in organizing a labor union came during the founding of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). On June 27, 1905, in Chicago, Illinois, Debs and other influential union leaders including Big Bill Haywood, leader of the Western Federation of Miners, and Daniel De León, leader of the Socialist Labor Party, held what Haywood called the "Continental Congress of the working class". Haywood stated: "We are here to confederate the workers of this country into a working class movement that shall have for its purpose the emancipation of the working class...",^[18] and for Debs: "We are here to perform a task so great that it appeals to our best thought, our united energies, and will enlist our most loyal support; a task in the presence of which weak men might falter and despair, but from which it is impossible to shrink without betraying the working class."^[19]

Socialists split with the IWW[link]

Although the IWW was built on the basis of uniting workers of industry, a rift began between the union and the Socialist Party. It started when the electoral wing of the Socialist Party, led by Victor Berger and Morris Hillquit, became irritated with speeches by Haywood.^[20] In December 1911, Haywood told a Lower East Side audience at New York's Cooper Union that parliamentary Socialists were "step-at-a-time people whose every step is just a little shorter than the preceding step." It was better, Haywood said, to "elect the superintendent of some branch of industry, than to elect some congressman to the United States Congress."^[21] In response, Hillquit attacked the IWW as "purely anarchistic..."^[22]

The Cooper Union speech was the beginning of a split between Bill Haywood and the Socialist Party, leading to the split between the factions of the IWW, one faction loyal to the Socialist Party, and the other to Haywood.^[22] The rift presented a problem for Debs, who was influential in both the IWW and the Socialist Party. The final straw between Haywood and the Socialist Party came during the Lawrence textile strike when, disgusted with the decision of the elected officials in Lawrence, Massachusetts, to send police who subsequently used their clubs on children, Haywood publicly declared that "I will not vote again" until such a circumstance was rectified.^[23] Haywood was purged from the National Executive Committee by passage of an amendment that focused on the direct action and sabotage tactics advocated by the IWW.^[24] Debs was probably the only person who could have saved Haywood's seat.^[25]

In 1906, when Haywood had been on trial for his life in Idaho, Debs had described him as "the Lincoln of Labor" and called for Haywood to run against Theodore Roosevelt for president of the United States.,^[26] but times had changed and Debs, facing a split in the Party, chose to echo Hillquit's words, accusing the IWW of representing anarchy.^[27] Debs thereafter stated that he had opposed the amendment, but that once it was adopted it should be obeyed.^[25] Debs remained friendly to Haywood and the IWW after the expulsion, despite their perceived differences over IWW tactics.^[27]

Debs delivering a speech in Chicago in 1912.

Prior to Haywood's dismissal, the Socialist Party membership had reached an all-time high of 135,000. One year later, four months after Haywood was recalled, the membership dropped to 80,000. The reformists in the Socialist Party attributed the decline to the departure of the "Haywood element", and predicted that the party would recover. It did not; in the election of 1912 many of the Socialists who had been elected to public office lost their seats.^[25]

Leadership style[link]

Debs was noted by many to be a charismatic speaker who sometimes called on the vocabulary of Christianity and much of the oratorical style of evangelism—even though he was generally disdainful of organized religion.^[28] As Heywood Broun noted in his eulogy for Debs, quoting a fellow Socialist: "That old man with the burning eyes actually believes that there can be such a thing as the brotherhood of man. And that's not the funniest part of it. As long as he's around I believe it myself."^[29]

Although sometimes called "King Debs",^[30] Debs himself was not wholly comfortable with his standing as a leader. As he told an audience in Detroit in 1906:^[31]

I am not a Labor Leader; I do not want you to follow me or anyone else; if you are looking for a Moses to lead you out of this capitalist wilderness, you will stay right where you are. I would not lead you into the promised land if I could, because if I led you in, some one else would lead you out. You must use your heads as well as your hands, and get yourself out of your present condition.^[32]

Arrest and imprisonment[link]

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Debs' Speech of Sedition

Debs' speeches against the Wilson administration and the war earned the undying enmity of President Woodrow Wilson, who later called Debs a "traitor to his country."^[33] On June 16, 1918, Debs made a speech in Canton, Ohio, urging resistance to the military draft of World War I. He was arrested on June 30 and charged with 10 counts of sedition. His trial defense called no witnesses, asking instead that Debs be allowed to address the court in his defense. That unusual request was granted, and Debs spoke for 2 hours. He was found guilty on September 12. At his sentencing hearing on September 14, he again addressed the court, and his speech has become a classic. Heywood Broun, a liberal journalist and not a Debs partisan, said it was "one of the most beautiful and moving passage in the English language. He was for that one afternoon touched with inspiration. If anyone told me that tongues of fire danced upon his shoulders as he spoke, I would believe it."^[34]

He said in part:^[35]

Your honor, I have stated in this court that I am opposed to the form of our present government; that I am opposed to the social system in which we live; that I believe in the change of both but by perfectly peaceable and orderly means....

I am thinking this morning of the men in the mills and factories; I am thinking of the women who, for a paltry wage, are compelled to work out their lives; of the little children who, in this system, are robbed of their childhood, and in their early, tender years, are seized in the remorseless grasp of Mammon, and forced into the industrial dungeons, there to feed the machines while they themselves are being starved body and soul....

Your honor, I ask no mercy, I plead for no immunity. I realize that finally the right must prevail. I never more fully comprehended than now the great struggle between the powers of greed on the one hand and upon the other the rising hosts of freedom. I can see the dawn of a better day of humanity. The people are awakening. In due course of time they will come into their own.

When the mariner, sailing over tropic seas, looks for relief from his weary watch, he turns his eyes toward the Southern Cross, burning luridly above the tempest-vexed ocean. As the midnight approaches the Southern Cross begins to bend, and the whirling worlds change their places, and with starry finger-points the Almighty marks the passage of Time upon the dial of the universe; and though no bell may beat the glad tidings, the look-out knows that the midnight is passing – that relief and rest are close at hand.

Let the people take heart and hope everywhere, for the cross is bending, midnight is passing, and joy cometh with the morning.

Debs was sentenced on November 18, 1918 to ten years in prison. He was also disenfranchised for life.^[1] Debs presented what has been called his best-remembered statement at his sentencing hearing:^[36]

Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.

Debs appealed his conviction to the Supreme Court. In its ruling on Debs v. United States, the court examined several statements Debs had made regarding World War I and socialism. While Debs had carefully guarded his speeches in an attempt to comply with the Espionage Act, the Court found he still had the intention and effect of obstructing the draft and military recruitment. Among other things, the Court cited Debs' praise for those imprisoned for obstructing the draft. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. stated in his opinion that little attention was needed since Debs' case was essentially the same as that of Schenck v. United States, in which the Court had upheld a similar conviction.^[37]

Clifford Berryman's cartoon depiction of Debs' 1920 presidential run from prison

Debs went to prison on April 13, 1919.^[4] In protest of his jailing, Charles Ruthenberg led a parade of unionists, socialists, anarchists and communists to march on May 1 (May Day) 1919, in Cleveland, Ohio. The event quickly broke into the violent May Day Riots of 1919. Debs ran for president in the 1920 election while in prison in Atlanta, Georgia, at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. He received 913,664 write-in votes (3.4%),^[38] slightly less than he had won in 1912, when he received 6%, the highest number of votes for a Socialist Party presidential candidate in the U.S.^[4][39] His time in prison also inspired Debs to write a series of columns deeply critical of the prison system, which appeared in sanitized form in the Bell Syndicate and appeared in his only book, Walls and Bars, with several added chapters. It was published posthumously.^[1]

In March 1919 President Wilson asked Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer for his opinion on clemency for Debs, but offered his own: "I doubt the wisdom and public effect of such an action." Palmer generally favored releasing people convicted under the wartime security acts, but when he consulted with Debs' prosecutors—even those with records as defenders of civil liberties—assured him that Debs' conviction was correct and his sentence appropriate.^[40] The President and his Attorney General both believed that public opinion opposed clemency and that releasing Debs could strengthen Wilson's opponents in the debate over the ratification of the peace treaty. Palmer proposed clemency in August and October 1920 without success.^[41]

At one point Wilson wrote: "While the flower of American youth was pouring out its blood to vindicate the cause of civilization, this man, Debs, stood behind the lines sniping, attacking, and denouncing them....This man was a traitor to his country and he will never be pardoned during my administration."^[42] In January 1921, Palmer, citing Debs' deteriorating health, proposed to President Wilson that Debs receive a presidential pardon freeing him on February 12, Lincoln's birthday. President Wilson returned the paperwork after writing "Denied" across it.^[43]

On December 23, 1921, President Harding commuted Debs' sentence to time served, effective Christmas Day. He did not issue a pardon. A White House statement summarized the administration's view of Debs' case: "There is no question of his guilt....He was by no means as rabid and outspoken in his expressions as many others, and but for his prominence and the resulting far-reaching effect of his words, very probably might not have received the sentence he did. He is an old man, not strong physically. He is a man of much personal charm and impressive personality, which qualifications make him a dangerous man calculated to mislead the unthinking and affording excuse for those with criminal intent."^[44]

Last years[link]

Debs leaving the White House, the day after being released from prison in 1921.

When Debs was released from the Atlanta Penitentiary, the other prisoners sent him off with "a roar of cheers" and a crowd of 50,000 greeted his return to Terre Haute to the accompaniment of band music.^[45] En route home, Debs was warmly received at the White House by Harding, who greeted him by saying: "Well, I've heard so damned much about you, Mr. Debs, that I am now glad to meet you personally."^[46] In 1924, Debs was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by the Finnish Socialist Karl H. Wiik on the grounds that "Debs started to work actively for peace during World War I, mainly because he considered the war to be in the interest of capitalism."^[47] In the fall of 1926, Debs was admitted to Lindlahr Sanitarium in Elmhurst, Illinois.^[1] He died there of heart failure on October 20, 1926, at the age of 70.^[45] His body was cremated and buried in Highland Lawn Cemetery.^[48]

Legacy[link]

Eugene Debs helped motivate the American Left as a measure of political opposition to corporations and World War I. American socialists, communists, and anarchists honor his compassion for the labor movement and motivation to have the average working man build socialism without large state involvement.^[49] Several books have been written about his life as an inspirational American socialist. On May 22, 1962, Debs' home was purchased by the Eugene V. Debs Foundation for $9,500 and the work of making it into a Debs memorial was begun. In 1965 it was made an official historic site of the state of Indiana, and in 1966 it was made an official National Historic Landmark of the National Parks system of the Department of Interior of the United States. The preservation of the museum is monitored regularly by the National Park Service. In 1990, the U.S. Department of Labor named Debs a member of its Labor Hall of Fame.^[50]

The former New York radio station WEVD (now ESPN radio) was named in his honor.^[51]

While Debs did not leave a collection of papers to a university library, the pamphlet collection that he and his brother amassed now resides at Indiana State University in Terre Haute. Scholar Bernard Brommel, author of a 1978 biography of Debs, has also donated his biographical research materials to the Newberry Library in Chicago, where they are open to researchers.^[52] The original manuscript of Debs' book Walls and Bars, with handwritten amendments, presumably by Debs, resides in the Thomas J. Morgan Papers in the Special Collections department of the University of Chicago Library.^[53]

Inspirations[link]

Although Debs was a real person his life and legacy has also inspired works in a literary way. Eugene Debs was a part of the many people added to the U.S.A Trilogy written by John Dos Passos. His Biography is the first of many in the 42nd Parallel. His affiliation with the IWW sponsored actions of the characters in the novel such as the fictional character Mac.^[54]

Footnotes[link]

Works[link]

• Labor and Freedom. St. Louis: Phil Wagner, 1916
• Walls and Bars: Prisons and Prison Life In The "Land Of The Free." Chicago: Socialist Party, 1927

Further reading[link]

• Bernard J. Brommel, Eugene V. Debs: Spokesman for Labor and Socialism. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr Publishing Co., 1978.
• Dave Burns, "The Soul of Socialism: Christianity, Civilization, and Citizenship in the Thought of Eugene Debs" in Labor, vol. 5, no. 2 (2008), pp. 83–116.
• Peter Carlson, Roughneck, The Life and Times of Big Bill Haywood. New York: W.W. Norton, 1983.
• McAlister Coleman, Eugene V. Debs: A Man Unafraid. New York: Greenberg, 1930.
• J. Robert Constantine (ed.), Gentle Rebel: Letters of Eugene V. Debs. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1995.
• J. Robert Constantine (ed.), Letters of Eugene V. Debs. In Three Volumes. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990.
• J. Robert Constantine and Gail Malmgreen (eds.) The Papers of Eugene V. Debs, 1834-1945: A Guide to the Microfilm Edition. Microfilming Corporation of America, 1983.
• Eugene V. Debs, Debs: His Life, Writings and Speeches. Girard, KS: Appeal to Reason, 1908.
• Ray Ginger, The Bending Cross: A Biography of Eugene Victor Debs. Rutgers University Press: 1949.
• Ronald Radosh (ed.), Great Lives Observed: Debs. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1971.
• Nick Salvatore, Eugene V. Debs: Citizen and Socialist. Reprinted by University of Illinois Press, 1984.
• Irving Stone. Adversary in the House. Doubleday: 1947.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Eugene V. Debs

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Eugene V. Debs

• Eugene V. Debs Foundation Museum and memorial in Deb's home from 1890 till death in 1926
• Eugene V. Debs Internet Archive, Marxists Internet Archive, www.marxists.org/ —Includes extensive collection of Debs' writings.
• Eugene Debs Page from the Antiauthoritarian Encyclopedia
• Debs Tendency at American Socialist Party.
• Eugene V. Debs at the Open Directory Project
• Eugene Debs on the IWW Memorial Page
• Other photos of Debs
• Justice Holmes and the 'Splendid Prisoner' Anthony Lewis on Debs from The New York Review of Books
• "Eugene Debs, Presidential Contender" from C-SPAN's The Contenders
• Historic film footage of Eugene Debs departing Atlanta penitentiary after presidential pardon, and exiting White House after visiting Harding

Mark Ruffalo
Ruffalo at the 2007 Toronto Film Festival
Born	Mark Alan Ruffalo (1967-11-22) November 22, 1967 (age 44) Kenosha, Wisconsin, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, director, producer, screenwriter
Years active	1987–present
Spouse	Sunrise Coigney (2000–present)

Mark Alan Ruffalo (born November 22, 1967) is an American actor, director, producer and screenwriter. He starred in films such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Zodiac, Shutter Island, Just Like Heaven, Collateral, You Can Count on Me, The Avengers, and The Kids Are All Right, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.^[1]

Early life[link]

Ruffalo was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin. His mother, Marie Rose (née Hebert), is a hairdresser and stylist, and his father, Frank Lawrence Ruffalo, Jr., worked as a construction painter.^[1][2][3] His father and maternal grandmother were of Italian descent, and his maternal grandfather was of French Canadian ancestry.^[4][5] He has two sisters, Tania and Nicole, and a brother, Scott,^[1] who died in December 2008. Ruffalo has described himself as having been a "happy kid"^[6] and his upbringing as taking place in a "very big" family with "lots of love".^[7] Of his father, Ruffalo has said, "He was an amazing, charismatic guy who was city high school wrestling champion three times. He was away a lot when I was growing up. I was very lonely for him.”^[8] Ruffalo was raised Roman Catholic; he attended both a Catholic and a progressive school. Ruffalo spent his teen years in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where his father worked. He graduated from First Colonial High School,^[1] and then moved with his family to San Diego, and later to Los Angeles, California. There, he took classes at the Stella Adler Conservatory and co-founded the Orpheus Theatre Company.^[1] With the OTC, he wrote, directed, and starred in a number of plays, and spent the next nine years earning his money as a bartender.

Career[link]

Acting[link]

Ruffalo had minor roles in films like The Dentist (1996), the low-key crime comedy Safe Men (1998) and Ang Lee's Civil War Western Ride with the Devil (1999). Through a chance meeting with writer Kenneth Lonergan, Ruffalo began collaborating with Lonergan and appeared in several of his plays, including the original cast of This is Our Youth (1998), which led to Ruffalo's role as Laura Linney's troubled, aimless drifter brother Terry in Lonergan's acclaimed, Academy Award-nominated 2000 film You Can Count on Me.^[1] He received favorable reviews for his performance in this film, often earning comparisons to the young Marlon Brando, and won awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and Montreal World Film Festival.^[1]

This led to other significant roles, including the films XX/XY (2002), Isabel Coixet's My Life Without Me with Sarah Polley (2003), Jane Campion's In the Cut with Meg Ryan (2003), Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), and We Don't Live Here Anymore (2004), which is based upon two short stories written by Andre Dubus.^[1] He appeared opposite Tom Cruise as a narcotics detective in Michael Mann's acclaimed crime-thriller Collateral (2004).^[1] More recently, Ruffalo has appeared as a romantic lead in "chick flicks" such as View From the Top (2002), 13 Going on 30 (2004), Just Like Heaven (2005) and Rumor Has It (2005).^[1] In 2006, Ruffalo starred in Clifford Odets's Awake and Sing! at the Belasco Theatre in New York, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play.^[1] In March 2007, he appeared in Zodiac as SFPD homicide inspector Dave Toschi, who ran the investigation to find and apprehend the Zodiac killer from 1969 through most of the 1970s.^[1] In 2007, Ruffalo played divorced lawyer Dwight Arno, who accidentally kills a child and speeds away, in Terry George's film Reservation Road, based on the novel by John Burnham Schwartz.

In 2008, Ruffalo starred as a con man in The Brothers Bloom with Adrien Brody and Rachel Weisz. Also in 2008, he starred along with Julianne Moore in Blindness. 2008 also saw Ruffalo in Brian Goodman's What Doesn't Kill You with Ethan Hawke and Amanda Peet, which was shown at the Toronto Film Festival. In 2009, he played a brief role in the film Where The Wild Things Are as Max's mother's boyfriend. In 2010, he costarred in the Martin Scorsese thriller Shutter Island as U.S. Marshal Chuck Aule, the partner of Leonardo DiCaprio's character Teddy Daniels.^[9]

In 2010, he starred in Lisa Cholodenko's The Kids Are All Right, with Annette Bening and Julianne Moore. Ruffalo stated in an interview that he approached Cholodenko after watching High Art and said he would love to work with her. Years later, she called Ruffalo and said she wrote a script, and had him in mind for the part. The performance earned him an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor.^[10]

He is set to star in Second Coming, a low-budget indie film. According to Production Weekly, it is being produced by Richard N. Gladstein, Laura Bickford, and Ludovic Dardenay. The movie will also star Marion Cotillard, Ethan Hawke, Anjelica Huston, and Thandie Newton, and it will be the directorial debut of Nenad Cicin-Sain.^[11]

On July 23, 2010, it was announced that Ruffalo would star in the 2012 superhero film The Avengers. He received critical acclaim for his performance as Dr. Bruce Banner in the film.^[12]

Directing[link]

He made his directorial debut with Sympathy for Delicious, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won the Special Jury Prize. On releasing the film, Ruffalo said, "I'm still looking for distribution. I have a couple offers on the table, but I'm holding out for something a little bigger. I've been screening it for a lot of groups, and people are really responding to it. I think they're scared of that movie."^[13] Of directing, he says, "I liken it to an actor gets to eat one slice, and a director gets to eat the whole pie. [laughs] You get to collaborate with gifted people who are good at their craft, so you're orchestrating all these different mediums. You're helping people through the script to realize their own talents. I find that really satisfying, and I felt like being in front of the camera is so intense and self-involved and personal, and directing isn't like that for me. It's a much more communal experience. Last year at this time, I was like, 'I'm not going back to acting, man. No way, it's done.' I haven't worked in a year. It's really taken me that long to get back to my love for what I do for acting. I would like to do 50-50, if I could. Really, I'd just be directing right now, but I can't support my family doing that at this moment, and I love acting. It's not a bad position to be in."^[13]

Personal life[link]

Family[link]

Since June 2000, Mark has been married to French-American actress Sunrise Coigney (born Christina Sunrise Coigney on September 17, 1972 in San Francisco), and they have three children: a son Keen, born in 2001, and daughters Bella Noche, born in 2005, and Odette, born in 2007, in Los Angeles.^[14]

On December 1, 2008, Ruffalo's brother, Scott, was shot at his Beverly Hills condominium,^[15] with one report describing the shooting as "execution-style" in the back of the head.^[16] Scott died on December 8, 2008. Police took two people into custody: a woman who is considered a suspect and a man considered a "person of interest".^[17] One of the suspects reportedly told police that Scott Ruffalo shot himself while playing Russian roulette;^[18] the witnesses were later released as the police investigation continued.^[19]

In 2002, Ruffalo was diagnosed with an acoustic neuroma, a type of brain tumor, and had surgery; the tumor was benign, but resulted in a period of partial facial paralysis.^[2] He fully recovered from the paralysis and returned to good health as well as an active life and movie career.

Ruffalo is a vegetarian.^[20]

Political views[link]

On October 4, 2006, he appeared on Democracy Now!, a daily news program. He spoke against the War in Iraq, the Military Commissions Act of 2006, torture, and the Bush Administration. He also announced he would speak at The World Can't Wait Protest in New York City on October 5, 2006. Ruffalo contributed to the campaign of former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel for the 2008 Democratic Party nomination for President.^[21]

In October 2007, Ruffalo criticized the 9/11 Commission Report as "completely illegitimate" and called for re-opening the investigation. He said: "I saw the way they all came down and I am baffled. My first reaction is that buildings don't fall down like that." He also criticized the 9/11 truth movement, saying "There's so much information that's been put out there by truth for 9/11 and ... so much of it has been stretched that a lot of people are grabbing hold of the more sensational parts of what doesn't jibe..."^[22]

[edit] Opposition to fracking

On October 4, 2010, Ruffalo, who makes his home with his family in Callicoon, New York, appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show to discuss hydraulic fracturing and the The FRAC Act of 2009.^[23] Ruffalo stated in the December 2010 issue of GQ magazine that after he organized screenings in Pennsylvania of a documentary about natural-gas-drilling called Gasland, he was placed on a terror advisory list.^[24] The Department of Homeland Security denied that they had him on a list.^[25]

On July 13, 2011, Ruffalo appeared on Countdown With Keith Olbermann to discuss fracking, most particularly in New York. "This is an industry that is the dirtiest, slimiest, most arrogant, and negligent that you can imagine," Ruffalo says. Ruffalo taped an "online segment extra" for Countdown, during which time Keith Olbermann offered him the opportunity to become an official Countdown Contributor. Ruffalo gratefully accepted.^[26]

On March 28, 2012, Ruffalo appeared on The Colbert Report to discuss his continued opposition to fracking and promote waterdefense.org.^[27]

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Mark Ruffalo at the Internet Movie Database
• Mark Ruffalo at the Internet Broadway Database
• Mark Ruffalo at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• People in Film: Mark Ruffalo at Focus Features
• Clips from Ruffalo interview on Inside the Actors Studio
• Mark Ruffalo Producer Profile for The 1 Second Film

Cindy Sheehan
Cindy gives the peace sign in front of the White House in 2006.
Born	(1957-07-10) July 10, 1957 (age 54) Inglewood, California
Occupation	Activist

Cindy Lee Miller Sheehan (born July 10, 1957) is an American anti-war activist whose son, U.S. Army Specialist Casey Sheehan, was killed by enemy action during the Iraq War. She attracted national and international media attention in August 2005 for her extended anti-war protest at a makeshift camp outside President George W. Bush's Texas ranch—a stand that drew both passionate support and angry criticism. Sheehan ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2008. She is a vocal critic of President Barack Obama's foreign policy. Her memoir, Peace Mom: A Mother's Journey Through Heartache to Activism, was published in 2006.

Personal life[link]

Cindy Sheehan was born in Inglewood, California in 1957. Her father worked at Lockheed while her mother raised her family. She graduated with honors from Cerritos College and studied history at UCLA. She worked as a youth minister at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Vacaville, California for eight years, and also coordinated an after-school program for at-risk middle school children for the City of Vacaville. In 1977 she married Patrick Sheehan, in Norwalk, California; they had four children, including Casey Sheehan (born in 1979), who was killed in action in Iraq on April 4, 2004. Patrick Sheehan filed for divorce on August 12, 2005, citing irreconcilable differences.^[1][2]

Casey Sheehan[link]

Casey Austin Sheehan (May 29, 1979–April 4, 2004) was a Specialist in the United States Army who was killed by enemy action while serving in the Iraq War. He was the son of Patrick Sheehan, a sales representative, and Cindy Sheehan.

Military service[link]

In May 2000, Sheehan enlisted in the United States Army as a light-wheeled vehicle mechanic, MOS 63B. It has been reported that he may have considered enlisting as a Chaplain's assistant MOS 56M. (Sheehan had acted as an altar server during the Palm Sunday mass on the morning of his death).^[3]

Near the end of his active service, the U.S. invasion of Iraq began. Sheehan re-enlisted, knowing that his unit would be sent there.^[4] Sheehan's division, the First Cavalry Division, was sent to Iraq. On March 19, 2004, Sheehan's Battery C, 1st Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, arrived at FOB Camp War Eagle in Sadr City. On April 4, 2004, Sheehan was killed in action after volunteering to be part of a Quick Reaction Force to rescue American troops.

Burial[link]

Sheehan is buried in Vacaville-Elmira Cemetery in Vacaville, California. In May 2006, his mother finally provided a tombstone at his grave following criticism that Casey, who died in 2004, lacked one. Cindy Sheehan paid for the tombstone herself, stating "It is important for the rest of Casey's family to have one... I guess the pain of seeing it etched in marble that he is dead is another pain I will have to deal with." Cindy Sheehan maintains that the U.S. "government should have paid for it because of its responsibility for his death." The Department of Veterans Affairs does provide such monuments upon request.^[5]

Legacy[link]

Casey Sheehan was awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star with V for Valor posthumously for his actions April 4, 2004.^[6] The chapel at Fort Hood started a new Knights of Columbus chapter that was named the Specialist Casey Austin Sheehan Council.^[7] After his death, the Casey Austin Sheehan Memorial Award was created as an annual award to honor his memory.^{[citation needed]} His mother, Cindy Sheehan, became a prominent anti-war activist after his death.

Anti-war campaign[link]

Sheehan states she initially questioned the urgency of the invasion of Iraq, but did not become active in the anti-war effort until after her son's death.^[8] Sheehan and other military families met with United States President George W. Bush in June 2004 at Fort Lewis, near Tacoma, Washington, about three months after her son's death. In a June 24, 2004 interview with the Vacaville Reporter, published soon after the meeting, she stated, "We haven't been happy with the way the war has been handled. The President has changed his reasons for being over there every time a reason is proven false or an objective reached." She also stated that President Bush was "... sincere about wanting freedom for the Iraqis. I know [he] feels pain for our loss. And I know he's a man of God."^[9]

Sheehan gave another interview on October 4, 2004, stating that she did not understand the reasons for the Iraq invasion and never thought that Iraq posed an imminent threat to the United States. She further stated that her son's death had compelled her to speak out against the war.^[8]

Friends and family of Cindy Sheehan hold a photo of Casey Sheehan at an anti-war demonstration in Arlington, Virginia on October 2, 2004.

For the presidential inauguration in January 2005, Sheehan traveled to Washington, DC to speak at the opening of "Eyes Wide Open: the Human Cost of War," a traveling exhibition created by the American Friends Service Committee that displays pairs of combat boots to represent U.S. military casualties.^[10] She also traveled with the exhibition to other locations and donated her son Casey's boots, stating, "Behind these boots is one broken-hearted family."^[11][12]

Sheehan was one of the nine founding members of Gold Star Families for Peace, an organization she created in January 2005 with other families she met at the inauguration. It seeks to end the U.S. occupation of Iraq, and provides support for families of soldiers killed in Iraq.^{[10][13] [14]}

Sheehan attracted international attention in early August 2005, when she traveled to President Bush's Prairie Chapel Ranch, just outside Crawford, Texas, demanding a second meeting with the President.^[15][16] She told members of Veterans for Peace, "I'm gonna say, 'And you tell me, what the noble cause is that my son died for.' And if he even starts to say freedom and democracy, I'm gonna say, bullshit. You tell me the truth. You tell me that my son died for oil. You tell me that my son died to make your friends rich...You tell me that, you don't tell me my son died for freedom and democracy." She also vowed not to pay her federal income tax for 2004 because that was the year her son was killed.^[17]

Tax Position[link]

Sheehan is being sued by the IRS for failure to pay taxes. Sheehan said "I feel like I gave my son to this country in an illegal and immoral war. I'll never get him back," Sheehan said. "And, so, if they can give me my son back, then I'll pay my taxes. And that's not going to happen." ^[18]

Camp Casey[link]

On August 6, 2005, Sheehan created a makeshift camp in a ditch by the side of the road about three miles (5 km) from President Bush's Prairie Chapel Ranch near Crawford, Texas and announced her intention to stay (sleeping in a pup tent at night) until she was granted a face-to-face meeting with the President.^[19] Sheehan started her protest the day the President started a planned five-week vacation. The encampment was publicized widely by the Mintwood Media Collective on behalf of Gold Star Families for Peace and Military Families Speak Out. A few days later, the media began referring to Sheehan's camp as "Camp Casey."^[20]

Members of White House vigil on August 17, 2005 in support of Cindy Sheehan's protest at President Bush's Crawford ranch

Sheehan spent most of the next four weeks in Crawford. On some days as many as 1,500 supporters visited Camp Casey,^[21] including members of the U.S. Congress, as well as several notable actors, singers, and civil rights activists.

Gold Star Families for Peace, of which Sheehan is a founding member, released a TV commercial featuring Sheehan, broadcast on Crawford and Waco cable channels near Bush's ranch.^[22] The group conducted a walk to a police station just outside Bush's ranch and delivered a bundle of oversized letters written by them to First Lady Laura Bush, appealing to her as a mother to support their movement.^[23]

On August 16, Sheehan moved her camp closer to the Bush ranch after being offered the use of a piece of land owned by a supporter, Fred Mattlage.^[24]

In late August, Sheehan stated that she would continue to campaign against the Iraq war even if granted a meeting with Bush. She also announced the Bring Them Home Now Tour, to depart on September 1 and arrive in Washington, DC, on September 24 for three days of demonstrations. The tour, which covered 42 cities in 26 states, was publicized by the Mintwood Media Collective, and garnered international media coverage. On the third day, Sheehan and about 370 other anti-war activists were arrested for demonstrating on the White House sidewalk.^[25]

Sheehan's actions led supporters such as Rev. Lennox Yearwood, CEO of the Hip Hop Caucus, to describe her as "the Rosa Parks of the antiwar movement."^[26] Sheehan also gained the label of "Peace Mom" from the mainstream media.^[27][28][29]

Political activism[link]

In September 2005, Sheehan moved into the Berkeley, California home of Stephen Pearcy and Virginia Pearcy,^[30][31][32] where she lived for just over a year, during which time she wrote two books. Also that month, Sheehan met with Senator John McCain, and later called him a "warmonger."^[33] Between 2005 and 2007, Sheehan attended several anti-war events in Sacramento organized by the Pearcys.^{[34][35][36][37][38][39]} Also in September 2005, the Bring Them Home Now Tour was organized by Gold Star Families for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, and Veterans For Peace. Inspired by Sheehan and frequently including Sheehan as a speaker, it was a rolling anti-war protest against the Iraq War, beginning in Crawford, Texas, traveling three routes across the country (with rallies along the way) and culminating in a rally in Washington, DC later in September 2005.

On October 24, 2005, Sheehan said that she planned to speak at the White House and then tie herself to the fence.^[40] She and 28 others were arrested in a sit-in at the White House on October 26.^[41]

Sheehan went to London in early December 2005 and was interviewed by BBC Radio 4^[42] and by The Guardian.^[43] On December 10, Sheehan addressed the International Peace Conference, organized by the Stop the War Coalition. Later in the evening, she attended the London Premiere of Peace Mom, a play written by Dario Fo (Literature Nobel laureate) about her,^[44] in which the role of Sheehan was played by Frances de la Tour. On December 13, Sheehan traveled to Ireland, where she met Irish Foreign Affairs minister Dermot Ahern. She voiced her objection to U.S. aircraft refueling at Shannon Airport, stating, "Your Government, even though they didn't send troops to Iraq, are complicit in the crimes by allowing the planes to land and refuel."^[45]

On January 31, 2006, Sheehan wore a T-shirt reading "2,245 Dead. How many more?" to Bush's State of the Union address and was removed and arrested by Capitol Police.^[46] Additionally, Beverly Young, the wife of Representative Bill Young (R., Fla.), was told to leave because she was wearing a T-shirt that read "Support the Troops: Defending Our Freedom." (As a matter of policy, visitors to Congress are not allowed to wear clothing displaying type of any kind.)

Sheehan in Melbourne speaking in support of David Hicks, May 2006.

On March 7, 2006, Sheehan was arrested in New York "after blocking the door to the U.S. Mission to the U.N. offices" during a protest with Iraqi women against the war.^[47]

Sheehan and Gold Star Families for Peace were awarded the 'Domestic Human Rights Award' by Global Exchange, an international human rights organization based in San Francisco.

Several organizations planned a hunger strike to begin on July 4, 2006;^[48] Sheehan stated she would participate. On July 5, Sheehan appeared on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews to discuss the war and her upcoming hunger strike. On the show, she called Bush "the biggest terrorist in the world" and "worse than Osama Bin Laden," and conceded that she would rather live under Venezuela's Hugo Chávez than Bush.^[49] Later that month, Sheehan purchased 5 acres (20,000 m²) of land in Crawford, Texas, near Bush's private residence.

On May 26 and May 28, 2007, Sheehan posted two messages to Daily Kos announcing that she was leaving the Democratic Party after the Democratic-controlled Congress passed a bill authorizing the continued funding of the war in Iraq.^[50] She also submitted her resignation as the "face" of the American anti-war movement, stating that she wanted to go home and be a mother to her surviving children. However, on July 3, 2007, in response to President Bush's commutation of Scooter Libby's sentence, she announced her return to activism.^[51] She focused on her Congressional campaign in 2008.

In August 2009, Sheehan protested at Martha's Vineyard during President Barack Obama's stay there. According to ABC News: "Sheehan invoked Senator Ted Kennedy's passing as part of her message, noting that he was firmly anti-war and how he said his proudest vote as a senator was his 2002 vote against the Iraq war."^[52] On October 5, 2009, Sheehan was arrested with 60 others at the White House protesting President Obama's continuation of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. She told CNN: "I think the mood of the country and the mood of our movement is getting a little bit more desperate, and (that) this will be the time to be able to translate our tireless activism and work for peace."^[53] On December 10, 2009, Sheehan protested on the streets of Oslo, Norway, as President Barack Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize.^[54]

On March 20, 2010, Sheehan was again arrested in front of the White House, along with seven others, after they defied orders by officers of the United States Park Police to clear the sidewalk on Pennsylvania Avenue.^[55] On July 12, Sheehan and four other activists were on trial in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia stemming from the arrests. The government decided not to try three others arrested that day, and had their cases dismissed. Sheehan and two others were acquitted of crossing a police line, while the other two were found guilty.^[56]

On May 2, 2011, Sheehan released a statement indicating that she considers the death of Osama bin Laden to be a hoax, stating: "If you believe the newest death of OBL, you’re stupid."^[57] She referred to America as a "lying, murderous Empire" and told Americans, whom she called "brainwashed," to "put [their] flags away."^[57][58]

In October 2011, Sheehan was arrested in Sacramento as part of an anti-Wall Street movement.^[59]

Despite agreeing to stand as the Socialist Party USA's vice-presidential nominee for the 2012 elections, the party's national convention voted on October 15, 2011, to block her candidacy, on the official grounds that she isn't a member of the party.^[60] The vice-presidential nomination went to Alejandro Mendoza of Texas.

Sheehan hosts a weekly radio show she started in 2009. She has interviewed notable activists and world leaders, including Howard Zinn, Ray McGovern, Ann Wright and Hugo Chávez. Sheehan also maintains a website "Cindy's Soapbox."

Congressional election campaign[link]

Wikinews has related news: San Francisco's Green Party endorses Cindy Sheehan in bid against Speaker Pelosi

In July 2007, Sheehan announced that she would run against Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi for Representative of California's 8th District, based on Pelosi's failure to attempt impeachment of Bush.^[61] Up until her run for U.S. Congress, Sheehan lived outside Pelosi's district, in Dixon, California; however, she moved to San Francisco's Mission District after declaring her candidacy.^[62] Earlier, in 2006, she had spoken of ambitions to challenge Dianne Feinstein for her seat in the United States Senate.^[63]

Sheehan ran on a platform of single-payer health care, media reform, overturning all free trade agreements, repealing the Patriot Act, renewable energy, nationalizing oil and electricity, ending the War on Drugs, legalizing cannabis, ensuring all talks in the Middle East are fair to all parties, ending torture, closing Guantanamo Bay detention camp, overseas commitment to cleaning up Superfund sites, ending deregulation, ending No Child Left Behind, and legalizing same-sex marriage.^[64] Sheehan lost the 2008 election to the incumbent Pelosi. In a seven-way race, Sheehan came in second with 46,118 votes (16.14%) to Pelosi's 71.56%.^[65]

Published work[link]

• Dear President Bush (2006) ISBN 0872864545
• Peace Mom (2006) ISBN 074329792X

Political views[link]

In 2010, Sheehan changed her voter registration in California and became a member of the Peace and Freedom Party.^[66]

See also[link]

• American popular opinion on invasion of Iraq
• Movement to impeach George W. Bush
• Nadia McCaffrey, anti-war activist
• Opposition to the Iraq War
• Protests against the Iraq War
• Views on the 2003 invasion of Iraq

References[link]