#marat

BUT THERE WAS A TIME:

Here’s to the ones who deliberately step outside the ranks and ignore categorization. Here’s to the revolutionary who contradicts Newton based on experimental evidence on the diffraction of light; to the journalist who describes eye diseases; to the doctor who advocates for prison reforms; to the lifelong skeptic of lofty pretensions who is turned into a symbol before his blood has clotted.

Here’s to refusing to turn away from the fear and the violence and the treachery and the war; to claiming the guard-post, though armed with words alone. Perhaps, just enough to protect the shared ideals. Perhaps, too much. Perhaps, insufficient; history may have the answer, but how could one know that, when one is in the process of making the history happen?

Here’s to hard decisions made unflinchingly; to cutting through the rush of a new republic like a soldier escaping a siege, decisively and with full understanding of the inevitable defeat; and to words that continue to ring true as we offer complacency to the twin hydras of poverty and injustice in hope that it will be enough to escape them, just this time.

"...que la société humaine y prenne garde, on ne tuera Marat qu’en tuant la misère ; Charlotte Corday n’a rien fait ; tant qu’il y aura des misérables, il y aura sur l’horizon un nuage qui peut devenir un fantôme, et un fantôme qui peut devenir Marat." - Victor Hugo

Happy birthday, Marat.

Happy Birthday to the one and only Jean-Paul Marat!

Boo: The French Revolution museum in Vizille is temporarily closed.

Yay: You can still take a pic of Marat

Marat has been described as having an “insatiable thirst” that he could barely satisfy.