He wrote a book called Hocus Pocus. I saw it in the grocery store of all places (they used to put books in the end shelves at the checkout lines), and the name seemed cool, so I begged my mom to get it. I had gotten Guards! Guards! the same way lol.
It was my introduction to Vonnegut.
But the main character was named Eugene Debs Hartke. So I discovered both Vonnegut and socialism at the same time.
But it was one quote that stood out to me and still guides a lot of my thinking, "While there is a lower class, I am in it; while there is a criminal element, I am of it; and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.
That shit is real. That, to me, is the essence of what humans should keep in mind at all times. That we are no stronger than the least of us, and if we do not lift each other up, we all fall.
I’ve said a version of the idea in other ways since reading the quote in hocus pocus because I have this burning rage against bigotry. It’s this way of thinking I can’t shake, that as long as bigoted slurs exist, then I am of that group that is slurred. There’s a specific slur that got thrown around back when I was a bouncer and worked for a drag club, I’m sure you can guess what slur that is. That’s the one I first used the paraphrased quote with.
Anyway, Mr Debs, to me, exhibited everything that socialism is supposed to be, but very rarely lives up to. I’d be proud to share a cell with him.