Just in case you think that anti-war critics are treated harshly today, sometimes being called un-patriotic and all, and that xenophobic sentiment sometimes seems to be evident in discussions of illegal aliens or Muslim Arabs. It was once much worse:
HELENA, Montana (AP) -- It was a black mark on dozens of family histories that lingered for nearly nine decades -- until a journalism professor and a group of law students examined what happened to citizens who spoke out against the government during World War I.
On Wednesday, nearly 80 people convicted of sedition amid the war's anti-German hysteria received the first posthumous pardons in Montana history, including one who was imprisoned merely for calling the conflict a "rich man's war" and mocking food regulations during a time of rationing.
Governor Brian Schweitzer said the state was "about 80 years too late" in pardoning the mostly working-class people of German descent who were convicted of breaking what was then one of the harshest sedition laws in the nation.
We always strive to be better than we have been. That's the deal about this country.
