Gordon --

You're not being "picky" at all! She's the wrong abolitionist! I corrected my silly Stowe/Howe error elsewhere but neglected to do so here. Thanks for correcting me.

Earlier this summer I had been reading about Julia Ward Howe and her husband, who provided funding for John Brown to purchase weapons. The design and inspiration for Brown's Harpers Ferry operation -- violence and catastrophe, widespread death and destruction motivated by a fanatical religious belief -- differs little from the design and inspiration of the 9/11 hijackers.

To be fair, the Howes didn't know the specifics of the Harpers Ferry raid. Fearing that investigators would easily connect the money trail to his bank account, Dr. Howe decided to visit Canada. For her part, Mrs. Howe wrote that John Brown's actions were misguided but "heroic". She and her Massachusetts friends went into mourning after his execution.

John Brown was simply an American Osama bin Laden. It gets all over me that people like Mrs. Howe really admired him and that people sing 'that song' which honors his legacy.