Copyright 1997-2007 Omniture, Inc. More info available at ldquo;It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly.
So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. rdquo;
-- Theodore Roosevelt, (1858 - 1919), 26th president of United States
From the ldquo;Man in the Arena rdquo; speech given April 23, 1910
Well, Jim Burke did it.
He produced and brought home to the F.
M. Kirby Center the musical, ldquo;The Molly Maguires. rdquo;
He perhaps exorcised some old demons rattling around in his head from the tales of coal miners rsquo; horrors he heard as a boy when he and his mother lived here because of the good graces of her two uncles.
ldquo;Without them we would have been homeless, rdquo; he recalls.
It was there in that house and around town that as a boy he heard about indignities suffered by the Irish -- his people -- cruelties dished out by the coal barons and the supervisors of the mines. They were men like the musical rsquo;s villain Franklin Gowen, a coal mine owner.
Those tales made the young Burke madder still. And along the way those tales of the Molly Maguires, who often took justice into their own hands, might have left in Burke rsquo;s mind some self-doubt.
ldquo;You ask yourself, rdquo; he reflects.
ldquo;Would I have been one of them (the Mollies)? Would I have fought back? rdquo;
Spend some time with Burke -- even if only for a few minutes -- and you see the fire in his twinkling Irish eyes.
You know the answer before he gives it. ldquo;I think I would have been one of them, rdquo; he says. ldquo;I would have been a Molly.
rdquo;
If any doubt lingered it is now gone.
From Thursday night through Saturday night, through four performances, Burke, in his musical, told the story of the friction and the fear and ultimately courage among the Irish as they debated what to do about their condition and that of most miners. Many banded together with agreement to throw a punch back if you had been hit by one.
Producing the musical took money from his own pocket, about $500,000, but it also took his own courage and convictions to open the production here.
He did it not only to infuse pride in the history of our people but also to remind us all what happened here in the late 1800s to virtually all miners, not just the Irish.
Burke has a history of being a successful capitalist.
He worked for ldquo;big business rdquo; as CFO of Paramount Pictures at one time in his career. But his heart and memory have never strayed from his roots and the work of his ldquo;people rdquo; to create a better life for successive generations such as himself.
He fought back last week with the tools of capitalism, not explosives and guns and axes and clubs.
He beat the old barons at their own game.
In the musical there is a song titled ldquo;Use that powder. rdquo; In it, Molly Maguire Jack Kehoe sings:
ldquo;Some men do nothing as their world falls apart.
Some men take action with no passion or heart.
I have to finish anything that I start.
That rsquo;s the thing I know.
That rsquo;s the thing I know rdquo;
The lyrics say something about Burke too. Because this magnificent effort to stage a musical is not only noteworthy to our community, it also reveals a fervor in Burke that started long ago.
And, along the way, he answered that question that probably raced through his head as he lay awake at night in his uncles rsquo; home in Wilkes-Barre, so many years ago, asking himself if he could have had the bravery to be a Molly.
His hometown poured into the Kirby last week as much to say thank you to a local boy made good as to see his musical and honor his courage.
And the Molly Maguires, you may be sure, accepted him as one of their own.
Richard L.
Connor is editor and publisher of the Times Leader.
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