Thomas did, in fact, run for President as a socialist. However, there's no credible record of Thomas ever having said such a thing. Ronald Reagan claimed he did but couldn't back it up. Neither could anybody else. No matter. Conservatives liked it and they liked Grandpa Ronnie.

The fact-checking Snopes.org found the email claim was probably based on a letter from Upton Sinclair to Norman Thomas. Sinclair wrote, "The American people will take socialism, but they won't take the label."

Upton Sinclair was himself a socialist, perhaps best known for his 1906 novel "The Jungle" which details the filthy, demeaning conditions immigrant Americans faced in the unregulated meatpacking industry in Chicago. I paid three bucks for a Dover Publications paperback to re-read as a reminder of our not-always-so-shining capitalist history-- and as a warning for tomorrow.

The back cover blurb reads: "The brutally grim story of a Slavic family who emigrates to America, 'The Jungle'" tells of their rapid and inexorable descent into numbing poverty, moral degradation, and social and economic despair. Vulnerable and isolated, the family of Jurgis Rudkus struggles--unsuccessfully--to live in an urban jungle."

Quickly a best seller, "The Jungle" was instrumental in bringing about the Pure Food and Drug Act, among other changes on behalf of working people. Believe me, you wouldn't want to eat the meat coming out of the slaughterhouses in Upton Sinclair's day. You wouldn't want your husband or your twelve year old working there. The hours were long, the pay was crappy and the benefits nil. If you got hurt on the job, tough s....

An instant best-seller, Sinclair's book reeked with the stink of the Chicago stockyards. He told how dead rats were shoveled into sausage-grinding machines; how bribed inspectors looked the other way when diseased cows were slaughtered for beef, and how filth and guts were swept off the floor and packaged as "potted ham." (http://www.capitalcentury.com/1906.html)

Okey-dokey, so Reagan's wrong on the source of the quote. Close counts in horse-shoes, doesn't it? What do facts matter these days, eh?

Well, I get another email forward from the same lady, encouraging older Americans to remember the past. We should support the troops, reject socialism, place our right hand over our hearts, salute the flag, and repeat the Pledge of Allegiance proudly as we have been taught.

Except for Jehovah's Witnesses, who pledge allegiance only to God, the words flow without a pause--just like the Lord's Prayer. Eyes up, hand on heart: "We pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands..." right on to ..."for all."

It was written by the Baptist preacher Francis Bellamy in 1892 but not adopted by Congress until l942. At the time, Congress changed the words "my flag" to "the flag of the United States of America." The hand over the heart started in the FDR administration. The words "under God," as most have learned, were added in 1954 under Eisenhower. In Bellamy's handwriting, the original looked liked this:

Some people object to "under God" as a breach of the wall between church and state. Frankly, it doesn't bother me, and so far as I know nobody's been jailed for leaving God out or mumbling something that rhymes. Anyway, the word God means different things to different people, and lots of people talk God and walk the Devil. You probably know some.

According to biographer John W. Baer, Bellamy "considered placing the word, 'equality,' in his Pledge together with "liberty and justice for all but knew that the state superintendents of education on his committee were against equality for women and African Americans" so he left it out.

Oh, before I forget: Reverend Bellamy was a socialist.

I wanted to mention, too, that the lady who forwarded the e-mails enjoys her Social Security and Medicare. And I'm pretty sure the guy who sent it to her does, too.

Even Ayn Rand, the atheist darling of capitalism who died of lung cancer in 1982, enjoyed Social Security benefits (and probably Medicare) during her last decade. She applied under her husband's name as Ann O'Conner.

Incidentally, Rand thought the scientific health warning about tobacco was a left-wing hoax.

Sometimes them'ns is part us'ns and vise versa.