1. LaRouche's official statement
This is Lyndon LaRouche on the subject of my dear, recently departed friend, Michael Gelber.
There are, in my view, three levels of good persons in society. There are those who pursue their personal family interests with a desire to do nothing bad, and a desire to raise their family and conduct their affairs in a moral fashion. Second, there are those on a somewhat higher level, who shape the conduct of their lives in such a way as to contribute some significant good to society around them, and share with their family the idea of dedication of the family to contributing to this good as a primary purpose in life.
There are those on the third and still higher level, who dedicate their lives not only to serving the good but to combatting the evil, even when evil seems to have overwhelming preponderance of force. These are rare and remarkable people who are given to us not by accident, but because of roots in some family experience, a strong moral motivation takes root in them and grows, blossoms, as it did with Michael.
It is difficult at this stage to describe adequately what Michael has done, how much good he has contributed. But it can be said that he is one of a relatively tiny few who have stood for more than a pair of decades in the front lines of combat against evil, when evil was supported or tolerated by a majority of his fellow citizens. And not only fought against this evil, but has fought consistently, lovingly, and with dedication to the good.
We shall miss him very much, but it is within our power only to do certain other things. First, to continue the fight, so that his work shall not have in any case been done in vain. Second, we shall recognize the well-springs of that potential for goodness within him which made him what he was and what he could have become had he lived longer.
And thus to his family we can say, here is a man who came
from the bosom of your family, who brought to society a spark of
goodness which is rare in all mankind today, and who developed
that spark and served it as only a rare few have done in this
time. It is a great loss, but it is also a great joy to have had
him.
The above statement was written by the NCLC chairman shortly after Gelber's death in a late-night auto crash in January 1994. LaRouche apparently was still in prison but was awaiting parole. Note that LaRouche talks about Gelber only as an instrument of LaRouche's own political fantasies of destroying the forces of "evil." Indeed, LaRouche's repulsive dividing of humanity into relative levels of metaphysical worth in this document forecloses any consideration of Gelber's value as a human being APART FROM his slavish service to Lyn and Helga. And even in LaRouche's praise for this service there is a sly ambiguity (as in LaRouche's relationships in general with his Jewish followers dating back to the 1960s): "It is difficult at this stage," he opines,"to describe adequately what Michael has done, how much good he has contributed." Already the NCLC chairman must have been ruminating over the need to eventually purge the boomers, especially those of Jewish descent.
Note that LaRouche avoids any apology for his own mistakes that resulted in Gelber going to prison for a year as an accomplice of LaRouche's own white-collar crimes. Note also that LaRouche does not apologize for the ruthless overworking of Gelber and other "organizers," and the unsafety of the beat-up cars with treadless tires they were provided for driving around icy roads late at night while suffering from perennial lack of sleep. Finally note LaRouche's brief reference at the end to Gelber's family--he doesn't even bother to address them by name, not even Gelber's wife who was herself a loyal NCLC member. As to the rest of the family, LaRouche probably didn't even know the names of these people who had experienced devastation not only after Michael's death but from his recruitment many years earlier to the all-consuming, family-denying NCLC cult. In an appalling display of crassness LaRouche talks about how Michael "came from the bosom of his family" into the NCLC. It would be more accurate to say that he was ripped from the bosom of his family through the cult's ego-stripping process so that LaRouche could savor the sadistic "joy" of having yet another Jewish slave to help him fight against the "evil" you-know-who's.
[The following statement appeared in The New Federalist, the LaRouche movement's now-defunct newspaper, shortly after Gelber's death. Unlike LaRouche's own statement, that of the paper's editors at least acknowledges Gelber had a wife--it even provides her name--and alludes vaguely to the existence of his parents and brothers, although I doubt these "bronze souls" (as LaRouche would have regarded them) were comforted by the reference to Gelber's role as a front-line fighter in the battle of the "golden souls" against the forces of "evil."--DK]
It is with deep sadness that we
report that, on Jan. 11, 1994, Michael
Gelber was killed in an automobile
accident while on an organizing tour in
upstate New York.
Gelber, who would have been 43
next month, had been a spokesman and a
fighter for the policies and principles
of the political movement associated
with Lyndon LaRouche for his entire
adult life. As those who knew him and
worked with him knew full well, Gelber
never gave less than his entire being
at any moment.
Michael Gelber became an activist
with LaRouche-led National Caucus of
Labor Committees in 1972. His training
in Special Education had perhaps given
him a unique sense of organizing. He
led local organizing activities and
campaigns in St. Catherines, Ontario,
and Syracuse, N.Y. in the mid- and late
1970s, and played a leadership role at
the end of the 1970s and beginning of
the 1980s in organizing in Boston,
Mass. on behalf of the LaRouche
movement.
In Boston, for example, Gelber
waged a campaign which became notorious
there: the "Before Hitler, There Was
Harvard'' campaign, which exposed the
Malthusian, zero-growth racism of the
Harvard eugenicists and
anti-immigrationists--outlooks
inculcated at Harvard as part of the
training of an Anglo-American elite.
Gelber also made a name for himself
with his powerhouse election campaign
for Mayor; he subsequently ran for
other elected offices as well. In the
course of those electoral bids, Gelber
made the drug-money laundering by
Boston's infamous Vault one of his top
targets.
Michael Gelber was among those
persecuted by the U.S. Justice
Department-ADL "Get LaRouche'' Task
Force, and served a one-year sentence
in federal prison for the good he had
done.
A Love of Life
No one has ever been more anxious
to return to organizing than Mike was
after his prison term. To those who
knew him, he was among those people,
too often underappreciated, too often
unsung, who do so much for humanity. He
had a unique flair for being, as it
were, egregious with his political
foes, often standing alone for right
against opinion and against goons whose
bulk was many times his slight build.
He combined with that a love of life
and of people that is difficult to
match.
In a statement issued Jan. 16, the
day of Michael Gelber's funeral, Lyndon
LaRouche remembered him, saying that he
and people like him "are rare and
remarkable people who are given to us
not by accident, but because of roots
in some family experience, a strong
moral motivation takes root in them and
grows, blossoms, as it did with
Michael.
He is one of a relatively
tiny few who have stood for more than a
pair of decades in the front lines of
combat against evil, when evil was
supported or tolerated by a majority of
his fellow citizens. And not only
fought against this evil, but has
fought consistently, lovingly, and with
dedication to the good.
To his family we can say,
here is a man who came from the bosom
of your family, who brought to society
a spark of goodness which is rare in
all mankind today, and who developed
that spark and served it as only a rare
few have done in this time. It is a
great loss, but it is also a great joy
to have had him.''
2. Dennis King comments on LaRouche's statement
3. "In Memoriam" article from LaRouche's newspaper
