How I Got Out of Jail and Ran for Governor of Indiana: The Jim Moore Story

Jim Moore, although ninety years old, is still active in developing ideas that will benefit people. Despite partial blindness and a pacemaker he delivers newspapers every day, plans and distributes leaflets, speaks out wherever he goes against poverty and injustice, and spends his spare time trying to get housing for the homeless. In 1931, under his birth name of Theodore Luesse, he went to prison for 21 months for obstructing legal process. What he was obstructing were evictions in Indiana during the Great Depression. He obstructed evictions of jobless people because of his deep belief that every person has the right to live, just because hes alive. All his arrests have been for a social cause. Since the government protects the habitats of animal life, it was and is Jims belief that this same protection should extend to human beings. Salty blue collar language and wit.

Jim Moore, a 92-year-old labor activist, definitely has some interesting stories to tell. Unfortunately, most of them get submerged in a confused muddle that is part autobiography and part political philosophy. Burch chose to retell Moore's story in a meandering, conversational style?and the choice was a mistake. After a few chronological chapters, the story jumps around among decades and from narration to ideology seemingly without reason. At times, Moore's ponderings deviate so far from his story that the reader is left wondering whether Burch simply forgot to turn her tape recorder off. The Moore that emerges from these pages is a feisty union firebrand who refuses to ever back down. Moore challenged everyone from Indiana politicians during the Great Depression (and was sent to jail for his pains) to East German officials during the 1970s. While it's hard not to root for such a scrappy underdog, Moore's steadfast loyalty to the Soviet Union is a lot harder to take. He describes 70 years of purges, censorship and repression in the U.S.S.R. as "blunders." Moore's assertion is"If you ain't got a job, blame society. If you ain't got a home, blame society. Society is doing wrong. Not you, see?" It's hard to tell how this line will play in a society that's increasingly intolerant of victims?even if many still claim the status.
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