What the word socialist means to this American.

I am often confused by my fellow Americans, including most recently Hillary Clinton and Chris Matthews on MSNBC's town hall (3/14/16.) They talked about the word socialism in a pejorative sense, intentionally focusing on the root word rather than its qualifier.

National socialism and democratic socialism aren't even in the same political zip code. National socialist countries included the Nazis. People's democracy included Marxist-Leninist states and communist governments.

But socialism tempered by democracy has given us thriving governments in post-WWII Northern Europe. Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, and even Ireland and Canada.

The word socialism even has a rich history in the USA.

When I think of the word socialism, I think of the workers who marched in Chicago's Haymarket Square for the eight-hour workday that we all take for granted today.

Demonstration in Haymarket Square, Chicago, IL

When I hear the word socialism, I think of the striking coal miners and their families in Ludlow who lost their lives at the hands of the Colorado National Guard at the pleasure of billionaire John D. Rockefeller.

Striking coal mining families shortly before they were massacred on April 20, 1914

Among the dead were eleven children and two women who were burned alive because they wanted nothing more than for their fathers and husbands to have fair wages and safe working conditions.

Aftermath of the attack by the National Guard on the Ludlow miner's camp.

When I think of socialists in America, I think of the Palmer Raids when government used immigration status as a tool to conduct violent police raids on union workers in 12 cities.

Union office ransacked following a Palmer Raid.

The injustices and unlawful activities of our government during the Palmer Raids led Massachusetts District Court Judge George Anderson to write, "a mob is a mob, whether made up of Government officials acting under instructions from the Department of Justice, or of criminals and loafers and the vicious classes."

When I think of socialism, I remember the shoot-outs between striking workers just trying to fight for fair treatment and the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. I remember the Coal and Iron Police in Pennsylvania that existed to protect the management and owners of huge corporations from their angry employees. I remember the 20,000 U.S. federal troops called out to put down the Pullman Strike by the American Railway Union.

Finally, when I think of socialism, I remember the tens of thousands of Americans who fought, bled, and even died for the working conditions that we all take for granted today. I remember that these men and women died for a cause, and the government in collusion with the robber barons killed them amidst cries of, "Socialism!"

Remember this history, Americans. It has been too long forgotten.