Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one” - A.J. Liebling
My father Bob Wilson took this to heart, and bought one and started his own newspaper, the Prairie Post of Maroa, Illinois in 1958, and ran it until he died in 1972. It never had a circulation of more than 2500 or so, but every week, he would fire off editorials at everyone and everything from local events to the actions of the nations of the world.
He may have been a Quaker peace activist in a Republican district, but his love and support of the farming communities garnered him enough respect that he eventually ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1962, though he lost. (He might have tried again, had he not died of an accident while only 49.) Many of his views ring true today. And he might have been willing to change the ones that fell behind the times. Although raised in the casual racism of the 1920s and 1930s, at the age of 15 he took stock of what he was being taught and discarded much of it as being wrong, and lived his life with respect for all.
I decided to transcribe his old editorials (I may make a book for some of my relatives) and every once in a while I will repost one here, as a view of how the world has changed wildly, or remained stubbornly the same.
May 24, 1962
WHY GADFLIES STING
We say it often, but we will say it again. So many weekly papers beat dead horses for editorial exercise. They inveigh against sin, bad weather and the Russians. No-one could possibly disagree, and no-one gives their opinions a second thought.
We criticize American policies and American institutions for the same reason wives nag their husbands; they love them, and they think them perfectible, so they are sharp with them because they are not yet perfect.
Think of our little Jeremiads in this way, and you will understand why we do not use our space to criticize much worse things existing elsewhere WHICH WE HAVE NO POWER TO CHANGE.
We will have served our purpose if we move you to consider all things around you with the full range of your perceptive powers; to evaluate the future in the light of the past... and then, in your own time and your own way, to act in the light of your judgements to change those things we do have power to change.
We have faith in the outcome, because we have faith in people.
May 31, 1962
THE MAN IN CHARGE
We have just returned from Washington. We went to meet the President and other administration leaders, and to be briefed on the complex operations of the government in which we hope to serve.
Total impressions of the trip would take pages to describe. We came away crammed with facts, and much impressed and heartened by seeing the President and the people around him at work as a smooth-functioning team.
President Kennedy is moving ahead with confidence, with a sense of purpose, and he is exercising the strong leadership that is demanded of our executives if they are to be effective.
One of his finest assets is his ability to find people of exceptional skills, and to inspire them with his own desire to serve.
As the President spoke to us in the rose garden, we could see little Caroline climbing her slide, and John, Jr. crawling about after his dog. It might have been a visit with your neighbors, but for the Secret Service men standing by, and the grave concern in the President's voice as he told us of the problems he faces, and his need for help in the Congress from men who understand them.
The responsibilities are crushing; Washington is, after all, the Capital of the World. Despite the burdens that weigh on his every waking moment, however, he had time for the occasional flash of humor – frequently at themselves – that characterizes leaders with wisdom and judgement.
John Kennedy is neither frightened nor confused by the greatness of the task. We feel he is the equal both of the nation's enemies abroad, and of his own political opponents here at home, who from lack of any program of their own, have opposed his every move through a kind of blind opposition.