“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.
October 26, 1961
UNITED WE GROW
United Nations Day was October 24. The organization has just survived an almost fatal crisis, and we believe it will now go forward to create a supra-national world government which will in time control and even prevent war.
Are you ready to accept this? Do you understand the growth in our loyalties that must go with the step?
In the dawn of time, the family and the cave wherein it dwelt was the only loyalty. The tribe soon took over, and members of the tribe were taught from infancy to trust and defend other members of the tribe, but to stand ready to make war on any opposing tribe when the chieftain gave the word. The tribe is still the major form of organization in much of the world.
There were centuries in which city-states predominated; just one hundred years ago, what we now call Germany was fragmented into dozens of kingdoms, grand duchies, and independent cities. Attend a high school basketball game, and you will understand; it is easy to believe that Pottsville and her supporters mean to rend Jonesboro limb from limb.
We can laugh at that, because we have been schooled in larger loyalties, the state and the nation. Identification with the state has been weakened by the exchange of population; it is hard to believe that a few diehard governors of states in the Deep South have actually threatened violence against the national forces.
The nation is quite another thing. Here our loyalty and our patriotism has come to rest, for the time, in their advance toward larger and larger identification. We are taught from infancy that Americans are good and other people are bad; this no doubt includes good loyal American dope peddlers and gangsters. There is ahead a painful and difficult transition, when we must, through practical necessity, retain our loyalty in the national unit, but at the same time begin the growth in understanding which will lead to its transference to a real world government.
One of the crucial steps is at hand, when we as white-skinned people must accept as the new Secretary of the United Nations, a man with more pigment in his skin. U Thant of Burma is as competent and fair-minded as his predecessors, but the tint of his skin somehow means victory for the darker-skinned people who make up most of the world's population, and gives a little uneasiness to the Westerners who always felt the UN was “Safe” so long as a white-skinned Westerner was at its head.
Voices will be raised against the United Nations. They will be voices charged with anger, and outraged patriotic sentiment. None of them will be voices of thoughtful consideration. What is the United Nations, after all, but the world triumph of our own democratic form of government?
We must have real peace soon, or we will have total destruction. Peace requires first of all a state of mind, but it also requires an organization to back it.
November 9, 1961
THE TIDE TURNS
How will you remember 1961? It was the year we did not have a killing frost until the 3rd of November. It was also the year that Adlai Stevenson defeated Mr. Krushchev in his attempt to destroy the United Nations.
Mr. Krushchev, who thinks he is so skillful at moulding world opinion, had best take warning; the temper of this country is fast hardening into an ugly mood of war-readiness. Already we have heard people cry out, “We'll have to fight them sometime; Let's get it over with!”
We have our hard core of super-patriots who are quick to anger and appear to believe the United States of America is the only country in the world. These people conduct “diplomacy” by hurling bad language at the opposition until oaths are no longer adequate, and then they hurl bombs.
The John Birch fanatics and their ilk have long attempted to smear Adlai Stevenson as some kind of “appeaser”, simply because he is a patient and reasonable man who is willing to look at what justice there is on the other side of the argument.
Do you realize what has just taken place? The Russians demanded a three-man “Troika” or nothing; they were adamant, they place their prestige on the line behind their ultimatum, which would have crippled the U.N. What happened? We came through with a one-man Secretary-General, unhampered even by an array of sub-secretaries with advisory powers.
In other words, we beat them. How did Adlai Stevenson pull off this seeming miracle?
His predecessor Mr. Lodge would have arisen in the General Assembly, his blue blood boiling, and hurled at the Russians all the old accusations. They would have returned the favor, and exactly nothing would have been accomplished.
Stevenson is constantly at work in private conferences and at quiet little dinners, bringing his agile mind and great personal charm to bear on the problem in private, where diplomacy should be conducted.
People are always saying, “You have to threaten the Russians with brute force; it is the only thing they understand!”
They understand it all too well, and reply in kind. Perhaps it is more effective to tackle them with SOMETHING THEY DO NOT UNDERSTAND!
Mr. Stevenson, at the very moment he was lining up support in the Assembly and making the Russians see the light, found himself under vicious public attack by General James Van Fleet.
Van Fleet was recently hauled out of drydock and re-outfitted for a new tour of duty. The Mothball Van Fleet, so to speak, had no sooner hit the water than he leveled his guns; not on the enemy but on Mr. Stevenson. He blamed Adlai for the withdrawal of United States air cover for the abortive Cuban invasion. Actually, it was only this caution on President Kennedy's part which preserved our reputation for honorable dealing with smaller nations and MADE POSSIBLE FOR OUR VICTORY OVER THE RUSSIANS' THREE-HEADED MONSTROSITY.
Only hours elapsed before Adlai Stevenson slapped the general down. We have several other generals who appear to mistake brass on the outside of the hat for brains on the inside. They do not seem to realize that military training is not the best known preparation for leadership in a democracy.
General Van Fleet hastily admitted his error, and we assume he is about to retire again after a tour of duty without parallel for brevity or for ineptitude of public remarks.
Meanwhile, back at the UN Ranch, Lawman Stevenson had cut off the rustlers at the East River. The 1961 can be read from either direction. It is without a doubt the year when the Communists reached the zenith of their power. It is also the year when they began to lose ground in the worldwide struggle for the hearts and minds of men.
They are losing ground to cleverer diplomats, selling a more truly revolutionary system of government and a more ethical way of life.
Yes, despite the Goldwater and the Nixon, despite the White Citizens Councils and the National Association of Manufacturers, despite the Ku Klux Klan and the John Birch Society, we have begun to project to the world the image of a free democratic society able to command the respect and enlist the support of the world. WE HAVE BEGUN TO WIN!