MEMO THE EDITOR
MEMO the Editor Street Sign There is a hero in the Iran-contra arms scandal. He's not a Marine or a former CIA agent or a member of the National Security Council staff, and you won't see him...
...O'Neill concludes, "Assuring the king that his garb is, indeed, regal does not change the fact that the masses see a slightly overweight middle-aged man wearing not a royal stitch...
...But the Poindexters have been there for generations (as have the Breedens...
...A day later, the sign was gone...
...The family, Wilkerson wrote, are "the most committed peace activists I've ever met...
...That was before anyone knew that Breeden would turn out to be the hero— the only hero, so far—of the Iran-contra arms scandal...
...His name is Bill Breeden and he's thirty-seven years old...
...The scandal hadn't broken yet...
...den is scheduled to be in court in October...
...Doing it here is a lot more difficult, but it's also a lot more educational...
...His family of Indiana country musicians was described by author Michael Wilkerson under the heading "Nuclear Bluegrass" on the Last Word page of our April 1986 issue...
...Last November, two days after Poindexter resigned from the White House staff, the town named a street after him and put up a sign to that effect...
...This forces them to grapple with what I do and why I do it...
...The Breeden and Poindexter families have been close, Carpenter wrote last spring...
...After he posed for a newspaper photo holding up the missing sign, Breeden was charged with stealing it...
...There's a lot of pain for me and for them, and I feel for them...
...He told Dan Carpenter, "It would have been easy to go to Washington, D.C., and protest and spend five days in prison...
...Joining the Peace Corps does not imply a surrender of constitutional rights...
...It's by no means certain yet that Oliver North or Robert Mc-Farlane or John Poindexter will ever stand trial for their transgressions, but Bill Bree...
...Wilkerson told how the Breedens were "using music to show that peace work-difficult and frustrating as it can be—has a humorous side and a spiritual underpinning...
...That's true here at home as well as in Sierra Leone...
...ambassador in Sierra Leone, O'Neill has raised a number of objections to the paper's position: ¶ "To limit debate on pertinent issues because they may be 'construed as critical' demeans the nature of Di News De as a legitimate voice of the volunteers...
...He can't understand how a member of a good Christian family like the Breedens could steal the street sign, smearing Odon's good name...
...He hasn't invoked the Fifth Amendment and he hasn't been granted immunity...
...Dan Carpenter, a columnist for The Indianapolis Star and occasional contributor to The Progressive—he has a piece in this month's Datelines section—has been following the Breeden case for his newspaper...
...The Poindexter Street sign is back up in Odon, but it isn't the same one Bill Breeden took down...
...From Sierra Leone in West Africa, Michael O'Neill reports on the editorial stance of the Peace Corps newspaper in that nation, Di News De: "We refrain from any commentary which might be construed as critical of Sierra Leone or Africa...
...You've probably read about Breeden before in The Progressive...
...Reactions are still trickling in to Steven Don-ziger's "Peace Corps Follies" in the March issue, and many volunteers seem to share the sense of disillusionment reflected in that piece...
...Ditto concerning American foreign policy...
...Dick Poindexter, the admiral's brother, operates the local funeral home and buried Breeden's father...
...A free exchange of critical thought would more clearly underscore our traditions than blatant censorship...
...His trial has twice been postponed...
...In letters to Di News De, to the Peace Corps, and to the U.S...
...One of the goals of the Peace Corps is to enhance the understanding of host-country nationals as to America and its values...
...The Progressive apparently has a fair number of readers in the far-flung outposts of the Peace Corps...
...And, prophetically, he quoted Bill Breeden: "We're going to have to fill the jails...
...When it did, it turned out that Breeden and Admiral Poindexter, who resigned as President Reagan's national security adviser, had something in common: They came from the same hometown...
...He's not a Marine or a former CIA agent or a member of the National Security Council staff, and you won't see him undergoing questioning by Congressional investigators...
...That one is being held as evidence for his trial in October...
...Odon, Indiana, is a tiny place, and it rarely finds itself in the spotlight...
...Every one of us, Breeden insists, has a personal responsibility to resist illegal activity on the part of the Government...
Vol. 51 • August 1987 • No. 8
