A ROOM OF OUR OWN
Follette, Isabel B. La
A Room Of Our Own By Isabel B. La Follette AS MY PATIENT readers know, this citizen is much concerned with the problem of getting people to translate their words into action. So much so, that one...
...It becomes a fine point to decide how far to go in producing costumes, equipment, and general cooperation when experience teaches that nine times out of 10 the project vanishes into thin air and leaves mama holding the bag, so to speak...
...We are going to need them in the days ahead...
...The trouble, is that most of the professional ex-horters have never had to swallow their own medicine...
...And of course being a mere father, he may escape the valuable experience of dealing with enthusiastic proposals for hunting, nature, wild life, and other clubs to meet (with refreshments) in the home...
...Now this friend, being a mere slip of a lad compared to my hoary years, has therefore not yet trod so far on the path of education upon which my children have dragged me...
...The 'We' Becomes 'They' And so, dear friend, what to do with these charming, well-meaning idea-ists like the one who called on me recently...
...If for no other reason, I feel that the people are right in suspecting another super-government when they see before their eyes the appalling weaknesses of our own in these crucial times...
...The fact that they may be good writers, historians, musicians, engineers, appears to give them a monopoly on righteousness and to order the rest of us to the task of being our brother's keeper, while they devote themselves to delving for the truth to hand down to us...
...A writer also, like yourself, he has decided that there is no alternative to a world federation of states and cites the example of the U. S. and the U.S.S.R...
...So I continue the struggle to get the children to see the effect of "swell ideas" abandoned for others to carry through, because 20 years of political organization work (in which it has also been my privilege to observe my fellow mortals in other varieties of organization) have burned deep that gap between the idea and getting it translated into action...
...with "shows" and circuses...
...Being a born optimist (I .trust) and fortunately having the energy to "follow the gleam," I have gone on ahead plenty of times only to find that the "good idea-ers" had, like my children, taken off after another will-o'-the-wisp...
...As my caller kept repeating, we agree on our goal but differ as to the means of attaining it...
...We feel that we are the real idealists because we are putting our faith into practice every day that we live...
...we let the world down once and cannot fail it again, etc., etc...
...I tried not to be rude to my caller,—really—-, but there are millions like myself with husbands overseas and sons soon to go who are getting fed up with having our duty to humanity pointed out to us when we are carrying our loads as best we can...
...Now you will tell me, on behalf of your craft, that it is not fair to expect a writer, an exhorter after the good life, to put down his pen and take up the sword...
...As usual, the "we"' in reality meant "they...
...So much so, that one of my friends is worried about my soul, fearing that my concern with the practical might outweigh my idealism...
...When after a few feeble interruptions on my part, he came to a pause, I simply asked him what he himself was going to do about it...
...As I told my caller, I have faith that from the people like ourselves, innumerable of us, will come the leadership for America's part in the post-war world...
...If, as I suggested to my caller, we are unable to influence our own state or national government to practising what we preach, how in the world to "help" England to be her best self,-' much less the world...
...You will agree, I am sure, that those of us on the small end of the stick should do some careful thinking before we find ourselves committed to the next round...
...Putting Faith Into Practice And God knows that those of us who are actually experiencing the impact of war are as eager for peace as the humanitarians...
...So all I am trying to get over, for the realization of the ideals we both believe in, is the suggestion from my aged vantage-point that you watch for and write down in your note-book for future reference the people who really act upon what they profess...
...to get my slant on The Progressive's ideas on post-war planning...
...You and I recall the number of pre-Pearl Harbor warriors who have clung to their well-paid pens while the hoi-polloi had to take up the guns...
...with keeping pigeons, toads, owls, and hawks and their attendant feeding problems...
...Of course, he says, we wouldn't want Churchill to run it—God forbid—but after all Churchill doesn't represent the best of Britain and we have the duty of lending them a helping hand...
Vol. 7 • October 1943 • No. 41
