A ROOM OF OUR OWN
Follette, Isabel B. La
A Room Of Our Own By Isabel B. La Follette THE OTHER AFTERNOON I drove to the outskirts of town to wait for Bob 3rd and a friend who had gone duck hunting. While the boys dismantled the...
...The knowledge is available when we need it, but it is useless without convictions...
...It's all right to criticize so long as you are carrying your share of the responsibility...
...They talked about them in class today, and everybody said it was terrible for them to talk that way about how the war is going...
...A friend with a string of college degrees after his name wrote me recently, "My idea of writing the peace is to get a group of non-commissioned officers from each country together in a room with the experts within call but at a safe distance, and we'd get a far more workable arrangement than any of the dreams thought up thus far...
...The Heart Of Democracy As I see it, the only excuse for a column such as this, is to encourage the average woman like myself to relate the affairs of her own daily life to what is going on in the world, and to participate in so far as her circumstances permit, in shaping that enlightened public opinion which is the heart of democracy...
...This is very valuable criticism because it means, since heaven knows I couldn't qualify as a "highbrow," that I am failing to express myself well...
...I found myself rather envying this family's enjoyment of the "primitive" satisfactions of life, and questioning, as we all do at times, the wear and tear of grappling with the problems of the world...
...Believing that political conscience is like religion— it can come only from the inner urge—I have never advised nor urged the children to battle in the classroom, but example and environment have certainly made their mark...
...Unfortunately, as our personal problems increase, we seem to tend to avoid bad news...
...And yet I see no other hope for democracy, although many of our readers may feel like the contemporary and friend of the elder Sen...
...it is this confident feeling of identification with the affairs of their country which is our hope for the future...
...I didn't know how we felt about it, but I said that if what they were saying is the truth we ought to know about it...
...La Follette who wrote me recently, "Of course, I read The Progressive regularly, and always turn to your 'Room of Our Own' first...
...Bob reflected a moment, then answered with a grin, "A little of both, I guess...
...They are very much dissatisfied with the obvious and increasing confusion in Washington but more or less have the feeling—deliberately enhanced by the news given out by the censorship—that we are muddling through and that "maybe it won't be so long now before we get the boys home...
...I queried...
...Although I admonished them, "You must be a joy in the classroom—I envy your teachers...
...As I remarked to Judy when she told me she was in charge of selling war stamps in her home room at school, "That's fine...
...We all of us find ourselves in a difficult position these days in attempting to understand and pass judgment on problems so enormously complicated that too many of us have given up even trying...
...As an example, I was interested in Judy's question at lunch recently, "You know those five Senators...
...As I wrote Phil, from my observation the great mass of people have gritted their teeth and pushed ahead in the war effort...
...How come you feel delegated to represent the opposition...
...others seem too highbrow for the average reader to comprehend...
...Useless Without Convictions The response came tumbling out simultaneously: "But they only give us one side—they repeat what we 'ought to believe' and a lot of it isn't true...
...Bob emphatically assented and went on to tell her what she ought to say, advising from his vast experience that she would have to do it alone...
...Was that right...
...In this wartime strain, it seems that a more than usual number of people have given up critical thinking for the duration...
...Sometimes I like your articles splendid...
...Near by the lake edge was a shabby Summer cottage—no telephone, electricity, nor other conveniences, yet an obviously contented family was living there, ab- sorbed for the Sunday afternoon in the problems of hunting, the training of their dogs, and so on...
...I don't start it, but when they begin handing out propaganda, I have to answer it, don't I?" "Do you have to, or want to...
...Wondering as I often do, how much compulsion they feel from loyalty to the family name, I asked "Why do you argue, then...
...While the boys dismantled the collapsible boat Bob had made for the purpose, I sat in the late October sun and drank in the peace around me...
...My housekeeper also reads your articles every week, and we are especially pleased when you refer to Philip...
Vol. 7 • October 1943 • No. 43
