A ROOM OF OUR OWN
Follette, Isabel B. La
A Room Of Our Own By Isabel B. La Follette's ALTHOUGH we recognize that war of its essence outrages the sensibilities and emotions of the sensitive and imaginative civilian, not to mention its...
...We all feel the need to muster every ounce of strength to meet the days ahead, and we turn for help wherever our souls dictate...
...My sister tells of a German friend who while a prisoner in the last war used to commit small misdemeanors just to get "solitary" so he could be by himself for a bit...
...I suppose that is why I am so outraged at what seems to me a criminal intrusion into the fountain-head of human spirit...
...I cannot but feel that the press which is so quick to proclaim its patriotic (and profitable) duty in wartime has likewise a great responsibility to humanity...
...But this does not apply, it seems to me, to the many victims of newspaper publicity...
...They will need all the help they can get both from the outside and from the soul's inner springs...
...The senation-mongers make the point that it is their "business"—that they are merely "giving the public what it wants...
...While accepting this as a penalty of political struggle, again and again I have writhed over the humiliation and heart-break of the inexperienced individual who suddenly for some reason finds himself in the spot-light at the mercy of shrewd publicity "hounds...
...Upon the heels of the tragic news of another air hero "missing in action," some "enterprising" photographer invaded the sacred portals of a church to capitalize for profit by photographing the aviator's young fiancee on her knees in prayer...
...The stresses and strains of wartime living show increasingly in strikes, racial prejudices, nervous upsets, and breakdowns of various degree...
...It has to be,this way...
...You eat, sleep, work, spend every hour in a crowd...
...This is going to require heroic courage and self-discipline on the part of countless women...
...There is increasing concern among the women I know that they shall be able to meet whatever responsibilities may be theirs in helping their loved ones make the necessary readjustment to the life they find when they return...
...As I exploded one of the children asked me, "Didn't she know her picture was being taken...
...In the critical times that lie ahead, is it too much to ask that those who earn their living from "news" examine their consciences and accept their share of the responsibility in strengthening the fabric of human courage...
...An Unforgettable Lesson I learned young that legitimate pain in this direction cannot be escaped...
...It is an old battle between this attitude and those responsible newsmen who maintain their ethics...
...Are we to accept without protest the increasing intrusion of the press into man's intimate soul...
...Phil and thousands of others have expressed in their own way what a young farmer told me: "One of the worst things about Army life is that a fellow is never alone for a minute...
...I have often thought that we get the material for character in our daily contact with people and situations, but that we shape this material into our individual characters in those interludes of solitude when we "get next to" ourselves...
...Likewise it is not only cruel but dangerous to pander to man's grosser instincts by wantonly probing into the secret places of the heart and exposing its precious strength to the searing glare of curiosity-seekers...
...Just because we know that there is a gutter we do not have to fix our gaze upon it except as we bend our backs to remedying it...
...Daddy was a public figure, and the only way the countless folks who loved him and are waiting anxiously for word can hear is through the press...
...The strain on the family seemed intolerable, and when Bob came back upstairs from giving one of his frequent bulletins, I expressed my feelings...
...No, Isen," replied Bob...
...While our friends and family are vital at this time as always, each of us craves his moments of solitude...
...This was an unforgettable lesson for me...
...A Room Of Our Own By Isabel B. La Follette's ALTHOUGH we recognize that war of its essence outrages the sensibilities and emotions of the sensitive and imaginative civilian, not to mention its effect on the soldier, is there to be no limit to the unnecessary violation of the human spirit...
...In the variety of people I meet I find an increasing appreciation of the individual's responsibility toward maintaining stability, rather than fanning the flames...
...Naturally I didn't know, but years of public life have demonstrated to me the merciless quest of the news hawk...
...Let us give even more attention to preserving and nourishing the most precious spiritual values, love and faith...
...You never get a chance to get next to yourself like when you're milking the cows or working in the fields...
...I am still raging at a photograph which appeared recently in a local paper...
...Preserve Spiritual Values That there is a limit to human endurance the war is demonstrating...
...We are supposed to conserve clothes, paper, tin cans, gasoline—a thousand replacable material substances...
...In the last tragic days and nights in the life of Phil's father when he was struggling to hold onto his vital spark, the living room was filled with newspapermen night and day...
Vol. 8 • August 1944 • No. 33
