Will We Ever Learn?

By Frank Absher

A radio journalist whom I had the privilege of knowing came up with this assessment of political divisiveness, personal nastiness and the lack of decorum he saw.

“I don’t know if people have changed or I have become more aware of their thinking.

“To me the most dangerous thing in this country today is the very vocal spokesmen of both the Right and Left. I wish fervently that we could organize the great middle-of-the-road group into a militant army that moderates and keeps things on an even keel.

“I always realized there was prejudice and bigotry in the world, but never did I realize on how wide a scale it existed or how bitterly narrow these people could be until I started taking their comments.”

His biggest gripe was the spineless people who weren’t afraid to snipe but who did it only if they couldn’t be identified: “Under that anonymity …they speak in such a manner that is not only sickening, but almost frightening.”

These were not the comments of a man on a soapbox. He was truly bothered by the anonymous sniping and hatred he was witnessing and he worried where that would lead. As it was, he had every right to feel that way.

Rex Davis, whose words you just read, was the most respected broadcast journalist in St. Louis. These words came not in a broadcast, but in a magazine article about him that was published in 1962, almost 50 years ago. Look at what happened in the few years that followed his statements:

The nation became more deeply mired in an unwinnable war halfway around the world, in part because our elected leaders from both parties were more interested in preserving their own power than in promoting peace; A divisive, violent uprising over that war developed among the nation’s young people; and an economically downtrodden minority – the nation’s black community – rose up into violence against the system.

Does any of this sound familiar? Does it make you wonder why our elected representatives can’t seem to learn from our country’s past mistakes?

Are you worried? I am.

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