STATEMENT I find I can still relate to a line I wrote in a notebook which, I find, contains
materials written in the mid-l940 time period.
I scratched out in pen and ink:
"There is nothing so interesting as Today viewed in the examples of Yesterday and the possibilities of Tomorrow."
It is so important for us to be kept aware of what is happening in this world of ours and I am constantly being reminded of how much we lost when we allowed what I call "the general type" of magazines to wither and die. They provided us with an overall awareness of news events rather than a narrow, specialized analysis of each turn of every event. The journalist of today's lumped "media" seems to be more directly concerned with providing a self-feeding series of informational hooks by which he can manipulate readers to accept his particular view.
The publications to which I allude are all gone now, or available for an exalted price in mutated form using the established name. Among them, I would include The SATURDAY EVENING POST, The AMERICAN MAGAZINE, COLLIER'S, LIBERTY, HARPER'S MONTHLY, The ATLANTIC MONTHLY and other, some of a regional nature. Ever
effort was made by the publishers to placed their products in the hands of medium-level readers.
These publications had an educational purpose and one could move from level to level. A reader might start by reading shorter material - adventure, romance, mystery. Then you will start reading more complex works - - - including complete novels - in "S.E.P." or "American." One may go on to read "Atlantic and "Harper's".
The last two are stll with us I'm hapy to add. The both have dot.com adjunct, too, so get with it do your share of the reading.
I don't think we can look for these magazines to be revived and to alive again. We have changed our reading habits. We are now reading more than ever before in futile attempts to read the daily output of our computers.
As a reader you are a member of one of the world's minorities.
I often wonder if we have maintained enough awareness of our national history in our school systems to enable future citizens to judge if our past actions have been worthy. The possibilities are greater than they have ever been.
Readers are Rulers
A.L.M. March 10, 2006 [c402wds]
