Atty. J. Edward Pawlick
July 29, 2002

As a member of the Greatest Generation, who has personally witnessed the dramatic change from the depression and World War II atmosphere to the 1960's and beyond, it is dismaying to see that we have definitely entered into a Fahrenheit 451 syndrome.

Most of us are cynical now. Each has a wall-to-wall television screen to watch the Patriots. As long as we are left alone to watch them winning on our wall-to-wall screen, we are content.

The biggest celebrations each year are now wedded solely to our big screens. The biggest are the Super Bowl parties where everyone gathers to watch the big screens together.

As long as the Patriots are winning, the people up on Beacon Hill can destroy our democracy with barely a whimper from the citizens.

Of course, it causes a short demonstration from some "nuts," but this quickly blows over.

Will we see any more outrage than that over the Legislature throwing a petition from 130,000 citizens into the wastebasket?

As a member of the Greatest Generation who was in the U.S. Navy in WWII (for only a short period in 1945-1946 because we dropped the atomic bomb) and was drafted in 1952 to fight the Chinese army as a private in the Infantry in Korea (that war ended while I was at sea, but not before my roommate at Williams died a hero's death), this is still a tremendous shock.

Although one can never say "all," I can assure you that the vast majority of the Greatest Generation look upon our present "1960-society" with shock. Where did we go wrong?

Has everyone else given up?

I do not believe so. I believe that the vast majority of the citizens - even in Massachusetts - are still capable of shock, but their information sources (led largely by the Boston Globe and the public libraries which are censoring our books and our thoughts) do not tell them the facts.

Have you given up?

This is the lead Editorial in the August 2002 print edition of MassNews which is being printed today.