[speedgibson] Speed Gibson: Ghosts of Elections Past

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Posted by Speed Gibson:
Ghosts of Elections Past
http://speedgibson.powerblogs.com/posts/1224737766.shtml


   I'm quite the fan of "Old Time Radio" via a couple of subscription web
   sites. Besides entertaining, it takes me back into times I never knew,
   largely from 1935 to 1955. It would be easy to wish for the return of
   those thrilling days of yesteryear. But it was also the days of polio,
   the Depression, World War II, segregation, and bomb shelters. There
   was no television, no computers, just radios and vacuum tubes.
   Ironically, the Internet has now transcended all those pioneering
   technologies to let new generations visit the world of The Greatest
   Generation.
   One channel has been playing various shows aired in October, many of
   which had election themes. But when the fun was over at the end of
   many shows, Jim Anderson, Fibber McGee, Andrew H. Brown, Throckmorton
   P. Gildersleeve et al, solemnly and sincerely reminded us to vote, as
   our privilege and our responsibility.
   And imagine - elections were held on Election Day in November! There
   was no early voting. Absentee voting was a last resort, not a
   convenient alternative. Otherwise you came in person; no mailing it
   in. You had to register in advance, not simply wave a utility bill on
   Election Day.
   And then I came across a play by the then famous Arch Obler. Raymond
   Massey (who played Abraham Lincoln twice in films) portrays a man who
   goes on an extended vacation far from civilization for a few weeks in
   1939, and comes back to find his world is gone in some sort of coup.
   At the end, he gives this impassioned speech, which given some of the
   issues of the day, perhaps needs to be heard again. He tells his wife:

     "All my life I lived with freedom. Jean, we didn't know it was
     freedom, did we? Living in our house, a good life, our neighbors,
     not hating anybody. And driving in the country with the kids
     wherever we wanted to go and feeling sure of the future for the
     kids because whatever was wrong here we ourselves could fix with
     work and with our votes and with what we knew was right in our
     hearts. I never said, 'this was freedom.' But it was.
     "It was. When they talked to me about losing it, I said 'Don't be
     fools. No one will take it from us.' I thought freedom was like the
     air, always with me as long as I lived. I thought I didn't have to
     do anything about it. Jean, I was wrong. I've got the words now to
     say it. What I had wasn't a gift. It was a victory, and I can't
     live without it.
     "Do you hear me out there? I won't live without it. To say what I
     think is right. To do what I think is right. That's the only life I
     want. It is life. I'll live for it! I'll fight for it! This
     precious freedom!"