Letter to the Editor: Relief in times of uncertainty
Dear editor,
There has never been a more perfect time to rediscover one of our most beloved humorists, political pundits, and actors as is Oklahoma Cherokee, Will Rogers. With his quiver overflowing with sarcasm, satire, metaphor, and ingenious wit, he could slice and dice any politician, party, or government with very few choice words.
From 1922 until 1935 Will Rogers submitted hundreds of articles to the New York Times and numerous other journals which were a popular source of news and entertainment throughout the world. His syndicated weekly column in the Times, and his daily telegrams to the McNaught Syndicate, were published under the by-line “Will Rogers Says” in more than 500 newspapers in the United States. Rarely was he seen without his cherished portable typewriter and an armload of newspapers, his primary source of intelligence for his muckraking and spicy tidings.
How timely were his icy merrymakings? Regarding the tragic circumstances of a catastrophic breakout of unemployment following the 1930 Depression, a cataclysmic development we are currently experiencing again, Rogers said, “…the unemployed here ain’t eating regular, but we will get round to them soon as we get everybody else fixed up O.K.”*
“Congress meets tomorrow morning. Let us all pray to the Lord to give us strength to bear that which is about to be inflicted upon us,” he opined, as he also let loose with this verbal arrow: “Corruption and golf is two things we might just as well make up our mind to take up, for they are both going to be with us.”
While serious and tragic are our predicament, let targeted rhetorical slapstick also lighten our loads! Have we ever needed it more than today?
Will Rogers confirmed, perhaps more than any journalist in history, just how much our Democracy depends on a healthy, supported media, and particularly newspapers like our own prized Gazette and Journal. Now is not the time to hold back our support and appreciation of this Constitutionally mandated freedom.
Our local libraries and internet resources harbor many Will Rogers biographies and quips, readily available to all who need relief from coronavirus, unemployment, and other personal tragedies currently common to our community. Avail yourselves while we await whatever relief may come to pass, but remember, too, Rogers’ advice, “Never blame a legislative body for not doing something. When they do nothing, that don’t hurt anybody. When they do something is when they become dangerous.”*
Jerry Blanche
Plover
*Quotations credit: Will Rogers: His Life and Times, by Richard M. Ketchum, pub. American Heritage Pub. Co., Inc., New York, 1973.