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Show j AFTER HOURS By W. J. Weir 1 Copy Director, Lord & Thomas Don't get me wrong I'm just an ordinary guy. I'm not trying to pose as an expert on the moulding of public opinion. I'm not talk-j talk-j ing big about what I'd do if it was my job to whip up the country on j the war effort. I'm talking as an average citizen. I'm saying, not what I'd like to tell them, but what I'd like to be told. Soon. Because I'm concerned, and I've been concerned, about my re action to all that's been happening. Sure, I'm buying bonds. I'm j paying taxes. I'm doing witli less sugar. But deep down inside, down where it really matters, something hasn't taken place yet that I feel ought to take place. I'm all a welter of confusion there. It keeps me scratching my head and mopping my brow when I know I ought to be clenching my fists. 1 Vou understand? It's like this: I want to be told not to buy Defense Stamps or Defense Bonds. I want to be told to buy Victory Stamps or War Bonds. I want to be told not about the construction of houses in Defense De-fense Areas. I want to be told about the construction of houses in War Production Areas. I want to be told not to remember Pearl Harbor. I want to be told to take Tokyo, to bomb Berlin, to raze Rome. I want, to be told not to do my part to keep Naziism or Facism from these shores. I want to be told to do my part to spread Americanism Amer-icanism to all shores. I want to be told not to help keep our world and our way of life from being lost. I want to be told to help build a new world and a better way of life. I want a positive program instead of a passive one. I want something some-thing to fight for I'm sick and tired of having only something to fight against. I'm hungry for something to get pepped up about I'm repelled from having only something to do not just wait for. It hasn't been so long since the last war that I forget what happened hap-pened then. I remember the parades and the speeches and the ringing ring-ing slogans. Then we fought to make the world safe for democracy. We bought Liberty Bonds. We sang that the Yanks were coming. We set out to avenge Belgium not just to remember it. We made a vow that we'd reach Berlin or bust. We toyed with plans to hang the Kaiser. We warned the Hun to "keep your head down, Fritzie-boy!" We girded ourselves for a Crusade we didn't close the doors for a siege. We hated the Kaiser we didn't laugh at him. We printed his loathsome physiognomy on toilet paper to make the most ignominious ignom-inious use of it. We likened his upturned handle-bars to the devil's ' horns not to anything so harmless and pathetic as the famous hir-. hir-. sute prop Charlie Chaplin plasters on his upper lip. We saw nothing to be amused about in his vain and pompous posturings as we do today In Mussolini's puffy strutting. We didn't pin our hopes on the v- defective eyesight of our enemy. , ' We planted war gardens. We poured our money into war chests. We had gasless Sundays and yelled "Slacker!" at ahyone who dared to venture out in his Winton or Hupmobile or Steams-Knight. We churned one pound of butter into two pounds and did it with as much will as if we were turning out ammunition. We took the offensive phychologically long before we took it physically. And if we hadn't taken it psychologically, we'd never have developed the drive to take it physically. And don't tell me we can't do the same now. I want to sing that today we control our own destiny, tomorrow the destiny of the whole world. I want to sail against Germany, against Italy, against Japan. If they can sail against us and our allies, why can't we sail against them? I want to construct a greater America co-prosperity sphere. I want to correct the mistakes of the Versailles treaty insofar as they allowed all this to happen. I want to win lebensraum for the democratic demo-cratic way of life. I'm fed up with singing plaintive songs I want to sing battle songs. Don't tell me there'll be bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover. To hell with bluebirds. Tell me there'll be vultures and a deathly silence over Berchtesgaden. I'm bored with keeping a stiff upper lip I want to develop a stiff uppercut. I'm tired of being made to feel sad. I want the experience ex-perience the purging, marshaling, driving experience of being made to feel mad. Fighting mad! You get me? |