— Publisher’s Foreword —
A home without books is a body without soul.
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The first duty of a man is the seeking after and the investigation of truth.
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Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation, must begin by subduing freedom of speech… Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom; and no such thing as public liberty, without freedom of speech…
— Marcus Tullius Cicero
A book always represents more than the just the files a publisher sends off to the printer. Each title carries along its own personal drama and textures, sacrifices and travails, hopes and dreams … soul. Some of these things may be evident in the text, while others may not, they tarry outside buried within the anguish of creative birth or simply bump along, popping up now and then within the vagaries of the writer’s life journey.
The author of Paradise Lost?, Richard Trainor felt strongly about his job as a reporter: following leads, interviewing people, attending countless boring public meetings, sifting through thousands of documents, writing, working with editors, seeing the story in print, and letting the chips fall where they may. Journalism was an honorable profession, the crusading editor/reporter hero of the movies, freedom of the press, a grand pillar of our great civic experiment, enshrined in the Constitution — our great Fourth Estate imprinted deep within the psyche of all, media workers, media watchers and media consumers.
As Supreme Court Justice Hugo L. Black said, “The Press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of the government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people.”
I have more than once witnessed a phenomenon whereby an honest reporter stumbles across a story, investigates and writes. Then the mainstream won’t touch it, and soon the journalist loses faith in his profession, his country … and himself.
That we, Americans, do not have a healthy, vibrant free press is a harsh reality, one that’s hard to comprehend, and even harder to accept. I didn’t understand — nor did I believe it — when my father, who had worked in US intelligence for two decades, told me in 1969 that the “news” we saw on TV and read in our headlines were, in fact, what he called “sway pieces.” It just didn’t make sense to me, I was young, and went on with my life.
Years later, after more discussions with my father, observations, research and investigation, the insidious divisive nature of the information/thought control became more apparent —propaganda, the big lie, psychological (worldview) warfare.
My family tree is teeming with teachers; so when I also came across research (I recommend Googling John Taylor Gatto and/or Charlotte Iserbyt) showing that our education system had also been corrupted, that we collectively as a people were being “dumb-downed,” I was taken aback.
So many questions: Why? Who? What’s real? Should I care?
My father, talking to me once about disinformation, said to read everything. Then by being acquainted with the scope of the matter, and by seeing what’s left out and where the misdirection points, one may gain understandings.
Look at the subjects that have been devalued within our educational system: dialectic, logic, rhetoric and civics — tools for independent thought, reason and self-government. Without the discernment cultivated by such studies, we as a people, a nation, are much easier to manipulate, and without a spirited press, our Republic becomes rudderless, listing along in the doldrums, easily waylaid by pirates.
The Internet and the personal computer have opened up an amazing window of uncensored information, and have allowed stories to be bandied about, but little truth has made its way to our nightly news. Kooky videos from the Web are spread around the world by the mainstream, while awesome Internet revelations about our body politic are shut out. The skeletons of 800-pound gorillas litter the netscape, never to be mentioned. Why? Is it deliberate censorship, keeping the truth hidden? Simple groupthink? Power of the owners? Politics? A combination of all of these factors?
No matter. For our Republic to survive, we need a dynamic Fourth Estate. We can cajole, create and interact. Call your local newspapers, TV and radio stations, and demand the truth. Engender your own books, websites, newsletters, and study groups to propagate your understandings. Reach out to others; don’t get stuck in left versus right, liberal versus conservative, us versus them quagmires that are full of tar-baby issues designed to waste our time and trouble.
Freedom is more than being able to watch multitudinous channels of television. Liberty is more than the ability to eat oneself to death. Justice is more than stupefying the copyright law to accommodate the owners of an animated rodent. The Press is more than rehashed publicity releases, the weather, and who died.
The founding fathers knew well: We do not live in a world completely of our own making, but we can make the world better. This is a book by someone who knew this … and who has paid the price of his determination to uncover the truth,
Onwards to the utmost of futures!
Peace,
Kris Millegan
Publisher,
TrineDay
July 22, 2009