The Fourth Estate

Sometimes the thing I miss the most in my life is seeing and listening to my father helping me "get it." He used to be a teacher at home, after he was a teacher at work and I liked to listen.

In the current times of real fear, I called him on his birthday Sept. 29, 2008 for perspective, as this county began to super spin into the mess we are realizing with a pinch is sucking away the future for our kids. Kids we are burdening with unbelievable debt and issues. Nothing quite helps me pull together the strands like his few minutes of shared thought. My father is an economist, and an ag economist, that earned his PHD from Madison Wisconsin and he spent a career in land grant institutions ( at university level) giving his life in public education.

He told me something very meaningful personally tonight. Something I never knew. Dad never tells you things like this. But it kind of came up somehow. When he moved to Morgantown, WVA in 1957 the "poorhouse" still existed. I never knew that. You know of poorhouses if you lived through the last depression. Dad has certainly shared with me of the tragedies that befell families. Now I'm telling him what I'm seeing in my work teaching. My father grew up in the Great Depression in East Tennessee. Dad has always grown the most incredible garden you ever saw. Picture great, then triple that. No one is like Dad. I'm talking fields. He said he took loads of his vegetables to that poorhouse until it closed, they were always very grateful to get the stuff. See, that's the thing you can't put into words about your parents, about your Dad.

He just did something else that's getting to me. He just wrote a letter May 9th to the Washington Post. Decided to share that too. He took seriously their pledge to "print" letters even if they did not agree with the letters and pieces of others.
But they declined his letter. Well they shouldn't decline this one. It's a beautiful letter. I'm awfully proud of it. It coincides with my complete shock the American Press isn't all over the twentieth anniversary of Tienanmen Square. I cannot quite believe the State Department asked Sunday Good Morning to not run a beautiful piece I just saw that they did run on this stunning assault on the students in China 20 years past. To think we are not going to relive and learn from this, it sickens me. It speaks to something very important. These people put their lives on the line, lost many of them, to hold high the liberty we espouse. And that is still incomprehensible to me. I still cannot understand why we do not have a Remember Tienanmen Day.
I just do not understand it.

Anyway I want to place on my blog the work of my father.
I'm very pleased he is allowing me to put it here.

Marcus Brauchli, Editor
The Washington Post
1150 15th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20071


Dear Mr. Brauchli,
I don't ask very much for writing an unsolicited article
that can be considered as a Letter to the Editor or
as a short op-ed item. Simply my name as author if
published, healthy criticism of my writing and a copy
of the edition if it is published.

The George W. Bush administration used the power of government to concentrate the resources of the nation into fewer and fewer hands. Now the Obama administration is using the power of government to harness present and future generations with ever increasing tax burdens. Albeit the argument is made that social gains from such actions will outweigh social losses. The validity of said argument depends upon measurement of personal preferences, a very difficult if not impossible task.
What has happened to members of the Fourth Estate? Did they die and fade away like General Douglas MacArthur? Or, have they been silenced like the former CEO of General Motors? We need some Journalists whose love of Country, their professions and our institutions will lead them to practice a form of Yellow Journalism somewhat like the late Upton Sinclair. If the media has given up on "shine a light and the people will find their way" the nation will surely succumb to the worst instincts of man...greed and vanity.
In spite of recent media relapses regarding weapons of mass destruction prior to the war in Iraq; the housing bubble and its danger to the financial system; the massive redistribution of wealth in the nation; the entrapment of present and future generations with increasing tax burdens to pay for wars, bank deregulation, TARPS and bailouts; we need members of the Fourth Estate to obtain spinal taps and once again regain their rightful roles in our democratic form of government. To the extent that they fail in assuming the roles of investigators and reporters of fraud and malfeasance by those elected or appointed to high public, political or corporate office, the nation will continue a noticeable downward spiral in individual and collective ethical behaviors. A trend that may well continue in spite of exposure and enlightenment.
We need and deserve an alert, independent, honest, pro-active and fearless media if the structure of our society is to survive in the long run clash between democracy and totalitarianism. An informed society is the Maginot Line against tyranny, inequitable distribution of resources and foreclosure of equal opportunities for every person Thus, it is imperative that we support, foster and sustain an independent and effective Fourth Estate.
Arguably one could support the proposition that the printed media should be allowed to access federal stimulus funds the same as automobile manufacturers, banks, insurance conglomerates and other financial companies. Without a vigilant and effective press the natural excesses associated with raw capitalism has historically given rise and resulted in chaos and social disorder (labelled "panics" and depressions) very much akin to the justification offered by the US Congress when it passed the current federal stimulus Act that was signed into public law by President Obama. A financially healthy and effective press is just as important to the structure of our society as a healthy banking and financial system
Finally, the printed media finds itself in a very competitive battle with technical innovations of the past 30-40 years. The banks, insurance companies, financial firms and automobile firms are not victims of such technical innovations unless one is prepared to equate mismanagement, greed, avarice and a largely unregulated financial environment as technical innovations.

Kenneth D. McIntosh

Hi Sarah,

The response from the Editor of the Washington Post was not unexpected. His formal reply was:

Thank you for the provocative letter on the myriad dangers and challenges facing our country.

We receive many submissions and unfortunately cannot publish them all. But I am grateful for and share your confidence

in the Fourth Estate and its responsibility to closely watch over the extraordinary actions of the U.S. government. The

amounts being spent, the actions being taken, the decisions being made-all unquestionably will affect this country for many years to

come and they deserve scrutiny.

Love,

Dad

Thanks Dad.