In one of my first columns after I returned from retirement to write twice a month as a freelancer, I speculated about whether I ever could become a political participant instead of a journalistic observer.<\/p>\n
I explained that I\u2019ve always been most comfortable as a lurker, positioned anonymously in the background watching politicians and activists do what they do and writing about it.<\/p>\n
Journalists are not supposed to participate in the events they\u2019re covering. In fact, the professional preference is to avoid participating in public life at all. Some of my colleagues wouldn\u2019t even register with a political party to preserve the perception of nonpartisanship, which in Pennsylvania means they couldn\u2019t vote in primary elections. You generally won\u2019t find journalists signing petitions, displaying campaign yard signs, running for office.<\/p>\n
Conflicts of interest. Forbidden.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s not me anymore. I retired in 2018, which I guess left me free to join things and do things and say things. Still, it felt unnatural.<\/p>\n
I explained in that March 2020 column that my wife \u2014 also a retired journalist \u2014 and I had been seriously considering participating in an anti-gerrymandering rally in Harrisburg before it was canceled because of COVID. But could we really bring ourselves to march, or chant or \u2014 gulp \u2014 hold a sign? We never found out.<\/p>\n
Then I became a freelance columnist, which complicated matters. I\u2019m a private citizen, twice a month expressing my opinions and\/or attempting to entertain readers. Am I a journalist again or just a retired guy who has a paid outlet for his writing?<\/p>\n
I can tell you that we still don\u2019t put out yard signs. I decline to sign candidates\u2019 petitions. I don\u2019t make political contributions.<\/p>\n
But if I\u2019m being honest with myself, that\u2019s more a matter of habit than a professional responsibility.<\/p>\n
And let\u2019s face it, if you read my columns, you have no doubt where I stand on a wide variety of issues, particularly the state of our federal government and the man who inhabits our increasingly tacky-looking White House.<\/p>\n
I try to be fair and to base my opinions on facts, but there is no presumption of neutrality for someone like me, particularly when it comes to what is happening to our country under Donald Trump. I tell you what I think, and you are free to agree, disagree or even to call me an idiot.<\/p>\n
Which brings me to No Kings Day.<\/p>\n
Last fall, my wife and I were tied up at our grandsons\u2019 soccer games much of No Kings Day, but we did cruise down Salisbury Township\u2019s Cedar Crest Boulevard near the end to honk, cheer and wave at the sign-wielding throng.<\/p>\n
Last Saturday, we had no such youth sports conflict. And as someone who has spent the last several months urging readers to rise up in every way they can to confront and combat the horrors of ICE, the spread of hate and the politics of anger and fear, I realized that lurking no longer is a defensible option, for me or anyone else.<\/p>\n
So we decided to join the effort. I came up with a slogan for a sign \u2014 \u201cMake Orwell Fiction Again\u201d (stolen from the internet) \u2014 and asked my more artistic daughter and grandsons to write the words on a piece of posterboard we had in the garage.<\/p>\n
My wife, a features editor in our former life and a true introvert, was willing to join the crowd lining Cedar Crest, but she was dubious about holding a sign. Still, when we actually got out there, it was tough not to get caught up in the energy of a booming movement to take our country back from Trump and all the sycophants and cowards who have allowed him to run roughshod over 250 years of democracy and take us to war.<\/p>\n
I still had my reporter\u2019s notebook with me so I could write down the funniest signs and other observations, but it quickly dawned on me that I was not there to report on someone else\u2019s activism.<\/p>\n
I was part of it.<\/p>\n
So I held up our sign, which drew compliments from a retired English teacher and several others who know about \u201c1984.\u201d I edged my way out to the road so passing motorists could see it.<\/p>\n
My reluctant wife? She took the sign from me and held it up herself, perhaps inspired by her favorite sign:\u00a0\u201cSo Bad Even Introverts Are Here.\u201d<\/p>\n
In case you heard about the rally only on Fox or some other MAGA mouthpiece, I\u2019ll report that neither George Soros nor any of his surrogates were handing out checks. I heard no anti-American slogans, saw no signs for Hamas or Hezbollah. I saw no political leaders issuing instructions or making speeches.<\/p>\n
What I saw was ordinary Americans of all ages who want to make America America again and realize their voices and especially their votes are what will make it happen. They made a powerful statement, not just here but all over the country, by the millions.<\/p>\n
They were saying: We will not give in to hate. We will not give in to fear. We are a nation of laws, not tyrants. Freedom, not oppression. Science, not ignorance. Welcome, not exclusion. Truth, not lies.<\/p>\n
I was proud to be one of them.<\/p>\n
This is a contributed opinion column. Bill White can be reached at whitebil1974@gmail.com.The views expressed in this piece are those of its individual author, and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of this publication. Do you have a perspective to share? Learn more about how we handle guest opinion submissions at themorningcall.com\/opinions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In one of my first columns after I returned from retirement to write twice a month as a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,1559],"class_list":{"0":"post-157138","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-bethlehem","9":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","10":"tag-bethlehem-news","11":"tag-opinion"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}