Imperial Valley press., 1941-08-17
INDEPENDENT
IMPARTIAL
and
INDIVIDUAL
SINK, SWIM OR fly
AND WE CAN'T FLY


Things change pretty fast these days,
and opinions have got to change with
them, or the opinions aren't worth
lead nickel in blast furnace.
Take the isoationists, for instance.
They haven't changed their opinions IN
tNo years. Yet you would be hooted out
of a kindergarten class these days If you
tried to tell even the children that the
national and international scene has not
changed in the last two years.
Two years ago Uncle Sam was like
cowboy sitting on corral fence. lie
could climb down among the horses on
one side, or the COWS on the other, or he
could just stay sitting. He didn't Just
stay sitting.
Two years ago all of Uncle Sans nieces
and nephews-you and me-wanted him
to Just sit. We didn't want any part
of the turmoil going on down below. But
the turmoil was bit too much for us,
and the corral fence was knocked down.
There wasn't any place left to sit. Uncle
Sam had to go somewhere. So-forglve
it. please-he went along with Johnny
Bull.
Now ninety-nine and one-half per cent
of US are hopping 1t will be morse on
Hitler The other one-haf per cent are
friends of Col Lindbergh
Those who believe Uncle Sam can still
just sit are simply up in the air, and
haven't come down yet. When they do,
they'll land a lot harder for it, because
they seem to have gone up higher.
The point is that the isolationists are
living at least two years behind the times,
at time when you're liable to be very
very wrong if you're as much as week
behind the calendar. week ago Satur-
day, on the bosom of the broad Atlantic,
Uncle Sam signed up for the duration,
but evidently the isolationists haven't
heard about it even yet.
A week ago Messrs. Roosevelt and
Churchill, together with the British and
American men who run things IN the
fighting line, got together and told the
whole wide world:
when WE win the war, WE will see
that these things are done, to wit
They didn't say, when Great Britain
wins the war They said "we." To
you and me, that can't mean anybody
but us. 1t can't mean anybody else to
Hitler, either, for along with other world
rulers he has a unique habit of judging
American policy by what the President
says, not by what the isolationists say.
And still the isolationists clamor, 1--WE
must stay out of this war. 1t is no con-
cern of ours
SOMEBODY ought to tell them they're
worrying about a horse race that's al
ready been booked. They'd better stop
worrying about whether we're going to
enter our nag in it, and do bit of worry
ing instead about making sure that our
nag wins He's already entered.
ONLY ONE THING
LEFT TO DO
One more among the scrambled SMILES
and mixed metaphors of this column cam
not do any more damage, SO here's for it.
Your Uncle Sam is in the predicament
of child who is conscientiously opposed
to swimming, who doesn't want to learn
to swim, and who has sworn that he will
not learn-then suddenly finds himself
tossed into a hole ten feet deep with
nothing to grab hold of. When anyone
is in that predicament, it is time to stop
obiecting and start learning.
We're conscientiously opposed to war,
we don't want TO go to war, we've sworn
that we would not go to war-but here we
are in the middle of war. We'd best do
something about it.
Maybe the something won't be fighting
but the more help we give the fellows
who AN fighting, the more likely We are
to keep from collecting a few physical
bruises ourselves.