The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1953-12-18
Just Among Ourselves
Passing Comment Considered or Ineonsidersfs


sat down in the seat next to me and began to talk
just as the train was moving out of the station He
dispensed with all preliminares and began his dis
course in the manner of one who has momentarily
interrupted his remarks to let the cat out and
returns to take up where he left off minute ago.
The man was not so much conversatonast as
speaker at large. He looked at with alert atten
tion he unfolded his thesis and marshalled his
arguments, and to make that | should not miss
any of the precious stuff that he was dispensing he
kept jabbing with forefinger to emphasize each
point He exacted nothing whatever in the way of
a reply.
'You know" he said as he gently lifted
fatigued fly from his coat sleeve and placed it in
the aisle where il could be stepped at conven-
ience, there two things that people talk about
to-day that our forefathers on this continent
Lincoln remarked, would have been ashamed to
discuss. One of these is security and the other is
relaxation You can't turn five pages of magazine,
scarcely. and not find article, or squib or
an illustrated ad whooping ii up for security You
got TO buy bonds for security; you need an an
nuity for security; you require insurance
for security BY golly. ! saw ad that actually
used this security business argument for sup
plying yourself with set of false teeth!
"And, you know, in an age that. is getting itself
dizzy with fright about the horrors OF an atom
war and busting citizens all to pieces with speed
ing cars and arplanes. and moaning the drunks,
and the unkeys and the delinquents and the spies,
and them Fifth Amendment fellers. all this talk
about security sounds little silly. If this bad old
world is about break asunder, why should man
fritter away his funds buying bonds and annultles,
and for that matter what does he need of false
teeth? 1t amt logical Here | pick up slick maya
zine and pay maybe thrtytiVe cents plus tax. In
side | read how Joe Doakes and his wife took out
a policy five months or fifteen years ago. and now
they're down in Florida all secure and Sunburned
for life. On the very next page. mind you. / find
he nj
be doubted for second that within four years at
the outside them there soyiets will come here and
smash us all to smthereens Don't you think that
expert rather upsets the other fellers argument to
be Joe Doakes and go in for security?
well. anyway. my grandfather wouldn't understand
all this talk about security no, nor my father wouldn't
neither. My old grandfather kind OF rip-snorter
but he true he stood ak foot tall. and he
never stopped not for nobody. I've heard my mother
tell that more than once when the old had an
gument with his boss about something other at the
place where he worked and the boss gol nasty, the
old man told him promptly where he could 90, and
quit That meant. mind you, that grandmother had
10 pack up all their goods, and move, maybe far
off, with their ten children, after grandfather had
found himself another Job He'd find one, OF course;
he always did But he never had any money IN the
bank and no bonds and no insurance. He managed
somehow to keep his family housed and fed and
clothed, and he didn't look for any more. He had
no security and never thought about such thing.
But mister he had something better: he had liberty
that's what he had and self-reliance, and proper
sense OF being man. That's worth security, ounce
TO the ton Grandma thought too, despite all her
toiling and trouble breaking up and moving every
whip-stitch when grandpa and the boss couldn't
eye to eye Toll and trouble are necessary to free
man and free people, stranger The things that
make life easy are the things that take away free
dom. Don't let any expert tell you different.
"And this reLdr thing Why Vou'd told anv
Of the old time men that stood straight and walked
with stride, that they ought to relax they'd prob
ably floor you with right to he jaw You know,
it's kind of insult to tell a man to relax It's like
saying, Nov. brother, you are a poor nervous
creature, all tensed up and futery; the thing for
YOU to do is to sit right down in this here rocking
chair while get you pan of hotwater to soak your
poor feet, and put an ice-bag on your neck. Just
relax and try to be comfortable and maybe you can
doze Off That's about what you say to a person
when you tell him TO relax healthy person has
right 10 resent all this advice to relax, and most
of them do reckon. But the radio and the derned
TV always at it. Relax, they say and drink
our beer Relax they tell you, and smoke our
brand OF cigarette
when | boy, in a small town il was,
we young teerS managed TO have pretty good
time We had good bit of work to do around the
house, and We knew we'll that it had to be done
we'd pay for il in pain and tributaton. But we
If we'd heard anyonee call teen-agers, and talk
about finding some nice hall park for us TO relax
in, we'd have hooted in derision. But, by goy.
only last week ! read in the hometown paper that
there's drive on to raise money to build
ton hall and lay out park for games. The article
said that the town needed place for youth to relax
in. Think of that! In town that lies in the open,
with free and level fields for games within five
minutes from the town-hall in any direction.
Any small town youth that has TO be coddled into
relaxing place ought 10 live up 10 his character
fully, and have nurse wheel him around in baby
buggy. And give him gum ring to chew too;
maybe that will relax him,
Il tell you, mister that all the subyersive actyi-
ties going in this country if you believe
the papers and all this stealing of and precious
documents and the skulduggery of politicians and
the crime waves and the reckless drivers, and the
booze. amt half the TO civilization and
public morals that this security and relax cam
paign is. The minute man or nation thinks more
Of security and the chance TO relax than he or II
thinks Of liberty. that minute man nation is on the
straight paved highway TO slavery. Don't you
forget it,
Talk about Russian plots. You know what |
think the Russian plot is? To get us all hpped up
- all al arl half