This is an excerpt from my latest book: How a left-wing journalist survives the Bible Belt. It is an autobiography on my career as a writer. In 1980 to 1981 I put out this mildly
left-wing news paper in Wichita
Public
Voice
With all that tabloid paper experience I got from the Public Notice, it was easy for me to
start up my own paper when I moved back to Wichita , in 1980. I organized and put
together a tabloid newspaper of my own, which I called The Wichita
Some of the things I learned I would later discard. For
example, the attitude at the Public
Notice was to focus on local news only. That was suppose to allow us to
focus on issues we could actually work on for change.
As for foreign news, I was told that the daily news paper, The Lawrence Journal World (in my home
town it would be The Wichita Eagle)
carried national news and there was no way we could compete with that. Years
later I change my mind. For one thing The
Wichita Eagle did not always cover important international news. A good example
of that were articles about the Shining Path (Communist Party of Peru or PCP)
guerrillas. By the end of the 1980s the Shining Path was winning a people's war
effort in Peru .
But a lot of mainstream newspapers didn't cover much of it. That was especially
true if the articles showed a direct involvement from US troops. The Wichita Eagle didn't cover that war
but just 52 miles away was the town of Hutchinson
and The Hutchinson News DID. In a
news paper I ran almost 10 years later, I reposted what the The Hutchinson News printed in another
news paper I was running at the time, the South
Hutchinson Post Dispatch.[1]
After the 1990s I was getting a lot of information and articles from political
parties across the world. I was able to get articles that foreign people and
political parties wrote about their own political struggles. So I realized that
a news reporter or a journalist/editor/publisher can post articles about
foreign affairs that the local mainstream paper doesn't and won't cover. We CAN
compete with The Wichita Eagle (as
well as Time, Newsweek and others) after all.
As for the politics of the Public Notice, it had a left-wing slant, but was not openly
Marxist. It had more of a liberal slant, although some of the supporters and
workers on this paper were openly Marxist. I wanted to print articles from a
moderate left position. I didn't want the paper to seem far left. I wanted it
to look like a homey local news paper, and that is what it looked like.
I typed it on an old Manuel typewriter. I was living at my
parents home so I worked in a corner of the basement. As with the Public Notice I also used rub on letters
and old pictures from magazines. At first I tried to sell it, but I realized
that would hold me back real bad. So I gave it way free, had a subscription
list and I sold ads to try and pay for it.
From time to time I had several people work with me, both as
reporters and layout people. As with the Public
Notice, I focused on some local issues and the first main one was Wichita 's "Annexation
Boom!"[2] I was
following the anti-growth message carried by the Public Notice. One problem I had with that was that a lot of
liberal people, I would later get to know and make friends with, all wanted to
annex wealthier people, whom they wanted to pay their fair share of city taxes.
And many of the people I was allying myself with where actually conservative
land owners. I had not written up a comprehensive anti-growth position to
explain why I was so against the city expanding itself.
Years
later I wrote a short position on the need for a no-growth economy:
Let’s
demand a “no growth” economy for all people—everywhere
I had another article on that subject, DEVELOPERS: Go WEST.
Also in that issue we had an article about a self help
clinic, a letter about human rights, an article about Martin Luther King and an
article about the Wichita Wings, a soccer team in Wichita. The issue included a
cartoon of the Rev. Dr. Cabbage, an ongoing cartoon serious about a religious
right character that I came up with, based on the Dr. Carroll from the movie Reefer Madness.[3] In
that movie Josef Forte plays Dr. Alfred Carroll, a fire and brimstone
character who narrates much of the film. There was also some humor as in an ad
for "Bonzo's School
of Commercial Broadcasters
There was also a picture of a man with a cartoon balloon:
"I read Public Voice," and
another of a catfish that said; "Me Too."
Religion & State
The new right in this country
is raising the issue of state functions being contained by religious ideas..
The union of church doctoring and US laws violates the separation of Church and
state which the founding fathers of this country set up. Laws of basic decency
are closely aligned with basic church doctrine, but the US
Jerry Falwell and the
"Moral Majority" are the leaders of this religious movement in this
country and feel that church and state can work together. History does no bear
this out. Iran Europe .
The designed split in the
church and state relations was set up to protect not the majority, moral or
otherwise, but the minority of religious groups whose beliefs would be
restricted by laws set up according to Christian doctrine.
Freedom of religion is
guaranteed by the constitution, and the rights of the individual is what the
separation of church and state was set up to protect.[4]
The second addition had some adds in it. I was able to sell
a few. We covered the local elections for city commission, 1981.[5] In
that article we struggled to find issues. The real issue of that election and
those that follow up until today is that these elections are really just a routine
practice by the local real estate and land developers to choose THEIR candidate
for office. Also covered in this issue was the closing of the Dubuque beef industry plant. We covered the
Bel Aire election since it was a new town, we covered a group calling itself
the Commission on the Status of Women. We wrote against a fire works ban, we
wrote about cameras in the court room and blasted the US government for lifting of controls
on the CIA. I did a review of The Russian
Anarchists, by Paul Avrich. We did a humor column called "Who Shot
Andy Cap."
W.S.U. Paper Denied
You won't find the Public
Voice on any news stand at W.S.U. The Public Voice requested permission to distribute
our paper in the Campus Activities
Center W.S.U. Campus
Activity Center
I have toured WSU several
times in the past year and have noticed a virtual vacuum of political
literature and periodicals. There are not political newspapers of any kind
outside of the Sunflower, the campus newspaper. The political selection of the
Campus Bookstore has a few carefully elected books. I can't see how a political
science major there could possibly get a well rounded view of politics with the
selection of books available in that bookstore. For instance, since third world
politics are playing an increasingly important role in foreign policies
everywhere, why is there virtually no literature on the subject.
It is easy to see that our
newspaper is political .With our small size we have to be. A university is
suppose to have a place where people can freely exchange ideas. It should be a
place for people to debate and disuses ideas freely. Although this policy is
obviously in effect on other campuses, it appears that the administration of
W.S.U. want their students to go through with blinders on. Their priority seems
to be: "Learn but don't think. There's no place in our society for
freethinking individuals."
I certainly hope the students
at W.S.U. are smart enough to realize that the nation and the world is
certainly more diverse than the quaint pictures painted by W.S.U. Students
should wise up and demand not just our paper, but other papers from around the
country and even the world. A university is a place to learn but it should also
encourage people to think. We at the Public Voice do not believe the old cliché
that "ignorance is bliss."[6]
C.I.A. back again
As if our recent foreign
policy isn't causing enough criticism from around the world, of President
Reagan's conservative friends are actually considering lifting some of the
controls on the C.I.A.
Yes they want to strengthen
the most violent and suppressive organization the U.S.
In other countries the C.I.A.
has murdered, tortured and generally terrorized the people in the worlds most suppressive rightwing
dictatorships.
The controls on the C.I.A.
were the result of suppressive acts against US citizens. If given the chance
the C.I.A. would probably do these things over again.
The Public Voice is opposed to lifting any controls on the C.I.A.[7]
By our third issue, we had focused on a leftwing liberal
organization within the local Democratic Party called the Progressive
Democratic Quorum.[8] It was a
group that focused on liberal issues. It was a fun group. I took part in many
discussions on politics as well as writing up what we did in the meetings. The
meetings were held at a Machinist (Union) Hall, in south Wichita .
We had some local Democrat Party officials from various
offices they held in the Kansas Legislature. A lot of the discussions were on
the rights of working people and how those rights were being trampled on by our
elected Republican Party officials. It is not a surprise that Republicans back
then were as nasty to working people as they are now.
We also covered some other topics including a Consumer
Coalition for Health. We had an article on nuclear power, the harassment of a
student at a Goddard
Kansas School
Our forth addition had another article about Wichita 's urban sprawl,
"City Moves Out West."[9] We
also had a large article on Local Wichita Attorney Jim Johnston, who spoke at
the Progressive Democratic Quorum. Johnston
made rhetorical attacks on then President Ronald Reagan. We also had an article
on the National Organization for Women.
We started volume 2 in August of 1981. Again we focused on
the City of Wichita
and its expansion west. We also included an article on WomenFair, WomenArt, an
even held at Century II that included lots of events put on by local feminist
groups. Booths were allowed in the hallways, so that artists and political
groups could set up tables and promote their various causes. That year we had a
presentation called "Renaissance Women—1981" emphasizing a spirit of
renewal, rebirth and re-dedication during this long battle for equality.[10]
Also in that issue was an article on a Coalition for Health, another article on
NOW, an article on Kansans for Peace and Justice and an article about the
Mojahedin of Iran, a left-wing Muslim group that opposed the Islamic Republic.
The last was an example of an article we received from some Iranian students,
from Wichita State University
The last paragraph of that article articulated my beliefs at
that time:
"Members of the
religious new right tend to make the claim that "God is on their
side," but, as I am reminded by an old song by Sonny Terry and Brownie
McGee, "I was told the very same thing so you know somebody's lying."[11]
That issue we had a letter by a topples dancer, who called
herself Strawberry, who opposed the City of Wichita's latest attempts at
banning topless dancing in the city limits. This was an occasional issue that The Public Voice took up.
Letter from a dancer-
I am a dancer and I feel that
my opinion of the laws passed on us are unfair in more than one way. I've been
dancing for some time and have worked in many places in the United States
First, we are having a good
sized problem with our business. Both the intake of sales for the bar, and
especially us girls. Ever since the case went to court a few weeks ago our
business slacked, but every since the last week and then the finalization of
our rules, it has been the worst. Yesterday had had maybe a total of ten people
come into the bar on my shift (12-6). I didn't even have to get up and dance
until 2:00--NO CUSTOMERS! It has been this way since last Thursday. A lot of
the bars are doing about the same.
Second, we are being deprived
of our rights. The people who come here, we don't rope in off the streets. They
come because they want to. Do you realize that we're now required to wear more
than the girls at the local pool, local grocery store, and person walking down
the street? Many other states are dancing in G-strings and such and pasties.
The businesses are doing fine and have caused no unusual problems. I don't see
as to where someone who has a good job as a professional in any area has the
right to limit another professional's art. Some girls honestly can't dance, but
what of us who have taken this entertainment as a career? I personally am
having a rough time on making ends half-way meet and, I've worked on perfection
of my art for 11 years in different forms. Personally I feel we've been
screwed!
KLB
Jefferson Starship in Wichita
The Jefferson Starship
concert here in Wichita Cleveland
I also included an article by a friend and writer I got to
know, Tim Pouncey. His article was called:
Warp Factor
Trying to understand
Reaganomics is a hobby of mine —
like making long shot bets
on second-rate foot ball teams or dating slender blonde girls who fathers carry
shotguns —
all three can be dangerous
to a man's mental health and at least one will probably be responsible for
violent, ugly and permanent damage to my emotional stability.
Ah, but the notions
persist. This is no season for comprehending anything that oozes out of
the Washington Information Network. It is hard enough to keep any
kind of lame act running at all with inflation cutting the guts out of my already
low standard of living. In the Reaganomics Circus only the High Rollers and
multiple felons prosper.
So paranoia make good
sense these days. If you're not scared, you're not informed. Unemployment
is a record high, new lay-offs at Dold and BeechCraft, no good news from
Cessna. bad slumps in the housing industry, no work no where. When you get into
severe economic problems at this level, you can be absolutely sure They
Are out to get you.
What we need now is less
double talk and more action. There are millions of things that the unemployed
could do in Government service. Franklin Roosevelt proved this during the last
great depression. There is an incredible glut of skilled labor being wasted. We
will only find economic recover through imagination, we are limited by
the Washington Circus's inability to figure out how to use a skilled
but unemployed work force. [13]
For the next addition, Vol. 2 No. 2, I had a front page
story called "Where Wildlife Roamed."[14] I
managed to get a picture of an area being developed that I mistakenly though
belong to a place where they advertized "Where the wildlife roam."
Even though I got the land that matched the sign wrong, the intent was the same—building homes on sterile
ground where all wildlife had been run off. There was none to be found—anywhere. I was threatened
with a law suite and I had to print a retraction. But the developers were
decimating the land for places for people to move to. It is sad just how much
of that land has been ruined by developers—over developing. We also had an
article called "Solidarity Day," where unions around the country
planned to march in favor of union rights. The NAACP was taking part in this
march. It was all in response to the Ronald Reagan Administrations attacks on
the PATCO union, representing the air traffic controllers. We also had an
article from the Kansans for Peace and Justice.
By the time I got to the next addition, Vol. 2 No. 3, I was
beginning to get involved in the issue of Central America .
There were revolutionary movements making gains in Guatemala
and El Salvador .
At the same time Reagan was beginning to go after the Sandinista government
with the use of CIA directed Contra (short for counter-revolutionary)
guerrillas. I went to hear Paul McKay, a developmental aid worker, through Bethel College ,
talked about the assassination of some congressmen in Guatemala .[15]
This was the first time my paper had covered events taking place in Central America .
Another issue I focused on back then was the newly-formed
Solidarity Coalition. The group was composed of progressive organizations from
the Wichita
are. They included the NAACP, NOW, The Gray Panthers, PATCO, the ACLU, the Iron
Workers Union and Kansas
for Peace and Justice. It seemed like a great idea at the time. By combining
all these groups together at once we had a chance to take on the local
political right. But after a few months we found the limits to such a
coalition. A group concerned with the rights of some young people shot at a
local park by police cause some of the members to balk at who should join in.
Slowly the coalition unraveled and it disappeared before many more months.
We also ran "Kidafi: The Crazed Killer" to
satirize the coverage of the Muammar
Gaddafi regime, in Libya ,
by US
pundits, including Jack Anderson. We tried to make the article look ridiculous
and we succeeded. Unfortunately most people who read it didn't realize it was
meant as a joke. We ended up writing a second article, a retraction. But the
later was written in a way to make fun of the fact that we have so much
sensational news, people couldn't tell it was a joke.
Kidafi: The Crazed Killer
The madman of Africa is at it again. The crowned saint of Satanism, the
most terrifying man in he world, is itching for a fight and we gave it to him. Libya
Of Course, We are referring
to General Muammer
___________________
Jack Understone
___________________
Kadafy. Habba Dabba, an
expert on Mideast affairs and a math professor in Saudi Arabia Toledo , Ohio
One of his most notorious
traits is his funding of nearly every major terrorist group in the world. He
supports the Popular Movement to Liberate Palestine. He also openly supports
the Irish Republican Army. He denies giving them material aid, claiming the he
gives them only moral support. But recent documents uncovered by the CIA
provide evidence that Gadafy supplied the IRA with 16 tons of arms, last month,
consisting of large shipments of rocks, Molotov cocktails, matches ad cans of
spray-paint.
Khadaffy also supports such
desperate groups as the American Indians and is suspected of supporting the Red
Brigades and the Red Army Faction, and may even be responsible for the recent
riots in Miami
Qadafy has been known to send
hit men out to censor his opposition, which means I had to hire an extra
bodyguard since writing this article.
Qaddafy is a devout Muslim
who has banned drinking and pork from his country. He naturally doe not drink
and on days when he's not busy torturing flies he goes out to the country to
meditate.
He sites in his little tent
out in the desert and dreams up wild , crazy terrorist attacks to be carried
out against innocent women and kids. His eyes turn to fire and his nostrils
breathe smoke as he envisions his next act of insanity.[16]
I wrote the name of Gaddafi different each time since it was rarely written the same way by
other writers in the news media. Strangely enough, some African students got
made because they saw him as a hero.
Confusion
and Kadafi
In
our last untimely issue we ran a story on Mohamer Kadafi that caused some
confusion and drew a few complaints. It seems that the article and author, Jack
Understone were taken seriously. Actually Jack Understone was an intended
satire of every body's favorite correspondent Jack Anderson.
We
attempted to parody the cheap sensationalism of our news media. It seems we were
to subtle in our attempts. It also seems that even when an article borders on
the absurd people still assume it is meant o be taken seriously. Perhaps this
is a reflection of people's perception of the news media and the columnists who
claim to be informing us. Perhaps we succeeded too well in our parody.
Of
course there is no Jack Understone on the staff of the Public Voice. We haven't
hired any body guards as of yet. Just to be on the safe side we will send a
copy of this article to Kadafi. If we were on his hit list maybe we will be
spared. Surely ol' Mohamer can date a joke, can't you Mohamer?[17]
This was the
second to the last issue of the Public Voice. It had an article on IRBs called
"IRB's Rich Get Richer." There was another column on "WSU censorship."
There was an article on the ERA, which was closing in as an issue that Wichita
There was on
more article on the PDQ and DSOC ( Democratic Socialist Organizing
Committee the original name for DSA). By now Democratic Socialists
of America were an established organization in Wichita
We had one more
issue of the Public Voice, in May 1982. We covered a May Day rally, one of the
first May Day celebrations in decades. We rallied around the labor union under
attack by the Dold Company of Wichita
This issue had
an article on the events of Herman Hill, where the third anniversary of the
riot that took place in that park, only served to ensure that people in the
grouping would not forget the tragic events of that day.[18]
It was a really good issue and it was our last. The bi-monthly newspaper got a
lot of publicity for its time. Those of us in it, were going to try and make the best of it. It was as good paper and
it had a good run. But after that issue it was over and that was that.
[1] I published
a few articles about Shining Path/Communist Party of Peru, Steve Otto,
"Some Countries Overlooked," South
Hutchinson Post Dispatch, June 1990, Vol. 2, No 6, p. 3 and Steve Otto,
"Commentary- Drugs And War," South
Hutchinson Post Dispatch, October 1989, Vol. 1, No. 2, p. 3.
[2]
"Annexation Boom," The Wichita
[3] Reefer Madness, 1936,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reefer_Madness
[4]
"Religion & State," The Wichita
[5] Steve
Otto, "Election Time," The Wichita
[6] Steve
Otto "W.S.U. Paper Denied," Public
Voice, March 1981, Vol. 1 No. 2, pp. 5,6.
[7] "C.I.A. back again," The Wichita Public Voice, March 1981, Vol. 1 No. 2, p. 4.
[8] Steve
Otto, "Progressive Democratic Quorum," The Wichita
[9] Steve
Otto, "City Moves Out West,"
The Wichita
[10]
"WomanFair- WomanArt," The Wichita
[11] Steve
Otto "Left" Religion's," The
Wichita
[12] Steve
Otto "Jefferson Starship in Wichita ,"
Public Voice, August 1981, Vol. 2 No.
1, p. 7.
[14] Steve
Otto, "where wildlife roamed," The Wichita Public Voice, September 1981, Vol. 2 No.
2, pp. 1,3.
[15] Steve
Otto, "Guatemala ,
McKay speaks out against oppression," The Wichita Public Voice, December 1981, Vol. 2 No.
3, 1-2.
[16] Jack Understone, "Kidafi: The Crazed
Killer," The Wichita
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