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# 2017-01-02 - Go East Young Man by William O. Douglas | |
William O. Douglas writing | |
In his autobiography, William O. Douglas wrote about having polio as | |
a kid. His doctors predicted he would never walk again. Through the | |
faith and love of his mother, her daily massages, his own | |
determination, and his love of the great outdoors, he regained the | |
full use of his legs. He is known for the argument that a tree can | |
be a plaintiff in court [1]. Below is a relevant paragraph from The | |
Oregonian [2]: | |
> Imagine a current member of the U.S. Supreme Court proposing that | |
> an old tree should have the right to sue to block a timber sale. | |
> ... Once, such a justice existed, and his name was William O. | |
> Douglas. He served on the Supreme Court from 1939 to 1975 and | |
> easily earned the distinction as the greenest justice in American | |
> history. He also hailed from the Pacific Northwest. | |
My 2008 book review follows: | |
> On one leg of this junket, Moore and I were somewhere in Maine | |
> riding a caboose, the only way to reach a remote cement plant. It | |
> was a warm spring day and Moore sat by an open window. The benches | |
> in the caboose, as usual, ran along each side of the car. Moore | |
> sat with one leg under him and The New York Times held by his two | |
> hands in front of him. He was absorbed in reading when the | |
> brakeman, sitting opposite, let go a wad of tobacco juice that | |
> passed between Moore's face and the newspaper and went smack out | |
> the window. Moore ruffled his paper and muttered something | |
> inaudible and returned to his reading. In a few moments the | |
> brakeman let go another wad of tobacco juice, and it also passed | |
> between Moore's face and the paper, neatly clearing the open | |
> window. Moore, flushed with anger, turned to the brakeman and | |
> shouted, "What goes on here?" The brakeman rose to his feet, | |
> cleared his throat, and said, "I'm sorry, sir, if I upset you. But | |
> I think you must admit it was some spitting." I could no longer | |
> contain myself and broke into loud laughter, to which first the | |
> brakeman and then Moore succumbed. | |
The author describes how his bout with polio left him with weak legs. | |
As a form of therapy he spent much time hiking. The best parts of | |
this book come in the first half where he describes the outdoors in | |
Washington. | |
Through his agricultural work and hopping freight trains, he met | |
hobos and wobblies. He was sympathetic toward them because they were | |
comparatively generous and decent human beings. | |
He worked while putting himself through college and law school and | |
sent money home. | |
What I found most interesting about his history with the SEC was his | |
transformation from cynicism to optimism about government. He did | |
not like Washington but he went there to fix some of the problems he | |
experienced in his youth. In the beginning of chapter 26 he states | |
that it was during his work at the SEC that he grew to regard the | |
majority of representatives and senators as worthy public servants. | |
In several parts of the book he references regressions in the | |
political scene, yet he became increasingly hopeful. | |
The theme of automation also fascinated me: the potential for | |
machines to eliminate labor. I've seen its like before in the | |
Jetson's: a utopian future where robots do all the work and people | |
have 100% leisure. He seemed to view labor as some sort of day care | |
for adults. In chapter 21 he states "An automated society could give | |
to those who had hobbies endless hours of joy. ... But how about the | |
men and boys I knew who frequented the pool halls and beer joints in | |
Yakima?" And in chapter 25, "The computer world would have depressed | |
Brandeis. ... Man becomes transformed when a machine separates him | |
from his fellow-man." | |
As a side note, I noticed that FDR made an analogy in his Quarantine | |
Speech delivered in Chicago on October 5, 1937, that compared human | |
beings to disease organisms [3]. This speech was given to rebut | |
isolationism. I found it ironic, considering that our enemies of | |
that day also gave speeches that used analogies to disease. Though | |
to be fair, FDR was advocating a quarantine, not an amputation. | |
[1] | |
William O. Douglas, see section Trees have standing | |
[2] Oregonian article | |
Oregonian article about William O. Douglas | |
[3] FDR "Quarantine speech" | |
FDR "Quarantine speech" transcript | |
author: Douglas, William O. (William Orville), 1898-1980 | |
detail: gopher://gopherpedia.com/0/Go_East,_Young_Man | |
ISBN: 0394488342 | |
tags: biography,book,history,non-fiction,outdoor,political,vagabond | |
title: Go East,Young Man | |
# Tags | |
biography | |
book | |
history | |
non-fiction | |
outdoor | |
political | |
vagabond |