Books On Fire

 

First, I have to admit I never really liked the TV show The Waltons. In the original air time that the series ran, from 1972-1981, I was the odd man out during the evening it aired because both my parents and my sister were big fans.  So most of the time I would go to my room and read while they watched the show. My usual tastes as a kid at that time were science fiction or comedies. 

For a major part of the 70's, our TV watching was a shared venture. One night I would get to pick the shows and another night my sister would get to pick. My sister's choices would usual be family-friendly fare like The Waltons or Little House on the Prairie, or, in some cases, a show which featured the current teen heartthrob. The family fare I never warmed up to, but in retrospect some of those shows with the "cute guy" factor were actually pretty good, if I ignored that part and just watched the show... (Magnum, P.I. comes to mind here).

My shows, on the other hand, usually had either some comedic format or some science fiction theme. As far as comedies, I usually liked All in the Family, The Jeffersons, Sanford and Son or Chico and the Man. On the science fiction side I usually had less success because sci-fi TV was a wasteland of missed opportunities. Usually these shows would barely last one season and I would have to wait in anticipation for the next batch of attempts. Some of the 70's science fiction shows that failed to find a niche were Planet of the Apes, Logan's Run and Project U.F.O. 

On one (rare) occasion when I actually sat and watched an episode of The Waltons I actually saw an episode that molded and affected my outlook on life and vitally changed my perspective, I think for the better. In season 5 of the series, the season began with John-Boy Walton (Richard Thomas) starting up his own newspaper. 

 

The Waltons  Season 5 Episode 5 The Fire Storm (original air date Oct. 21, 1976):

 (Note: There is a subplot in this episode involving Erin Walton (Mary Elizabeth McDonough) wanting to enter a local beauty pageant and receiving a lot of negative pressure from the family.  While this part of the episode is not inferior, I won't delve too much into it, except where it intrudes on the main part of the story, on which I am focusing.)

Well into this season, John-Boy has struggled to keep his paper informative.  He has higher aspirations than just a community paper that only covers the local weather and community events.  As such he has notified the community of his intentions to reprint parts of Adolph Hitler's Mein Kampf. The local community, as well as the whole world, have been observing the things going on in Germany at this time, including the notorious book burnings. There is considerable pressure  on John-Boy not to follow through with his plans.

In an early scene, the town preacher, Rev. Fordwick (John Ritter) uses his pulpit as a political podium to try to convince John-Boy to see the error of his ways. 

 

And, although John-Boy does have the support of his father, John (Ralph Waite), it is clear that even his family has some misgivings.  Especially after some one throws a rock through the Walton family window, with a crudely drawn swastika on it. 

One by one, the advertisers and potential sales outlets of his paper withdraw their support, clearly trying to intimidate John-Boy to give up his quest.  But John-Boy clearly is strong in his conviction that he is doing what is right.  His goal is to make people aware of the situation going on in Germany. (Note: As indicated in the prologue, this episode takes place in 1937, still a couple of years away from the start of WWII.  Hitler is getting noticed, but he has yet to become an actual threat on the international scene, as yet.)

That conviction leads John-Boy to publish his article, despite the animosity for his determination. Even his sister turns against him. Erin had entered that beauty contest, but lost, and she blames John-Boy. She thinks that her loss in the contest is directly due to the ill feelings that John-Boy has stirred up, which are now being directed, by her thinking, to other family members.

The celebration that pageant was in conjunction with ends with Rev. Fordwick  trying to politicize the situation again.  Maybe Fordwick has his intentions in the right place, but in comparing him to the rest of the community, he is just as close-minded as the rest of the town.  He proposes that the community respond by symbolically burning a copy of Mein Kampf. 

One of the other citizens dumps a bag of books near the fire and proposes burning them, too. Simply because they are written in German. And, since most of those people in the crowd don't know Kacke (poop) from Kuchhen (cake), they are enthusiastic about the idea.

John-Boy has had enough.  He steps up and delivers the speech with which I so identify:

"This is my fault! I started this whole thing with my newspaper, I know that. But you misunderstood me! I was trying to show you what people are capable of.  Out of ignorance! Out of fear! Out of hatred! Do you realize that this kind of thing is happening all over Germany? All over Germany!  And right now Germany and Walton's Mountain are not very far apart in my mind. I read that a foreign tyrant was publishing his plans to take over the world and carrying out those plans. I thought you ought to have the opportunity to know about it, just like I'd take the opportunity to tell you if there was a blight that was threatening your crops or some kind of scandal that was threatening our government. I mean that's freedom as far as I can see it, and if you choose not to know about it, that's freedom, too. But if you take a book and you burn this book, then you CAN'T know about it, and you've had your freedom taken away from you! Do you understand me? And if there's anybody here who feels that this book is more dangerous in one piece than it is burned to ashes in that fire, then I want you to come up here. I want you to take it out of my hand. I want you to throw it in the fire right now! Throw them all into the fire!"

 

The scene ends with John-Boy spying a book in the pile of books about to be burned, and asks one of the ladies to come up and read it in the original German. Mrs. Brimmer (Nora Marlowe), who had earlier revealed that she and her husband had run into problems in other towns because they were German, does so.

"Am Anfang schuf Gott Himmel und Erde. Und die Erde war wüst und leer, und es war finster auf der Tiefe; und der Geist Gottes..."

And then he asks her to translate it and the big reveal comes...

"In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth. And the Earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.  And God said let there be light... "

So the townspeople, who are deeply religious, are shocked that the Holy Bible was almost cast into the fire, simply for being printed in German. A change of heart comes even over Rev. Fordwick, and he hands both the Bible and the copy of Mein Kampf to John-Boy, telling him they need to be in good hands.

 

 

The reason why this episode affects me so deeply is that it was one of the incidents in my life that formed my Libertarian ideals, and one that so fits how I feel about the First Amendment, especially that part about free speech and freedom of the press. Also that tendency by the public at large to be closed minded to ideas that go against what they may have already taken a permanent root in their lives. When I was a kid, the local newspaper had a quote in it's masthead that was attributed to Voltaire: "I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." That quote inspires my outlook on life immensely. 

One only has to be told to "shut up" because their viewpoint goes against the prevailing norm to realize that the pressure to fit in can sometimes go against everything you clearly believe. This has sometimes put me in precarious situations over the years.  Not life-threatening, but often relationship-threatening. But I still stand behind my viewpoints, regardless of whether family or friends find my position at odds. And I adamantly will stick to my convictions, regardless of pressure, and for that I thank John-Boy, or more specifically, the author of this episode.

One thing that occurs to me however, is this. Apparently John-Boy printed those excerpts without editorial comment. That in itself might have staved off at least some of the reaction he got for printing them. 

Thanks for your attention.

Quiggy