'Who Owns America?'

My father-in-law, Jim Graham, recently donated some books to the Altrusa/AAUW book sale – which is Nov. 1-3 at the Highland County Administration Building on Governor Foraker Place in Hillsboro.

One of the books will not find its way to the sale.

It's going to stay on my bookcase, thank you very much.

Before giving away the title or the author, please let me share a few excerpts from this firsthand account of American government, spirit and entrepreneurship, written almost 50 years ago by a former U.S. statesman.

The following passages are the author's words, not mine:

• Sometime in the 1960s…we discovered that economic prosperity without due consideration for the needs of the mind and spirit left us with a society where the "good life" was measured in tangibles rather than those intangibles, such as friendship and service, that can make life a joy to live.

• We need a truly national approach to government, and we must have men in government who will have the courage to accept responsibility for planning and implementing the policies that will lift us as a nation into the next century. This government must be visionary in nature and be prepared to "return to us" both the physical things that only national government can give back – clean rivers and unpolluted air and land – and those human things of hope and heart.

After reading those two preceding paragraphs, I would ask our more fervent readers of all things political to pause for a moment. Before reading another word, I would ask if you agree or disagree with the sentiments expressed in either of those two paragraphs.

* * *

Anyone?

That's what I thought.

Let's move on, shall we?

The author also writes:

• If God didn’t like big projects, why did He create the universe?

• History shows that free enterprise allowed to run totally free will eventually destroy itself.

• We are at a time in our national history when mistrust of the responsiveness of government to the popular will has reached a critical point – a point at which increasing numbers of Americans feel denied and even robbed of the power to influence public policy; a point at which the cry is "return it to us." This mood is not the property of any age or class, and it can be a good and healthy thing if those in government will listen. But if no one will listen, the lack of communication causes frustration and fear. Fear leads to hate, and hate leads to violence."

• What Americans want "returned to us" is a sense of care, a sense of ownership. We want renewed assurance that we have some control over our physical assets and our spiritual destiny. The public is asking for a larger role in the direction of its own fate.

• History shows the United States has enjoyed its healthiest times when the people felt involved, and neither afraid of the government or ignored by it. People – our job is People! The problems in America are created by the failure to inform the people or listen to them. It is clearly time to reaffirm that "we" and not "them" are the new voices of America, and that "we" and not "them" really own America.

The book in question, as I said, was nothing more than a donation to a local book sale.

But then I learned that the book had been the property of one Major Thomas Griffin. Who's Major Thomas Griffin? Glad you asked.

Major Tom is my father-in-law's neighbor on Cincinnati's West Side. Now 96 years young, Major Tom was one of the famous Doolittle's Raiders from World War II.

Doolittle's Raiders were part of a 79-man mission led by Jimmy Doolittle. Their assignment? A (most likely) one-way plane ticket to bomb the Japanese city of Tokyo after the Dec. 7, 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.

The Army Air Corp "Raiders" understood this was a suicide mission. But in 2011, there were five remaining Raiders still living and sharing their stories of this incredible military assignment.

You can read all about Major Thomas Griffin and Jimmy Doolittle's Raiders by making a possibly archaic – but always enjoyable – trip to your local library or by doing your own online searches.

Let us again return to the author who inspired this column.

• He was elected as the second governor of the Last Frontier State, Alaska, in 1966.

• He had oversight of the oilfields at Prudhoe Bay in 1968.

• He was a moderate and an environmentalist.

• He supported Michigan Gov. George Romney (yes, that's Mitt's father) in the 1968 presidential primary.

• He served as Secretary of the Interior under President Nixon.

• He was fired by President Nixon, most likely because he was a staunch environmentalist and supported liberal laws that put liabilities on oil companies.

• He told Nixon: "I believe this administration finds itself embracing a philosophy which appears to lack appropriate concern for the attitude of a great mass of Americans – our young people."

• He was later elected governor as an Independent.

• He died on May 7, 2010 in Anchorage, Alaska. And in keeping with his wishes, he was buried standing up, facing east toward Washington, D.C. (Whether he was saluting or gesturing, hasn't been revealed.)

"He" is Walter J. Hickel. His book is entitled "Who Owns America?" It was published in 1971.

In its conclusion, Gov. Hickel writes: "Real wealth is not money. It is productivity and taking care of the needs of people. Do a thing because people need it, and you will be wealthy. Do a thing just to make money, and you will eventually consider yourself a failure. … Success is not judged by material things acquired in a lifetime. It is based on those who gave, not just those who received. It is the giving and not the receiving that makes greatness.

"The world will fall in step with a man who is committed in his mind, his heart and his soul."

Thanks for the wonderful book, Jim. I trust that the good folks of Altrusa and AAUW will understand.

Rory Ryan is publisher of The Highland County Press.