Dear Progressive Reader,
News media is a critical source of information in this time of worldwide pandemic. And yet, Donald Trump repeatedly lashes out at legitimate, respected news agencies when they ask tough questions. A little more than one hundred years ago, another pandemic ravaged the globe. Ultimately infecting one third of the world’s population at the time, the 1918 “Spanish Flu” got its name because it was first reported in Spanish newspapers. This was not because it came from Spain, but rather because during World War I, Spain maintained its neutrality and its media was free to report “unpleasant” news. The United States, on the other hand, where the virus ultimately would kill some 675,000 people, had strict press censorship guidelines imposed by President Woodrow Wilson. Wilson could not get outright censorship approved by Congress, but they passed the Espionage Act of 1917, which was used to target “disloyal” speech and restrict “antiwar criticism.” The Act was invoked in the attempt to block the publication of the Pentagon Papers in 1971, and more recently in the case of WikiLeaks and the publication of the so-called Iraq War Logs.
At The Progressive, we have a long tradition of speaking truth. In 1917, our founder Robert M. La Follete, Sr. stated on the floor of the Senate, “the right to control their own government according to constitutional forms is not one of the rights that the citizens of this country are called upon to surrender in time of war. Rather in time of war the citizen must be more alert to the preservation of his right to control his government. He must be most watchful of the encroachment of the military upon the civil power. He must beware of those precedents in support of arbitrary action by administrative officials, which excused on the plea of necessity in wartime, become the fixed rule when the necessity has passed and normal conditions have been restored.” And, as Christopher Dale wrote earlier this month in an op-ed for our Progressive Media Project, “News deserts present a civic danger, since the information vacuums they create diminish the public’s ability to hold elected officials and business leaders accountable. Corruption is far easier when no one is looking.”
Among the many stories on our website this past week, Sarah Jaffee reports on shortages affecting the nation’s VA hospitals. Mike Ervin shares his concerns over “the rationing of human worth” as medical facilities are pushed to their limits. Tim Cordon, a former nurse, gives his thoughts on steps to address the potential overload of our health care system. And Laura Brickman writes from Kyiv about the uncertainties facing Americans who are currently living or traveling abroad.
March 31 marked the anniversary of the birth of farmworker-activist César Chávez, who died in 1993. As Father James L. Vizzard wrote for The Progressive in 2007, Chávez was no ordinary kind of man. David Bacon chronicled Chávez’s funeral and the memorial one year later in two separate archival photo essays on our website last year. Last week, we published Bacon’s recent photo essay on the lives of date palm workers in southern California.
Farmworkers today are among the many essential workers particularly at risk during the COVID-19 crisis, along with many others in the business of providing our food, as shown in this photo essay by Lauren Justice and Emilio Leanza. And, as James Goodman explains, immigrant workers are particularly at risk at this time, especially those in crowded detention facilities.
We have been gathering all of our coverage of COVID-19 under one tab on our website for quick access. Keep reading, and we will keep bringing you important articles on these and other issues of our time.
Sincerely,
Norman Stockwell
Publisher
P.S. – In an unprecedented move, spurred by the urgency of the moment, we released the entire new issue of The Progressive early in digital form. You can read it or download it at progressive.org/AprilMay2020pdf or read it on a mobile device here. We hope you will share the link with others who would like to read this month’s articles as well. We exist because we want people to read our content, but we survive because they do.
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