To read from the beginning, click the photos on the right
“There’s more, Johanna. All news about the war is filtered through the White House. If I want my reporters to have access to the White House, I have to print news with their slant on it. That’s why I keep my trap shut and back a war I don’t believe in.” Then Ivan crumpled into a chair and rubbed his hands across his face as if the explanation had drained away all of his energy. “I know our leaders started a dangerous game. And they’re wrong. But If I’m the whistle blower, I won’t have a newspaper in which to print anything for much longer. So I bite my tongue and put out the state-approved version of the news.”
Johanna stared. “I believe that telling the truth sets you free. You told me the truth just now, and your words rang stronger than any I’ve heard from you in a long time. And it’s going to take a lot of truth-telling to clear up this mess. But we have to do it now - before anyone invades Iraq and before anyone else gets hurt.”
Ivan shook his head. He looked old all of a sudden. “No, Johanna. I won’t let you print it.” It was as if he had to muster all of his strength just to say it.
Johanna turned towards the door. “You’re wrong,” she said, and she held back the tears until she’d left Ivan’s office.
Chapter XXVII
On her way home from work, Johanna bought a computer program for setting up a web site and signed up for a community college class on web design. Learning Internet software at night school was almost as good as dating.
As soon as she had learned enough, Johanna went to work on her home page. She posted a picture of the earth as seen from space, and she made it turn slowly. And on the spinning world, islands disappeared and coastlines eroded as predicted by global warming.
Below it, she entered one of her favorite quotes:
“Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and non-violence, when it helps us to see the enemy’s point of view, to hear his questions, to know of his assessment of ourselves. For, from his view, we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and, if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition.
Martin Luther King, Jr.”
Then she dug through her old files for all the prohibited fairy tales. ‘Finally, freedom of the press,’ she thought, and she grinned and hugged herself with joy.
Ivan’s layout editor knocked on his door. “Hey, Ivan, you asked me to keep an eye on Johanna’s column. Well, she’s sneaked another item into it. She referenced a website, www.fairytalesfortherestofus.com and it’s not the one she uses for the newspaper.”
Ivan shook his head, and then he laughed. “Good for her! What the hell! Leave it in. If there’s flack, I’ll handle it.”
To read from the beginning, click the photos on the right
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