I Hold These Truths to Be Self Evident: The Collected Essay's of Peter Bollen

By Peter Bollen

An eclectic collection of the author's published essays ranging from issues of War, the Nuclear Age, Labor, unforgettable characters and the assassination of JFK.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Nov 25, 2013
• ISBN: 9781491819708

Peter Bollen

Peter Bollen, born in March 24, 1948 in Lynn, MA, and raised there, has lived in Bridgton, Maine since 2003. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1968 to 1970, and attended North Shore Community College in Beverly, MA. He was editor of the Lynnfield Beacon (MA), a trade labor journal, in 1989, and editor of The Northeast News Service (MA) from 1989-1996 (editor emeritus since 1996). He has published occasional essays in newspapers including the Daily Item (Lynn, MA), the North Shore Sunday (Danvers, MA), the Salem Evening News (MA), and The Bridgton News (ME), an;d Lake Living Magazine (ME). Bollen initiated a lawsuit -- eventually joined by more than a dozen plaintiffs -- against the Justice Dept. to overturn a prohibition on compensation for freelance writing and speaking for all federal employees; the U.S. Supreme Court agreed and overturned the ban in 1995. He contributed a biography of folk artist Woody Guthrie to the Postmaster General (1980), which helped result in a commemorative postage stamp of Guthrie as part of the Folk Musicians series.

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© 2013, 2014 by Peter Bollen. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 05/20/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4918-1971-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-1970-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013917316

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Foreword

Chapter One

Character Sketches

Chapter Two

The Commonweal

Chapter Three

Those Pet Peeves

Chapter Four

Emptying the Junk Drawer

Chapter Five

Life in Labor

The Workroom Floor

By the author—

Handbook of Great Labor Quotations

Dear Bureaucrat

Nuclear Voices

Great Labor Quotations—

   Sourcebook & Reader

Frank Talk

I Hold These Truths to Be Self Evident—

   Collected Essays

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The happiest years of my career as a Labor journalist were an eight year span where I edited the Northeast News Service. I accumulated a small staff consisting of a talented designer and an award-winning cartoonist, along with our then union president, Tony Mastas, who held the purse strings for our publishing endeavors. Mastas spared no expense in making our journal the best it could be. The pages were expanded and mailings went national.

Mastas also gave this editor a free hand to write and edit what I deemed appropriate. His hands off approach was a dream for any editor, including the small staff I was fortunate to work with. Eventually our journal won every award category by the Postal Press Association including a national award by the AFL-CIO Labor Press (ILCA). I’d be remiss if I didn’t include Bill McNally who succeeded Tony Mastas and kept the tradition going with our journal and also appointed me as our Legislative Director. After my retirement, Bill also kept me on in this capacity and still lists me as an Associate Editor (emeritus), which continues to be a privilege. A section of this collection will cover my Labor essays including some Postal Service issues which I’ve covered in my years as a journalist and the federal employees affected.

I was a free-lance writer before becoming a Labor journalist and the following essays include various opinion columns, op-eds as well as my time spent covering various union related and Labor writings. To paraphrase noted columnist, George Will—‘It’s the greatest privilege to any columnist and writer to opine freely on personal issues of interest.’ This privilege and pleasure I share with much Thanks and gratitude to those many editors who chose to publish my columns over the years.—PB

FOREWORD

This collection of essays covers a range of topics from politics to the author’s personal perspective on subjects such as the environment, the Nuclear Age, unique individuals and topical themes of the day. Being a Labor journalist, a section of this collection covers some of the issues of the day as it relates to working families and the role of unions in the workplace.

Peter Bollen spent a career as a young community activist while writing for an alternate newspaper in his hometown of Lynn, Massachusetts. Among his career highlights, Bollen initiated a lawsuit against the Justice Department in the administration of President George H.W. Bush contesting the Ethics in Government Act which forbade federal employees plying their trade for freelance writing and speaking.

Ultimately, The Supreme Court overturned this law on First Amendment principles and an unfair law was overturned. Bollen also initiated a request for a Postal commemorative stamp for legendary balladeer, Woody Guthrie, when a performing arts series was commissioned. Guthrie was initially denied, and due to Bollen’s own biographical highlights and efforts making a case of this artist’s accomplishments, a commemorative stamp of Woody Guthrie was ultimately issued.

Bollen was influenced by legendary journalist, George Seldes, as a mentor. An early critic of the corporate press and media in the first half of the Twentieth Century, Seldes’s dictum was Question everything and take nothing for granted. Seldes’s encouragement and support led to Bollen’s published books and guidance in trenchant independent journalism. An account of their friendship is included in these pages. Each account is a timepiece of the zeitgeist of these times. Enjoy the writer’s take on these issues.

CHAPTER ONE

CHARACTER SKETCHES

The Newpaper—June 1983

A Talk with Robert Parker

Who is this guy Spenser? Who is this guy the critics are calling the heir apparent to Sam Spade and Philip Marlow? Who is the man Newsweek calls witty and a modern paladin? The New York Times calls him tough and unexpectedly literate. Playboy has called him the Alan Alda of private detectives. He’s been accused of being a misfit, a loner, a feminist, too smart for his own good, a soft touch and a bone cruncher. The London Times calls him the thinking man’s private eye.

The irreverent Spenser reads Barbara Tuchman, the Boston Globe and quotes Peter Gammons. He jogs along the Charles and can whip up a meal that would whet a gourmet’s appetite. His passion is beer and Susan Silverman, his lady friend. Boston is his turf. He may be found roaming the steamy streets of the combat zone on a missing person assignment or cruising down Storrow Drive humming a tune from Cennamo’s FM jazz show en-route to Fenway Park to handle a threat against a Red Sox pitcher.

In short, Spenser is a true blue Bostonian. He is his own man, plays by his own rules and takes a back seat to no one. Though he is an inveterate wise-guy, no one can accuse him of corruption or incompetence. He gets the job done and is, quite simply, the best in the business in an imperfect world. Honor, above all, is his mission.

Spenser is the creation and protagonist of Lynnfield author, Robert B. Parker. In a Newpaper interview, Parker explained that being a writer of detective fiction is basically what he set out to become. A former professor of literature (Bridgewater State, Northeastern University), Parker completed his doctoral thesis on the works and literature of Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and Ross MacDonald. Among his credits, Parker has written a textbook on literature; a weight training book for Sports Illustrated; an autobiographical drama he co-authored with his wife Joan (Three Weeks in Spring); ten Spenser novels—one of which won him the Edgar Allan Poe Award for mystery (Promised Land); and another (Early Autumn) which was nominated for best private eye novel of the year. Wilderness, a non-Spenser novel, is presently being filmed on location in the state of Maine.

Parker’s latest book, The Widening Gyre, (Delacorte/Lawrence), is another in the Spenser series where the Boston sleuth is hired to protect a right-wing politician in his campaign for the Senate.

There is blackmail, mob influence, Boston politics, and the usual Spenserian repartee that enrages the exalted and amuses his fans. Although the story is well plotted, it’s strength is in the style and ingenuity of Spenser’s methods and observations—which are written in first person narrative and keeps the reader plugging along and aware of Spenser’s moods, feelings and witticisms. This style, in true Chandleresque form, is what sets Parker apart from many of your average detective writers. The Widening Gyre, (the title taken from Yeats’ Second Coming) is vintage Parker and sure to keep his fans content.

Parker explained to the Newpaper that talks are underway in Hollywood for a possible television series involving Mike Farrell (of M.A.S.H.)as well as others. Warner Bros. is seeking out Clint Eastwood to play Spenser in the film version of Looking For Rachel Wallace. The talks are tenuous at this time and, chides Parker, In Hollywood, talk is as cheap as writers. What should Spenser look like? In my mind, says Parker, I envision him as a young Robert Mitchum, but of course I have no say as far as casting in the movies. The Newpaper puts a plug in for a literary Dick Butkus. As for personal favorites, Parker is particularly proud of Early Autumn and Looking for Rachel Wallace.

Robert Parker assures his fans he will continue writing the Spenser novels, although he has plans for other projects as well. This summer, Dell paperbacks is re-releasing the complete series of the Spenser novels, one each month until the end of the year. This is welcome news for the growing legion of fans of Beantown’s favorite gumshoe.

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Introduction commentary for website Americans Who Tell the Truth ®. Shetterly), Spring, 2005

George Seldes Truth Teller

The most sacred cow of the press is the press itself. *

George Seldes (1890-1995) was a pivotal figure in Twentieth Century journalism. A foreign correspondent, reporter, as well as editor and publisher, Seldes’s mission was reporting