October 5, 2025

By Arthur H. Gunther III

thecolumnrule.com

Newspaper stiffs, the ones I’ve known and the one that is me, are not political in the organized party sense. You get jaundiced early in the game covering template speeches and kiss-the-baby photo ops. But you also sometimes see genuine interest in humanity that is so strikingly opposite from the usual blather and promises that a tear can form on the expressionless scribe’s face. We require decent, even extraordinary leaders no matter the party.

These are the “pay-it-forward” politicos, the ones that want to make a difference despite a system that instinctly favors privilege, money, special interest, even temptation and criminal activity, let alone thirst for power. Someone like John Kennedy. Or those who reluctantly step into the job and get it done, as Harry Truman did when Franklin Roosevelt died. “The Buck Stops Here” was more than a sign on his desk. Truman studied history and frequently stressed the need to honor the mission statement of what we now call the American experiment. He took his humble beginnings and the awesome responsibility thrown on him and tried to pay it forward.

Teddy Roosevelt was another principled fellow, a Republican who actually lassoed Big Business greed rather than hopping into the Big Money bed where his potency would be directed by them.

Those were presidents, but there have been and are many such relatively selfless examples of leadership – servants of the people – over the centuries. Some came from humble roots, who given a chance – or luck – to succeed remembered the 11th Commandment: Pay it forward.

There have been and are Congress people, governors, mayors, the local dog catchers who also fit the mold. None of them, nor the presidents mentioned, were/are saints. Flawed, hidden stories at times. But to a man, to a woman, empathy has not been the forgotten word that it is at this national moment. Nor personal wealth by gaming the system. Nor such indifference to inhumanity that now plays daily: Goon-squad roundups of human beings, including children, by masked and unidentified agents, people assaulted in military-style action, flash grenades thrown in building hallways as children slept at 1 a.m. in Chicago while due process and other constitutional rights are dismissed as the majority of immigrants are held on civil charges in deplorable conditions. All of this paid for by taxpayers, and we have no say in the vetting process of the secret agents.

In this horror time, the ranks of newspaper stiffs are declining, to the glee of autocrats and information deniers who do not want to be documented as to deed, even crime, certainly injustice. But know this: the photos, the smart phone recordings, the daily reports of those who do these inhumane things are being kept by media, by citizens. The day must come when the Nuremberg example plays on the democratic stage in the United States. Justice must be done if only in the courts below the highest one. For humanity alone.

Why is all the horror necessary? Why can’t there be more pay-it-forward politicos who devise a reasonable immigration system for a nation built by immigrants? Why does our nation, in special interest, in money deals, support dictatorships from which people flee illegally, yes, but because they fear for their lives?

Why aren’t politicians talking to people who have lost factory and other jobs; or to those who cannot escape high rents to save for a home; or to those college graduates with no jobs? Or to those who require costly training for the trades? If they did, if they showed concern for the ordinary person, the autocrats, the prejudiced, the haters wouldn’t get a word out without challenge.

Autocracy is growing because too many of our people have been forgotten, even by well-meaning leaders, and they run to pied pipers who feed them false promise, rallied in prejudice and hate. Comfort food, not.

The government of 2025 must be re-ordered. Many more pay-it-forward humanitarian leaders must reject the horror, the indecency. The American experiment must continue, addressing faults along the way. Citizens, too, must be at the metaphorical barricades. We all have climbed on the backs of family, teachers, role models, immigrants. We must all pay it forward.

The writer is a retired newspaperman.

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