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I just finished reading "In The Shadow Of Los Alamos", the various writings of Edith Warner, who was made famous in "The House At Otowi Bridge", which you might really enjoy reading. (If you aren't familiar with this, she had a house at the edge of San Ildefonso pueblo, on the Rio Grande. Because she operated a tea room, she met many of the Los Alamos scientists and their wives during the Manhattan Project.) This piece at the end seems to sum up all that we peacemakers have been after for so many years, and she wrote it so long ago. There are mentions of the radio she and Tilano enjoyed listening to, and hearing Edward R. Murrow, who she respected. I think this letter was sent to her niece, but I'm not sure.
November 30, 1947
I have been thinking. If the world situation is as bad as it seems, I feel strongly it should be taken to the people. The strength of this country is the people and always in a crisis they have come through. I feel though that the thing we should work for is not security as such for our own country, but peace for the world. This is not really idealistic but realistic in view of the past and the present.
I'd like to see the people presented with facts in a dignified, honest way but with a spark, a challenge. The time has passed for phrases--for freedome and such--but peace embodies freedom and security.
I think we would respond in large measure to something as vital as this is if we could be made to realize: if we had to give up something for it. We take for granted what we have and leave the future in government's hands. I'd like to have mothers, as you, and trained reporters like Ed Murrow saying what they wanted and how they thought we could work toward it. It seems to me that a country aroused would do more to offset danger of war than all the weapons imaginable......
my love to you,
Edith
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