Op-Ed Signals From Seaside:
21st Century Demands Return to Founder-Wisdom

The role of the writer is to generate cogitation in the reader. “Provocation outweighs persuasion” here.

Seaside, Oregon Courtesy: lewisandclarktrail.com

(SEASIDE, Ore.) - Ocean-distilled air is clean, clear, cold and somehow mind-stimulating...”cold” being clearly the current chief characteristic ! This short squib is our simplified summary of signals-to-come from Seaside, “whether” permitting.

You can count on consequential concentration on rapid and comprehensive return to principles set forth for us in our “exceptional” American legacy from the Founding Fathers.

Issue, problems, and possible solutions we MUST seek for the already-arrived 21st Century will include: Internet injection of new life, and its demand for new learnings about citizen responsibility for relevant and all-related understandings NOW shaping our way of “exceptionalism in American life”.

Do-It-Yourself approach to democracy, since there simply is NO OTHER WAY -- if we want to extend and support and strengthen governance now world-noted for its success and continuing world-consequential future.

Progress and its parts, contributing participants, and potent possibilities --offsetting chaos and that old devil “conservative confabulations.”

Comment, dissent, and intense invocation of dialog to produce democratic consensus continues to be our goal.

The role of the writer is to generate cogitation in the reader. “Provocation outweighs persuasion” here.

The resultant level of dialog may well be the most relevant component both writer and reader-participant can ever contribute to any consequential open channel devoted to democracy.

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At 21, Henry Clay Ruark was Aroostook Editor for the Bangor, Maine DAILY NEWS, covering the upper 1/4 of the state. In the ‘40s, he was Staff Correspondent, then New England Wires Editor at United Press-Boston; later Editor for the Burlington, Vermont 3-daily group owned by Wm. Loeb, later notorious at Manchester, New Hampshire UNION LEADER for attacks on Democratic Presidential candidates.

Hank returned to Oregon to complete M. Ed. degree at OSU, went on to Indiana University for Ed.D. (abd) and special other course-work; was selected as first Information Director for NAVA in Washington, D.C.; helped write sections of NDEA, first Act to supply math, science, foreign language consultants to state depts. of education; joined Oregon Dept. of Education, where he served as NDEA administrator/Learning Media Consultant for ten years.

He joined Dr. Amo DeBernardis at PCC, helping establish, extend programs, facilities, Oregon/national public relations; moved to Chicago as Editor/Publisher of oldest educational-AV journal, reformed as AV GUIDE Magazine; then established and operated Learning Media Associates as general communications consultant group. Due to wife’s illness, he returned to Oregon in 1981, semi-retired, and has continued writing intermittently ever since, joining S-N in 2004. His Op Eds now total over 560 written since then.