SolarGeneral Proudly Presents...
...by James Mason
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As stated a few segments back, this year saw the first time I have felt compelled to decline offers to promote Movement exposure. Last month I mentioned the cancellation of the speaking engagements, this month it is about a direct approach by the press here locally for an interview.
The last time any dealing with the press here was had, it was on account of a prominent Movement personality known internationally. Since we were all "publicity hounds" then, by both bent and profession, I telephoned the local paper's news room and informed them of his presence in town. "So what?" was the response I received. This being a small town anyway and my being a person who doesn't forget, when John Hinckley shot Reagan and this paper had wire service photos of an individual purported to be Hinckley but who was not, I didn't bother saying a word about it.
Above: Photos run in the Chillicothe newspaper after the Hinckley assassination attempt. The man pictured is NOT Hinckley.
Last year Universal Order, Chillicothe, and my own name appeared in nationally circulated periodicals. The local paper– as I later found out– didn't catch any of it and I, for my part, wasn't interested in bringing it to their attention.
Then suddenly, in January, I was forcefully approached, later wined and dined, in the hopes that I would not only grant this paper an interview but a photo spread as well. I must confess the old temptation arose and at one brief point I had made up my mind to do it: the evening I had bumped into an enemy of mine in a downtown drug store and had thought that would be a novel way to remind him and the rest just who they had made an enemy of.
But within twenty-four hours I had thought better of it. Several personal pleadings from those closest to me plus my own better judgment finally caused me to rule it out entirely. As for my enemies, those distant as well as more current, I had already successfully defeated them at the time of the challenge and had permanently confounded their plans. I am a man of revenge but I am also a realist. I will not sacrifice myself for the sake of any punitive measure, large or small. As Manson would pointedly ask, "Are you ready to die?" Because if you aren't ready to die over this or that particular issue, then you'd best let it ride.
Besides, this would have been merely blowing smoke, serving a warning. And, serious as I am, I believe in doing neither. Let's face it, that story, any such story, would have come out just like a veiled threat to these stupid yokels who understand nothing. Today I am in better shape and position and have more "in"s than I ever had as a "mass strategy" activist. The story would have blown most of all that, and for what? So these fools would have something to gaggle about for the next ten years or so. (I say 'ten years' because to this day people tell me tales from when, in 1974, "the Nazis" had a booth at the county fair. They don't know me as the person who organized the first openly Nazi county fair booth.)
They could scarcely conceal their upset with me in their publisher's office when I broke it to them that I would have to decline their generous offer. About the best they could do to try and spite me was to coolly inform me that should anything involving me come across the wire services, there'd be nothing I could do to prevent them from printing it in their paper. True enough, as far as it went. But then they had missed everything else that had come across the wire, and lately I follow my new policy of "run silent, run deep". Unless I'm grossly mistaken, they've missed their opportunity.
Then finally there is a quick, fleeting consideration: it had only been a matter of a few weeks since I had for all practical purposes shut the door on the spy game someone or some agency had been running on me for a three-year period. The timing and the newspapers insistence were both a bit too "high" for me. But take it or leave it as you will.
[Vol. XV, # 5 – May, 1986]
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