ARE WE SMART OR NOT?
I am afraid that reading may
become a lost art. The failing
circulation of newspapers is one
indication of this. More people
COMMAERNTTARY
By John Wilson
need to do what my wife, Mary K,
and I did recently with two friends.
Between meals on a cruise ship, we
read books. We weren’t disturbed by phone calls and chose not
to watch TV or get on Facebook. We had a lot of time to stimulate
our brains, memories and senses. Our “ports of call” broadened
our picture of the part of the world closest to us: the Caribbean,
Central America, Mexico, part of South America and the Panama
Canal, where my TV news career actually began in 1964. As I
was reading, I was reminded how important history is and how
much of it gets lost with the passing of time. It seems to me that
if texting becomes a substitute for reading and having
conversations, we are in serious trouble.
Reading and meaningful personal communication have served
civilizations for thousands of years. We shouldn’t give up on them.
Yet America’s literacy rate is being chipped away by the growing
gap between history and what we think we know about it.
Our country’s literacy rate is behind that of Russia, Canada,
Japan, Israel and even Costa Rica, which has a literacy rate of 97
percent. My solution is to take the time to read a book, magazine,
or newspaper and then talk about it with friends, loved ones
and relatives. We are who we are because of history. I think we
need to know more about it, not less, and then discuss how we
have gotten to where we are. Without that, future generations
may not learn what brought us to this point.
Lynne Olson’s Citizens of London book sat unopened in my
144 TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE | JULY/AUGUST 2018
home for a year or more until I had
idle time on that cruise, where I
decided to wade into the dramatic
and profound accounts of the
buildup for WWII. Many of us think
we know what happened, but most
likely we don’t. The fact is, most of us
John Wilson
know history basics more than the profound personal sacrifices
of people like Gil Winant, Dwight Eisenhower, Averell Harriman,
Winston Churchill and my personal hero at CBS, Edward R.
Murrow in addition to the many Americans who fought for
Britain before America entered the war. We know little about
those who endured the bombing of London, or about the crack
troops and ace fighter pilots from Poland who played key roles in
the D-Day invasion. Most of that bit of history has been ignored.
For the record, America’s literacy rate is behind half a dozen
other countries, based on the number of people over the age
of 15 who can read and write. Isn’t that shocking? No, we are
not illiterate, but we may become so one day if things do not
change. We need to keep reading and encouraging the younger
generation to learn about our history and the other wonders of
the world and universe. It took a cruise to make me realize how
much I was missing by being busy all the time. I know now that
I should spend less time on the internet, read more, talk more,
plus go on more cruises. 9
EDITOR’S NOTE: EDITOR’S NOTE: John Wilson, who retired from
Fox TV in 2014, worked more than 50 years in radio and television
news broadcasting.