The Pen is Truly Mightier than The Sword
The Power of the Written Word
By Robert Denson III

No matter where you heart lies, if you’ve turned on the television, you know the turmoil in which this country is in the midst.  With our reaction to terrorism, the government is keeping a close eye on its citizens and non-citizens while at the same time, adhering to constitutional guidelines.  In dealing with this, I’m sure you’ve heard the term “Big Brother is watching.”  Furthermore, if you are a reality television addict, you may have watched “Big Brother” on the CBS Network.  Do you know who “Big Brother” is?

No, it’s not John Ashcroft.  In fact, ‘Big Brother’ was created long before anyone granted the title to Attorney General Ashcroft.  ‘Big Brother’ was presented to the world in 1949 by a British Writer named Eric Arthur Blair—but you may know him by his pen name—George Orwell.    With the release of his book, it could be safe to state that Orwell thwarted the timeliness of his prophecy because he made people of the world AWARE of its impending possibility.  Orwell painted a picture of the planet under a “New World Order”. Before Orwell shared his vision, he believed we would all be under the constant, watchful eye of ‘Big Brother’ no later than the year Nineteen Eighty-Four, the title of his book.

But that one may have been too easy…….but think about this one.

Holden Caulfield was a young boy growing up in New York City .  At age 16, he was expelled from his private prep school. Confused and disillusioned, he searched for truth and railed against the "phoniness" of the adult world. He ended up exhausted and emotionally ill, in a psychiatrist's office. After he recovered from his breakdown and decided to go home and face the music from his parents (his father happened to be a lawyer), he took a mini, 2-day vacation and acted upon his rebellion to society’s ‘cloak & dagger’ masquerade.

After this two day tirade, no one knows what happened to Holden Caulfield, however, some believe that he was responsible for the assassination of John Lennon and the attempted assassination of President Ronald Wilson Reagan two months after his inauguration in 1981.  Did Holden pull the trigger?  Of course not.  Holden Caulfield is not human.  He was introduced to the world in 1951 by a writer named J.D. Salinger.  The book?  A Catcher in the Rye – still on the best seller list and going strong after 53 years of publication.  Coincidentally, it was banned in the United States after its first printing.  What does A Catcher in the Rye have to do with Lennon and Reagan?

John Lennon's assassin, Mark Chapman, asked the former Beatle to sign a copy of the book earlier in the morning of the day that he murdered Lennon. Police found the book in his possession upon apprehending the psychologically disturbed Chapman. However, the book itself contains nothing that could be attributed with leading Chapman to act as he did - it could have been any book that he was reading the day he decided to kill John Lennon - and as a result of the fact that it was The Catcher in the Rye, a book describing a nervous breakdown, media speculated widely about the possible connection.  John Hinckley, President Reagan’s ‘would be’ assassin, was also a huge Catcher fan.

What do Salinger and Orwell have in common?  They had a message and they used their voice.  A voice no better than the voice you or I wish to express every day—but here is the difference; they didn’t keep their voices to themselves—they wrote about it!

While Orwell wrote about his philosophy, Salinger penned about his inner demons.  They offered them to the world; the world listened and in turn, these authors indirectly changed the course of history.  One person’s voice CAN make a difference—but only if that person decides to USE that voice.  If you never speak it, your voice is useless and in turn dies with you.

So if you feel that the world is not paying any attention to you, well, it’s probably because you aren’t speaking out.  If your reason for not speaking out is because when you do no one listens, then you aren’t speaking to the right people.  And if you still harbor the excuse that you have no idea ‘who’ you should be talking to, then Sunpiper wants to eliminate all three obstacles for you.

Sunpiper Press is an online literary magazine dedicated to lending a platform to a voice that so desperately needs to be heard…yours!  We share poetry, short stories and essays written my accomplished authors as well as emerging writers.  Our purpose is to speak to the world and make a difference.  This is your world and within a few years, we will be turning it over directly to you.  Don’t you want to have a say about what we do to it in the meantime?

Check out Sunpiper Press at www.sunpiperpress.com and get involved.  Don’t let your voice fall upon a deaf ear.

Robert Denson III
Managing Editor
Sunpiper Press
www.sunpiperpress.com
“Promoting the Voices of Our Future!”