Where I Stand — Justice David Zenoff: Remembering a great Nevada, whose words ring true today

Friday, Oct. 7, 2005 | 8 a.m.

Like most great men, his words and deeds will live on. Justice Zenoff will long be remembered for his good deeds during Las Vegas' early years, especially his work on behalf of our community's young people. He was, after all, the man who hired a young school teacher named Mike O'Callaghan as the county's chief juvenile probation officer.

A few years later, Mike was governor of Nevada. On Aug. 16, 1965, Justice Zenoff wrote the following guest Where I Stand column. It was brilliant then, and prescient. It is equally brilliant in its simplicity 40 years later -- and still prescient. We are honored to reprint that column today. And we are honored to have known David Zenoff.

By Justice David Zenoff

There are a good many thinking Americans who are becoming increasingly concerned again of our posture in world affairs.

The increased tempo in Vietnam is clear indication that regardless of the efforts of political and military leaders to hold that theater to a stop-gap action, war in reality is upon us. It is also apparent that other little countries, which were unknowns in the world picture not too many years ago, and are emerging in the family of nations, unfortunately seem to prefer the Communist way of life to that of our own.

Thus, the huge expenditures of foreign aid, the steady flow of our military might, the constant availability of our money and manpower, whether technical, cultural, agricultural, or industrial, seem to be making only modest impact on those nations still in the state of indecision in their determination of a way of life.

Certainly, we at home need not be convinced. We know the fruits of freedom, we relish the bounty of liberty, we thrive in this republic of free states, yet we have not been entirely successful in convincing others. There must be a reason.

From early history we have sold ourselves. We have gloried in the deeds of our pioneers, we have boasted of our ever-improving standards of living, our many automobiles, telephones, power, radios, food supplies, wage rates, work laws, voting rights, schools, old age security and all the vast joys of our living in America to ourselves and not to others who should be made to know.

The foreign countries are not getting the whole truth of America. News does not always reflect the entire truth of what goes on in our country, it does not tell the story of our humanitarian purposes as they apply to hungry people all over the world. We are not doing a complete selling job.

Arthur Meyerhoff, speaking to the American Advertising Federation recently, said, "... We have the spectacle of the USIA broadcasting day after day, throughout the word, stories of crime and scandal in the United States. Yes, these unpleasant events do happen, but do they represent the real United States we know?"

The news stories that we receive within our own boundaries are a mixture of all that happens. Their relative positions in the newspapers depend upon their news value. But all of the news is there.

Yet, the Iron Curtain countries do not hear or read that there are more responsible teenagers than wild or delinquent teenagers, that there are more enduring marriages than divorces, that a hammer is an instrument to build, not to kill, that automobiles can transport, not just mangle.

The news should emphasize our excellent objectives, to back charities as we do, to wipe out diseases, to provide job security, old age comfort, medical assistance to the needy, food for all who are hungry, advances in science, culture and recreation. We need not underscore our flaws but can concentrate on the good meat of the watermelon.

Propaganda is not a dirty word. We are left with a sour taste when we hear it, or say it, but because Hitler, Mussolini, Khrushchev, and Stalin stole it from us and used it as their strongest weapon. I do not recall seeing any picture of inside Russia with any but happy, smiling faces on it. But I do know they are deprived in food, spirit, and soul, so if they can sell, why can't we?

We need, I believe, a good selling campaign directed to those peoples who are not getting the whole truth. "The objective news story," said Meyerhoff, "is supposed to inform, but a good advertising campaign moves people to action."

Teams of our military cover the world to impart our ideas and improvements in the art of war, industry provides our very latest in machines and methods to the countries that are receptive. Why not, then, use the best of our advertising techniques to get into the ears of those people in lands where the mystic of change is ready to take place?

It seems strange to say that freedom can be sold like soap but our early day forefathers had to be sold. They had to be convinced. "Fifty-four forty or fight!" "Don't give up the ship," "Remember the Maine," and "There is nothing to fear except fear itself" stirred Americans to action.

A concerted sales program conducted by men whose careers it is to sell, directed to those people who are on the market to buy, might be the answer. It certainly seems worth the effort.

The foreign countries are not getting the whole truth of America ... We are not doing a complete selling job.