April 16, 2003
By Tom Slack

DAYTON, Ohio - Don't give up personal freedoms for a temporary sense of security, Helen Thomas told a symposium at Dayton's First United Methodist Church April 12.

The diminutive but feisty newswoman, famed for probing questions from the front row of the White House newsroom during nine presidential administrations, spoke as the congregation's New City Church Project publicly launched its "SpiritQuest" outreach program for young people in Dayton.

"We in the press are often accused of pre-empting the Bill of Rights, making it our private preserve," she said. "We are its strongest defenders, make no mistake about that. Whenever there is a question of freedom of the press, we're there, we fight, we battle, but we know it isn't just about freedom of the press. The Bill of Rights is absolutely essential to democracy." The document, part of the Constitution, guarantees freedom of assembly, speech and worship.

Thomas went to Washington in 1943 as a copy girl for the Washington Daily News and worked her way up through the ranks of reporters at United Press International until she was permanently assigned to the White House in 1961. Now a columnist for Hearst Newspapers, she was UPI's White House bureau chief from 1974 to 2000.

Every presidential candidate promises an open administration, Thomas said, "but after they get elected, they try to make government information their private preserve."

"Secrecy in government is endemic," she added, "and it has become even more so now. Our leaders have become less accountable and more powerful, with a pliant Congress that defaults on its role."

One of those defaults has occurred with Congress' constitutional prerogative to declare war, she said.

"The White House is not a place where battles are being fought," she continued. "We have a one-minded administration - no devil's advocate, no dissenters allowed."

That wasn't the atmosphere in all the administrations she covered, Thomas said. Her favorite presidents were the peacemakers, although she said a president should not want peace at any price.

Thomas agrees that terrorism must be confronted, but she doesn't recommend a war on terror. Instead, she said, the nation and its leaders should search for the root causes of hatred of the United States and face whatever truths are found. Finding out what went wrong may help restore the nation's "halo" and let it regain its "wonderful reputation as a beacon light of freedom, a country to be loved and emulated for its goodness," she said.

Congress and the press must be willing to be called "unpatriotic" unfairly, or basic rights to privacy will disappear as fear leads to wiretapping and computers compiling details of everyone's lives, she said. Citizens, as well as members of the press, should question whether intrusive information gathering really makes for a more secure nation, since the freedoms won't suddenly and automatically come back when the crisis is over.

"We in the press are in a profession that highly values skepticism, and especially when it comes to leaders - with great justification, I might add," she said. "We're not supposed to be cheerleaders, which we have become. We follow our Holy Grail, which is truth, wherever it leads us. We are the self-appointed, self-anointed watchdogs of democracy."

Thomas appeared at a symposium and a fund-raising dinner to promote "SpiritQuest," the New City Church project's outreach program to youth ages 8 to 18. Based on the self-protection system of To Shin Do, the program addresses at-risk youth, teaching perseverance and positive mental imaging.

The First United Methodist Church of Dayton created New City Church, led by Brice Thomas. Details are available at www.newcitychurch.com.

United Methodist News Service
Tom Slack is director of communication for the West Ohio Annual Conference.