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Toward Barefoot Journalism (cont'd)
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Along with structural changes, the purpose of Gidra was reiterated in the July 1971 editorial:
We of the Gidra staff firmly believe that an exchange of ideas among all segments of the Asian community as well as the community-at-large is essential to understanding the conditions that exist in our society. Further, we feel that communication of ideas and ideologies relevant to all people is the precursor to the resolution of problems and of social change.
In the future, Gidra will reaffirm its goal of striving to bring people together by emphasizing issues of concern to all people. Also, Gidra will endeavor to report events, personalities, organizations, and social conditions interpretively and analytically.
We had faced a dilemma regarding the contents of the paper. Some of our readers, not insignificant in number or in the substance of their criticism, were saying that we were too one-sided-entirely too negative in our interpretation of history and altogether too subjective in our analysis of current conditions. These people expressed a desire to see articles with a more tolerant and hopeful outlook which serves as an affirmation of all that is good in people. They argued, "People can't relate to something that jumps out at you every month to remind you how messed up society is and how fucked up you are. Besides, what can they do about it?"
Partially in response to such criticisms, but mostly because we wanted to change ourselves, we consciously struggled to eliminate acrimonious rhetoric and to present constructive alternatives for our readers. What resulted in the ensuing months was a hodge-podge of do-it-yourself ideas that included recipes for ethnic foods, directions for a vegetable garden, tips on how to buy a used car, and instructions for sewing your own pants, and shirts, and hats. There were suggestions for pasting up protest posters and hints on how to get into contact with community groups. We even had a detailed description of how you can fix your own toilet.
Jeff Furumura, a soft-spoken teacher's aide, who spends long hours perfecting the art of Kung Fu, conveys very political ideas in his "down home" style:
Let's imagine you come down with the flu. Alluvasudden, your temperature shoots up to 104, you can't climb out of bed, you begin babbling incoherent gibberish but between sentences, your mind flashes: '... better see a doctor...' So, there you are at the doctor's office, in the waiting room, seeing Dark Clouds... ''I've probably got a type of bronchial pneumonia, maybe with rheumatic fever...my hair is going to fall out soon, then my legs will give way, and then I'll go deaf. If I'm lucky, they'll be able to save my eyesight...' In a quick minute, the examination is over-you await the diagnosis. "You have a cold. Drink a lot of water, some aspirin and stay in bed." "Oh." And before you're completely well, there's a $20.00 doctor bill sitting in your mailbox.
This happens a lot when your car makes funny noises, when the sink doesn't work right, or when we don't feel good. We rely to a sometimes ridiculous extent on professionalism. As a result, we oftentimes pay for simple adjustments, remedies, and repairs that we ourselves could have been capable of performing-if only we had known how to do it.
It's all part of building self-reliance, and in the process, creating our own alternatives. By breaking down those mystical exaggerations concerning who is able to fix this, who is qualified to operate that, we can learn to do a lot of those things ourselves.
Of course, in a highly technological society like ours we must rely on those with specialized skills for some things, but we tried to emphasize that there is an alternative to the price-gouging and profiteering that goes on. All the skills and knowledge within society ought to be shared for the benefit of people.