I Am a Tired American
n.p. n.p., [ca. 1964]. Patriotic, right-wing doggerel courtesy of Alan McIntosh, the long-time editor/publisher of the Rock County Star-Herald published in Luverne, Minnesota. The poem first appeared as an editorial in 1964 and was reprinted in newspapers across the country. The edition we’re offering appears to be the only one separately published, and, based on provenance, was undertaken by members of a Long Island chapter of the John Birch Society.
In the poem, McIntosh inveighs against the many anti-American events and people he’s “tired of” including “pimply-faced beatniks,” “mobs of scabby-faced long-haired youths and short-haired girls,” “lazy do-nothings,” “clergymen who have made a career out of integration causes, yet send their own children to private schools,” “slack-jawed bigots who wrap themselves in bedsheets in the dead of night,” “some Negro leaders who, for shock purposes, scream four-letter words in church meetings,” “filth-peddlers who have launched Americans in an obscenity race,” the “Civil Rights Group which showing propaganda movies on college campuses from coast to coast,” and many others.
McIntosh’s writings were later published as Selected Chaff: The Wartime Columns of Al McIntosh, 1941-1945, some of which were included in Ken Burns’ documentary, The War.
Mimeographed on an 8 ½” x 14” sheet. Some toning, negligible wear. Not found by us in OCLC. Item #9652
Price: $45.00