Alfredisms
The Polk Progress was a Nebraska treasure that ceased publication in late 1989 after 82 years as a weekly newspaper. From 1955 until its last issue, the editor and publisher was the late Norris Alfred. In its last few months, the Progress had 900 subscribers in 45 states. Alfred was a remarkable Nebraskan with an uncanny eye for connecting the present with the future. Prairie Fire has collaborated with the Alfred family, the University of Nebraska School of Journalism and the Nebraska State Historical Society to locate and archive many of Norris's writings. We are capitalizing on our good fortune to present many of the Norris Alfred writings to our readership. We believe that his observations are as fresh and relevant to today's world as they were when originally written.
“Polking Around”
Aug. 1, 1971
John T. Arbuckle, an Indian, was convicted of possessing parts for a Molotov cocktail during a 1973 civil unrest and in Scotts Bluff County District Court was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment. The materials for making what was described as a “destructive device” were “plastic, gallon jugs, clothesline rope and can of gasoline.” What was meant by plastic the newspaper story didn’t detail.
We wonder about this evidence because, if Polk, Heaven forbid! should become the scene of civil unrest caused, maybe, by a lack of lutfisk at Christmas time, the county sheriff or village marshal Jim Brazda could find the makings for a Molotov cocktail in the Progress printery. We don’t want to spend four years in jail for having a can of gasoline in the shop. We suggest that any reader who happens to have gallon jugs, clothesline rope and a can of gasoline with some “plastic”—and everybody has plastic—in the garage or basement, better hide the stuff or pour it out or burn it. Be sure to destroy clothesline rope, that is vicious stuff.
The newspaper story may have had a typographical error and the “plastic” described the kind of jugs, and should have read “plastic gallon jugs.” Everybody has plastic gallon jugs. What seems to have been the determining factor in this arrest—John T. Arbuckle is an Indian.
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