What Can A Banana Tree Do? S. Yankus

WHAT BANANA CAN TREE A DO? ACTIONISTS for freedom are clamoring: "Let's wake the people up! Don't they know what's happening! There isn't much time left." Last week I listened for an hour to one of the most prominent and distinguished advocates of freedom in Australia decrying the evil and corruption of the United Nations and urging the distribution of literature to ex pose the deeds of evil men of this generation. As I listened, the path I had traveled during the past seven years unrolled like a movie before my mind's eye. I, too, had exposed the evil and corruption inherent in the United States Department of Agriculture and its pro grams. I had spent my time, money, and effort attempt ing to reform others by making speeches and distributing literature. I had sincerely believed that when the people found out the facts and the truth, corrective action would take place automatically. Like so many patriots, I had found solace in the words: "At least I tried to wake the people up. That's all I can do."

In front of my Australian home I have a banana tree. Mr. Yankus, a poultryman from Michigan, recently moved to Aus tralia in protest against agricultural and other government inter ventions in the United States. 113 114 STANLEY YANKUS What can a banana tree do? A banana tree can grow. Discovering what I can do and what I cannot do is the simple lesson I learned from the banana tree. The path to freedom is not paved with photographs of evil and corruption. I wanted freedom but I did not succeed in attaining it. Why? I used the wrong method. In the town of Warrnambool, Victoria, there is a cloth ing manufacturer, Fletcher Jones, who began to beautify the grounds around his factory and make the site one of the most. beautiful gardens in Australia. It is perhaps the most photographed spot on the continent, and even foreigners come to see it. This attractive garden has in fluenced and inspired the entire population of Warr nambool .to beautify not only their own gardens and homes, but their lives and characters as well. A gardener is always a student of the Creator's handiwork.

Now let us assume that instead of improving his own garden, Fletcher Jones had begun a campaign of ex posure. Suppose that every week, with the threat of with drawing his advertising, he had persuaded the local newspaper to publish pictures of the worst gardens in Warrnambool. Pictures of rubbish heaps would have turned neighbor against neighbor. Or, suppose he had made reform speeches, deploring the low character of the Warrnambool townspeople, and urging laws to com pel them to beautify their gardens, meanwhile neglect ing his own factory grounds on the excuse that he was a busy businessman. Such a Fletcher Jones could have had the satisfaction of saying, "I tried to wake the people up. That's all I can do."

WHAT CAN A BANANA TREE DO? 115 Although exposing the evils of the United Nations and various government bureaus seems necessary, I have observed that people who constantly read and talk about existing evils become depressed. They soon adopt the attitude: "It's too late to do anything. The world is doomed. What's the use. The common man is too dumb to understand." Thus annoyed and depressed, they are unable to arrive at wholesome solutions to their own problems. Moral qualities and standards decline to: "Let's have fun. I'm not paid to worry." After one of my first speeches in Australia, a listener commented, "There are a lot of people who would like to hear you, but you would never be invited to the Australian-American Club." At the time, I thought this was a compliment, meaning that Americans couldn't stand to hear •the facts and the truth exposing the cor ruption of their government. I think now that it was a just criticism of the wrong methods I employed. If Fletcher Jones had exposed the facts about the rubbish heaps and unkempt gardens, and if he had told the truth about the miserable quality of the people who were re sponsible, no improvement would have resulted.

What can a banana tree do? It can grow. It can pro duce some fruit. Men like Fletcher Jones, who display the fruits resulting from the best of their efforts, invite others to taste what is good. My goal is to obtain or prac tice freedom, and I can only begin by improving my self. Some will say, "I have improved myself." But how many of us can give simple, clear answers and reasons to such basic questions as Why is stealing wrong? Can a 116 STANLEY YANKUS government give a gift? Does the law determine right and wrong? The ability to ask questions is worth cultivating. It makes a man grow. The easiest job in the world is tell ing others to improve themselves, and the hardest job is improving oneself. If each of us will attend to his own hardest job, there will be no need to expose the failure of the United Nations idea; it will die from lack of supporters. Some will argue that improving gardens and attain ing freedom differ as night from day. Gardens are ma terial things; freedom is an idea. But, doesn't a garden begin with an idea? Is the achievement of freedom lim ited to the realm of the mind, or does it extend to the everyday affairs of making a living? Strife, violence, and wars are the result when one man tries to impose his will upon another.

What can a banana tree do? It can grow. It can pro duce some fruit. It can send up some new shoots. By learning to grow in the ideas of freedom and by practic ing them, we can attract others to emulate us. New shoots of freedom will appear only when this simple idea is understood and implemented. If a neighbor admires my banana tree, he may develop the desire to grow one of his own. This is the Fletcher Jones method-and I am trying to make it mine.