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About the Author - Excerpt from
BOMBSHELL LIBERATION
Leo Dailey, also known as
William Leonard Johnson, has been writing poetry since his high school years
in the early 1970s.
His interest in the
literary arts was fueled with encouragement by his close friend and mentor,
Dr. John Summersette (English PhD, Stanford University, died 1985). Johnson
took several courses from Summersette, who was chairman of the
English/Journalism Department at Merritt Junior College in Oakland, CA, in
the mid-1970s. Johnson kept up his college studies while he also served in
the U.S. Navy as a hospital corpsman. It was at Oak Knoll Naval Regional
Medical Center in Oakland where Johnson worked and where – through the
college’s extension program offered to hospital personnel – he took his
first college level English class from Summersette, who continued to be a
strong influence in Johnson’s literary endeavors.
After being honorably
discharged from the Navy in 1976, Johnson decided to turn his academic
studies to journalism, even though he did so against Summersette’s advice.
Summersette, so close a friend that he once referred to himself as being
Johnson’s first “black father,” told Johnson his potential lays in his
creative writing abilities. Summersette further warned Johnson that the
creativity of the literary arts is diametrically opposed to the harsh
realism and rigidity of the journalism field. Nevertheless, Johnson earned
his Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism in 1979 from the University of New
Mexico in Albuquerque.
While a student at UNM,
Johnson contributed news articles and feature photographs to the New Mexico
Daily Lobo, the campus newspaper. His coverage included the police, Public
Interest Research Group and the cultural (Native American, Black and Chicano
studies) beats. Although Johnson’s major area of study was in broadcast
journalism, he would find himself working mostly for print media.
Johnson’s professional
writing career began while serving as a Volunteer In Service To America
(VISTA) in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District from 1980 to 1981. Along
with established Bay Area poet Ron Silliman, Johnson co-edited the
Tenderloin Times, a bi-monthly community newspaper published by Hospitality
House, a United Way Agency in the heart of downtown.
While Johnson’s role was
community instigator and watchdog, Silliman conducted poetry workshops and
published many of the poetic works of local residents in the newspaper.
Johnson’s published work included an ironic piece, “Tenderloin clean-up?
Police sweep streets,” in which police officers over abused enforcement of a
sidewalk obstruction law and arrested – in front of Johnson’s nose – a
fellow worker hired by the Mayor’s Office. Will Courtney was a street
worker whose job it was to get runaway youths, some who were prostitutes,
off the streets into decent housing and to train them for jobs. Police
arrested dozens of residents every day for merely standing on sidewalks
outside their homes, or rather, old World Exposition hotels built in the
1930s.
Another published work by
Johnson in the highly transient neighborhood was a rent survey of the old
residential, single-room occupancy hotels, in which Johnson inadvertently
uncovered housing discrimination. He had sent a black man, a fellow VISTA,
to do the survey in which five hotels denied him housing based on his
color. About 20 minutes later, these same five hotels offered the “no
vacancy for blacks” rooms for rent to a white man, another community
volunteer sent by Johnson. The allegations resulted in $1,000 fines imposed
by the Human Rights Commission against each hotel participating in racial
housing discrimination practices.
Johnson often reported
violators of the city’s housing and rent laws and was effective in
mobilizing residents to action through his journalistic efforts. But
eventually, President Reagan’s new administration in 1981 would put a halt
to the federally mandated domestic program (VISTA) in the Bay Area. So
Johnson packed his bags and returned to New Mexico, where he did most of his
growing up.
In early 1982, Neil R. Baird
Sr. hired Johnson as associate editor of the Sierra County Sentinel, a
weekly newspaper in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, and as associate news
director of Baird’s radio station, KCHS-1400 AM. Johnson covered the city,
county, police, courts and school beats, often working more than 60 hours
weekly in the desert resort community, which houses the state’s largest
lake, Elephant Butte, and plenty of snake pits.
Johnson’s most notable work
there was a five-part weekly series on the extensive and irregular spending
habits of Sierra County officials. At any rate, a county of about 10,000
people couldn’t afford such things as building better roads or jails, never
mind hunting trips the officials took to Alaska or side trips to Billy
Carter’s Shell Service Station about 2,000 miles away in Plains, Georgia.
Neither could the district attorney afford to prosecute such cases. Even
so, Johnson’s articles contributed to the unseating of two incumbent
officials in their re-election bids, never mind evoke the deposed county
manager to threaten Johnson and Boss Baird with a $13 million lawsuit in
front of Albuquerque’s TV news cameras.
In October 1983, Johnson was
hired as police beat reporter for the Las Cruces Sun-News, a daily newspaper
in agricultural Dona Ana County. Besides covering crime and mayhem, Johnson
was the Saturday reporter for Sunday’s paper, so, his collections include a
wide variety of journalese. His favorite feature was about wild burros that
took over the abandoned Radium Springs Resort Hotel and former prison for
women. Other works were used statewide and regionally by the Associated
Press.
After nearly two years at
the daily, Johnson quit the Sun-News in September 1985 and returned to
Albuquerque for a year. It was during this time that Johnson compiled his
poetry into this book, Bombshell Liberation. He got a copyright for his
unpublished work in 1986 and even submitted an edited version to a vanity
press in New York, but his friend attorney, Tom Chism, noticed that the
contract terms were shoddy for the author. As a result, the thought of
publishing this book would not come until two decades later.
It was a year of
transformation for Johnson – and it was then that he realized what
Summersette was trying to tell him about journalism versus creative writing
careers. But in truth, Johnson admits now that both fields seem to
compliment each other, like opposites attract - reality versus the
imaginary. But in this case, the tools he would learn not only as a
journalist but also as a publisher would enable him to catapult his creative
spark into a realistic project.
In 1986, when the desire to
publish his book of poetry quietly faded into oblivion, Johnson returned to
his old job as editor and news director of the Sentinel and KCHS in Truth or
Consequences. He would remain at this job for the next nine years but after
his third year he met his wife Teresa Carole Cassidy. The Sentinel hired
Teresa to front the office, but eventually she would get deeper and deeper
into the business, doing almost everything from ad layout to managing
payroll.
Neil Baird, also an ordained
Baptist minister, married Bill and Teresa on Nov. 4, 1989, in Truth or
Consequences. Neil died a few years later and on Sept. 15, 1995, Bill and
Teresa started up their own weekly newspaper, the Desert Journal, and
published nearly 400 issues. In May 2001 Bill also established Desert
Journal Online on the Internet and he continues to operate it to promote and
sell his poetry and true crime books. During more than seven and a half
years of operation, the Desert Journal won 34 awards from the New Mexico
Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contests from 1997 to 2003, including
best website for the years 2002 and 2003.
Then tragedy struck the
Johnson household in June 2004. Daughter Gina died at age 21 from sepsis
syndrome – an infection that spread throughout her internal organs – and
left Bill and Teresa three children to raise. The family now resides in
Albuquerque.
It was true that in the long
run, as Dr. Summersette had warned years before, the world of high-pressured
journalism would take its toll on Johnson in many ways, mainly his health.
But during his stay in Albuquerque, Johnson has managed to swim his way back
to health and as a state champion swimmer he has qualified for national
competition. During his news media work, Johnson continued to write lyrics
and poetry.
Johnson’s life has been at
times stormy and much of his poetry reflects turmoil and his desire to meet
challenges and overcome obstacles. His works reflect change, liberation and
overall compassion for humanity’s sake. He is an advocate for peace and
has written numerous editorials against the Iraq war. He also has
questioned the authority of the police state and the unchecked powers of the
military industrial complex, themes that are apparent throughout Bombshell
Liberation.
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Introduction by Leo Dailey -
Excerpt from INTERFERENCE
I
chose my pseudonym, Leo Dailey, for my
poetic and photographic
works for the simple reason that I want to honor my mother’s family, the
Dailey’s, especially since they have been fighting for truth and justice for
a very long time. Leo is short for my middle name, Leonard.
As
William Leonard Johnson, or more
publicly known as Bill Johnson (sometimes called “Wild Bill” by my friends),
I have accomplished my dreams as a lifelong working journalist, starting as
cub reporter in the late 1970s and ending as editor & publisher of my own
newspaper and website. Although the Desert Journal weekly rag no longer
exists, I still operate Desert Journal Online, mainly to promote and sell my
first book of the true crime genre,
Satan’s Den Exposed
– The David Parker Ray Story,
and also to have a
place to list all of my subsequent books that I may author, edit, and/or
publish. I also share thousands of news archives and photographs on my
website.
Interference,
as this book is titled, is an offshoot
of my other book,
Bombshell Liberation,
which is being released at the same time.
While
Bombshell Liberation
celebrates peace and cheers on the anti-war movement,
Interference
is about how
truth, love and justice defy and overcome evil, tyranny and oppression.
Interference,
as well as
Bombshell Liberation,
bridges the gap between
my harsh side dealing in the realm of journalistic reality
with matters of truth, justice and liberty, and my soft side, which focuses
primarily on the same realities but with an artistic, creative eye.
I
like to think
truth can become an artistic expression; that it indeed might have a chance
in a diverse market place that is too often controlled by big business
interests. But as I have acknowledged every now and then: truth without
love is a crashing cymbal. The fact is truth cannot come into existence if
not sparked by the divine. If it’s true that Satan is the father of all
lies, then perhaps it might also be true that The Great Spirit – The Creator
- is the mother of all truths.
Leo
Dailey |
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DREAMS COMING TRUE
Soldiers are
fighting
Bombs are dropping
Nations are warring
I’m on the run with no home to go to
It’s all a bad dream coming true.
The moment is fleeting
The day’s swallowed by black clouds
Not even her at my
side
I’m so lonely I could cry
It’s all a bad dream coming
true.
Sometimes I run and hide
Other times I’m shot wounded
The world’s spinning faster and faster
And she’s not there to stop me from falling
It’s all a bad dream coming true.
I dreamt the Challenger disaster
I saw religious men feud
I ran hundreds and
hundreds of miles,
Lived in caves, ate grass and roots
It’s all a bad dream coming true.
Dreams becoming reality – No! No! No!
I look up at the sun –
No! It’s a nuke out blinding me
I wake up and can’t see
It’s all a bad dream coming true.
But
then I pulled the covers off my head
And realized my dreams were a mistake
I see we’re really alive
Walking hand in hand with her beside me
No more bad dreams coming true.
No more bad dreams coming true.
Only good dreams about you.
Only good dreams coming
true. |
THE BROKEN SPELL
The spell, broken by thunder,
Seemed eternal until today
The prayer for the cessation of desire,
However, must continue
The image maker,
Whose creation is the idol,
Shall turn into the stone he carves,
The picture
he paints
And the page he writes
With words formed by his lips,
and not inspired,
He shall proclaim his vanity
The calm must prevail among peace makers,
Whose leaders strive to end battles
May God be with them forever. |
