the wizard of ahs

For one breathless instant, 

      The world hung in the balance,

Then, shrugging its shoulders,

      Looked off and walked away,

Already intent on resuming

      Its all too wicked ways, while

Offering up a well-meaning

      Excuse for why things always

Have to be as they ever were

      From time immemorial until

The very end of time, in some

      Dusty, dingy future too grim

To be the product of a fevered

      Imagination, too real to be less

Than the reality we create,

      Lacking a belief in possibilities.

Once was a time I thought when everything could be accomplished or improved or repaired. Essence of the sixties, that fabled period of time, so like a modern day version of Camelot--at least so it seems in the collective memories of the survivors. A time of peace, love and understanding--and of the Cold War, race riots, the Space Race, the Kennedy Assassinations, as well as the murder of Martin Luther King, and that dirty little war in Southeast Asia, VietNam. Turmoil and trouble, sex, drugs and rock'n'roll, culture clashes between white and black, young and old, hide-bound and free-spirit, the decade encompassed so many dramatic events, so much conflict, so many highs and lows that it seemed to be longer than a mere ten years.

When it was over, minds and bodies littered the landscape in numbers unseen except in those conflagrations known as the World Wars. While there had certainly always been conflicts between the generations before, by all appearances the schisms that opened during the 1960's were deeper and more severe than any before or since. In some ways, what transpired resembled mass insanity. Some excuse may be made for various parts of society under the influence of various and sundry mind-altering substances (alcohol, pills, pot, acid, mescaline, peyote, speed, a rainbow of uppers, downers and tranquilizers), but it fails to adequately account for the extent and vehemence of the extremes to which violence overtook society and became the defining characteristic.

Beginning with the tragically brutal ineptitude of the Bay of Pigs invasion and continuing through to the murder of four students at Kent State University, the sixties era was marked by bloody conflict, assassination, murder and casual violence. The evening news was taken over by an increasing predilection for violence, airing reports from the South showing dogs attacking Civil Rights protesters, police using fire hoses

Whether hippie or hard-hat, Black Panther activist or ax-wielding redneck, society gave every appearance of coming apart at the seams. Indeed, many publicly and privately wondered if civilization would withstand the forces atplay, pushing and pulling, seeking dominance or destruction, working toward opposing goals and all demanding equal time on national TV. Andy Warhol set the tone early in the decade when he presciently observed, "In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes," ensuring himself his own 15 minutes in the process. It soon became obvious that many people took his words to heart, memorized them in fact, and sought to act on them. Self-aggrandizement was elevated to an art-form that remains a fundamental of public relations and a steppingstone to fame today.

A sad corollary to that was the corresponding lack of interest in other points of view. Of course, this is the basis for many, if not all, breakdowns in communication, and the ultimate breakdowns in communication lead to war; in the current era we are reaping the harvest of these sins of omission and commission in communications skills. As all groups and their individual members remained convinced of the infallibility of their positions, polarization set in with the ponderous finality of a glacier. Little surprise then, that events unfolded with predictable results and further deterioration of communication between groups; whether right-wing or left, black white or brown, young or old, everyone had an opinion held firmly and unequivocally. From gang-warfare to the ranting of commentators on radio and TV, it seems as if no one is willing to respect the rights and beliefs of others; as if someone wearing a different-colored scarf or hat, or professing different beliefs somehow threatens those who think or dress differently. The response is the same, unfortunately, whether in the form of road rage or drive by shootings or accusations of unacceptable political beliefs; intolerance has become the method and the practice, too often worn as a badge, proudly. Even those who subscribe to believe in a leader who counseled “love others”, that “love” is tempered by whether one shares their beliefs.

Recovery from this protracted entrenchment of beliefs seems impossible at this late a date. Everyone has their belief system, and theirs is the only right one: all others are not just suspect, but mistaken and misguided. Whether it is a gang, or a religious belief, or a political philosophy, one and all are convinced of the rightness of theirs and the wrongness of all others. “Liberal” is used as an epithet of the worst sort, because just the very possibility of someone else’s ideas having any value or worth is too threatening to many, if not all. The heady ideals of the 60’s, peace and love, free speech and acceptance of others on their own terms, all have become targets of ridicule. The flag-wavers who would have you believe they are freedom’s champions seem to have lost sight of the concept most embraced by the Founding Fathers, that we allowed and supported the differences of beliefs, the “right” to speak and worship as we wished, or not.

Freedom has become an endangered concept of late, as those who claim to be its protectors act instead as its fiercest attackers. The infringements on freedom today would not be accepted by Americans of the first half of the 20th Century. There is no excuse for the excesses that are taken for granted today. Somewhere along the line, from the turmoil of the 60’s to the bedlam of the new century and a new millennium, we lost sight of who we are, what we stand for, the values we represent. This isn’t a positive change, not one to be proud of, but one instead that relegates us to the same dustbin of history as the other, now-tarnished societies of old that fizzled out and fell apart from internal conflicts, waste and greed.

The shining example set by those who contributed to what became the greatest experiment in social engineering, is beset by accusations of torture and inhuman crimes, guilty of acts that would never have been tolerated only a short time ago. As we face another set of elections, we must ask ourselves, are we doing our best, is this what our ancestors would have done? Are we accepting less than we have a right to expect, from our leaders, and ourselves? Are we on the right path, acting in the right manner, to achieve the goals we, as a people, have always held in our hearts? Can we continue, on the path we are on? I don’t know the answers to any of these questions, but I know they have to be asked, because these are the very questions asked by Americans who passed this way before. These are the questions we ask ourselves, as we make our way through our own lives. How we answer them determines how our lives run their course; as a society, how we respond to these questions determines how our country and our society continues its course, and what course it takes, for good or worse.

I first heard the Beatles on a "Hit or Miss" call-in on KOMA, 50,000 watts of power from Oklahoma City, OK, in November, 1963. It was the weekend after the Kennedy assassination and there was nothing on TV (as I tell my sons, you could watch anything you wanted, as long as it was on that ONE channel!), so I was tuning a huge old Zenith radio that had been left in the house we were renting at the time, searching the static-y airwaves for anything that resembled the sound I was seeking, a sound I hadn't even heard yet, but somehow knew was out there, somewhere, waiting for me. I had tinkered with this radio on several previous occasions, with varying degrees of success, managing to capture KOMA for a few songs before losing it to the atmosphere. The reason for this problem was simply distance, and the fact we lived among the Rocky Mountains on the western slope of Colorado, nearly 1,000 miles from the broadcast booth!

I finally managed to snag the wisps of the station’s broadcast, and listened to the Essex' "Easier Said Than Done" before the DJ, “J” Mike Wilson, announced the Hit or Miss candidate for the evening, "a record from England by a group called the Silver Beatles, who are quite popular there, right now". He explained the rules, and said that because the record hadn't come with a recommended "A" side, he would play both sides and they would tally votes on both songs before reporting the results. I listened to the 1st song with some excitement, but thought it similar to the type of songs typical of the early 60's, with a much stronger beat and a rousing instrumental accompaniment. The song was "I Want to Hold Your Hand", of course, and, after several ads, the DJ returned to announce the flip side of the disc, "I Saw Her Standing There". From the opening drum roll, I was hooked! I hung on ever note, willing that crotchety old radio to drag the signal in clearly. I didn't want to touch the dial, even though the signal faded and static threatened to take over, but I knew if I moved the dial, I would lose it, and I wanted to hear this song! When it ended, I sat there staring at the face of this large wooden cabinet, with a small glass dial in the middle of the top half, and the art-deco-styled letters spelling "Zenith", with a big, goofy smile on my face. I knew somehow that the sound of rock and roll had changed. The music that I had been only somewhat interested in had transformed, in the space of two minutes and 55 seconds, into something far more alluring and wonderful.

The DJ came back on and chattered away, in the style of early 60's Top 40 jocks, although I wasn't paying any attention, then gave way to more ads, during which the static finally took over. The signal "traveled" and it required constant micro-tuning to keep a clear signal coming in, no small feat considering the dial was no larger than a half-dollar! I quickly moved to recapture this connection, but it took me several anxious minutes to get anything clear enough to understand. Some nights, the atmospheric interference was so great it was impossible to hear the station, and some nights it wasn't even possible to separate its signal from the haze.

When the DJ returned to announce the results, they weren't encouraging. “I Want to Hold Your Hand” got some 74 "hits" and almost as many "misses"; "I Saw Her Standing There" didn't fare as well, racking up only 62 "hits" and even more "misses". I shrugged, even at 14 being something of an iconoclast and independent of others opinions. I knew somehow I would hear more from the "Silver Beatles", although I did think it a screwy name. Of course, at the time, groups were usually fronts for singers, such as Jimmy Gilmore and the Fireballs, whose "Sugar Shack" had been at #1 just 3 weeks before and was still at #4 the week of November 23--30.

Years later, after “Beatlemania” had faded, been resurrected as a stage show and passed into the history books, I saw two performances of the multi-media show, "Away With Words". This was a four-screen, quadraphonic performance of "every" Beatles song, that toured the US in 1973. The opening scenes showed life in the 50's, while songs from Bill Haley, Little Richard and Elvis thundered from the massive speaker array. Even though they had been mixed for this event, the tinniness and crudity of the early rock classics was readily apparent. The display turned to the turmoil of the early 60's, the race riots, Bay of Pigs, Cuban Missile Crisis and A-bomb explosions, then focused on a black limousine turning a corner. Asthe events in Dealy Plaza played out, the music became quiet, then after the scenes of John-John and the funeral played out, transformed into Beatles-only songs.

A very effective and appropriate turning point, as I, and undoubtedly many others, had felt for years, the Kennedy Assassination represented a dividing line between the "old" world and the "new", if not better, world we suddenly found ourselves in, a world of VietNam and student demonstrations, race riots and the growing gulf of the "Generation Gap". A world in which the nightly news displayed images of vicious fighting in the jungles of a southeast Asian country no one knew anything about. We were subjected to nightly images of coups, burning Buddhist monks and baby-faced GI's, nervous and callow, who were being shuttled off to die in rice paddies in a country few could have located on a map, while politicians at home assured us this was necessary to prevent the need of fighting the "godless" communists on our own shores. The first "Wag the Dog" war, VietNam sparked powerful reactions on both sides of the issue, ultimately polarizing a generation. Bill Clinton went to Oxford on his Rhodes Scholarship, Tom Delay, Bill Frist, Rush Limbaugh and many other prominent Republicans in today's news sought and received "deferments“. George, Jr, joined the ANG, but decided not to fulfill his commitment, regardless of whether Dan Rather used "falsified" documents or not. The Beatles provided the soundtrack for the times, releasing "Revolution" at the height of the divisiveness, a subtle poke at those who thought Mao's "little Red book" was merely a treatise on the secrets to a better life. Their closing remark on the era, as the Beatles exited stage left, was "Let It Be", a well-deserved commentary on the battles and the drugs, the losses and the changes, the rocky road we had traveled together, the final blessing wished on a generation riven by turmoil and strife. Alas, by that time, the effects were too significant, too deeply etched in the character, to ever be undone.

The tone of the performance of "A Way With Words" (yes, it was shown both ways), seemed to cast the Beatles as something MORE than merely musicians and songwriters, but messengers from on high, sent to guide us through these difficult times. Whether they did it successfully, or according to the initial plan, is certainly open to speculation. It is significant that, even now, some 40 years later and counting, books are still being written about the four lads from Liverpool, their effect on music, fashion, the arts, and the product is snapped up by an eager public. One would think that everything that could be said has been, everything that could be marketed, has been. Just take a look at the auctions on eBay, for memorabilia and CD's, posters and autographs. Perhaps, in some far-distant future, historians and professors will teach classes on the Beatles, much as they teach Shakespeare. None of us will know, of course, but the possibility, assuming mankind survives the consequences of his stupidity over the course of this past century, is certainly a strong one, and there is much there to glean, even still.

A friend sent me the “prayer” by Minister Joe Wright, something I have previously passed along, because it has much to say that I personally agree with. Then I read the Snopes.com background story on it, and learned it was a version of a speech by Bob Russell. My only complaint with his version, aside from the obvious ones of credit and the omission of several key points, was that it did not go FAR ENOUGH!

The prayer says much about what passes for "leadership" these days, even though it was written during the Clinton Administration, and is slanted to remonstrate Democrats! Yet, ten years later, it is remarkably pertinent to the actions of today‘s “Republikans” (I’m spelling it that way to differentiate these people from the likes of Abraham Lincoln, William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, even Dwight Eisenhower, leaders who demonstrated their sagacity and even-handedness in representing ALL the people, while in office.). Tom DeLay claims HE is the victim of a "conspiracy", Karl Rove is known to be the "leak" that outed the CIA agent, which Jr said "would be fired" as soon as it was known who did it...although, as yet, hasn't been!

California’s "governator" wants to silence the unions and do a Texas-style redistricting so the state's 30% Republikans cans be "better represented" (which really means for them to have more seats in the assembly, because, you know, the voters don't realize how important they are!). It seems everywhere you turn, these days, minorities, whether black, brown, "Christian conservatives" (I consider myself Christian and conservative, but I also think Jesus was the ultimate "liberal"), etc, insist they should have more power to determine EVERYONE ELSE'S rights! I fear for our Democracy, from within, because NOT ONE of these various power blocs could create what we have and take for granted!

I'm sick and tired of the political "ads" (really lies, and pandering to fear and personal interests, too often the wrong ones). I want a Constitutional Amendment making it unlawful to lie about anything affecting the government, any legislation or the rights of ALL the people, punishable by banishment from ANY activity associated with the election process, or, in any way, the passage of legislation. I also want there to be term limits that encompass all levels of government, and mandatory "government service" by ALL CAPABLE CITIZENS (non-felons, non-drug-addicts, non-alcoholics, non-televangelists, non-certifiably-insane)! Then I think those who have served should have to go out and make a living under the rules and laws they thought were so cute, while they were in power! NO revolving door, no pension, no guaranteed lobbyist jobs! Just go try to make a living for yourself and your family after having served one term!

We have a MARRIED COUPLE, nearby, and HE is a state senator, SHE is a state assemblywoman--do they REALLY THINK they are the ONLY qualified people in a district of 100,000 people? What arrogance! To add insult to injury, they had the bad taste to send me a trifold flyer, on heavy stock, with exotic color and four-color printing, sent to ALL the homes in the district, AT TAXPAYER expense, telling me what a wonderful job they were doing, EXCEPT for the interference of Democrats and "liberals"!!!! I was understandably furious--in a state teetering on bankruptcy, mostly due to such stupid wastes of public funds. The roads need serious repair, and the state's water system is stretched to its limit, because the money to repair it was wasted by such examples of "good Republikan" stewardship; now, what would have cost $1 billion 20 yrs ago, will now cost 4 to 6 times as much, for LESS!

Wow! Where did all that come from? Now we have John McCain, repeatedly demeaned by the Bush Republikans, appearing on campaign ads (which I, and most of the thinking voting public, are beyond sick of hearing, already, although we finally within DAYS of the election), telling us we NEED to pass all of these inane Propositions, one of which is a blatantly similar redistricting plan to the one DeLay and Co hornswoggled onto Texas. The “governator" insisted on a special election THIS YEAR, at a cost of more than $80 million, instead of waiting for a year for the regular election, when these items could have been voted on without ANY additional cost! Of course, he MAY NOT be "governator" AFTER that election! One can hope--unless it's Warren Beatty!

I'm sorry, I woke up early, after a night of waking up every hour, after months of the same thing, and I hurt and ache everywhere (I'm a human barometer these days--a Low Front is moving in, and I can tell, days before). That aside, I am disgusted by the level of dishonesty and thievery in government, from top to bottom, and the number of dead in Iraq, AND with the blatantly-obvious-to-every-one-EXCEPT-those-who-are-sending-young-people-to-die-there-but-NEVER-served-themselves flag-waving hypocrisy! I see so many at the VA Hospital, missing limbs, with scars and ailments--the cost of this misadventure will linger long after the criminals responsible for it have passed onto Judgement! These “patriots” avoided service during the VietNam "Conflict" (aggggghhhhh---McCain is on the air, again, to tell me, we need to "redistrict"!!!!), to a man, yet they continue send off young people to die in a backwater country NO ONE cares about!

Flag-wavers to the core, beady eyes glinting, they cold-bloodedly scheme exactly the best way to push the public's "buttons", so as to divert attention away from the debacle in Iraq, the indictments of numerous key, top-level members of the administration and Congress, all members of the same party, desperately casting around for something, ANYTHING, to divert attention away from them--Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you: (TA-DA!!) THE BIRD FLU!!!!! The same administration that refused, for five (5) years, to spend $72 Million (with an “M”) to upgrade the levees along the Mississippi River and is now committed to spending $50 Billion (Yes, with a “B”) or MORE to repair the damage caused by that recalcitrance in the form of Hurricane Katrina , suddenly wants to spend $50 Billion (the same “B”) to prepare for a disease that all scientists and doctors seem to think poses little risk to the US population! Methinks it is a great way to crowd bad news off the front pages, and the lead on the evening news, and excellent PR to point at and say, “Look how prescient we were!” Do they know something we don’t? Surely they would not have DONE anything to cause such a possibility to become a reality, would they?

I went back and listened to the original prayer, and several important parts were overlooked by those who have repeated it, including the abandonment of the poor and the pursuit of greed. I agree with Bob Russell's version more than Joe Wright's, and I deplore the distortions that have been attached. Unfortunately, neither goes far enough! As stewards of the Earth, given Dominion over the Earth by a beneficent Lord, we have polluted the streams and rivers, wasted the natural resources, demeaned the working poor with a minimum wage that is a mockery when compared with the wholesale "theft" and looting of companies by CEO's and CFO's (think "Enron", "MCI", "Tyko", the "Junk-Bond" King, Michael Milken, a raft of ever-greedier and misbehaving Athletes and Pop Stars, and so on, a long litany of those who think they are worth THOUSANDS of dollars per hour, and more, all of whom seem to think those not so LUCKY in birth, by race, sex, athletic, artistic talent or family connections--not to mention, unwilling to stoop so low--should be content with a wage that DOES NOT provide a living wage), and, further, beset by the greed and iniquitous behavior of UNIONS and their members (think "Beware of cars made on Fridays", and now “Mondays“, the poor work ethic that resulted in "Lemon Laws" in most states, and has led auto makers to find ways around the once all-powerful UAW), leading to the unnecessarily high price of vehicles. Unions are presently endangering air travel, highway construction and severely impacting local, state, and federal projects by driving the cost up needlessly and relentlessly (via the "prevailing wage" restrictions). Not so surprisingly, the only unions growing in membership are the public employee unions AND the NEA, the teacher’s union.

Even now, the governator is on TV, telling us his “heart is in this”, even while he is running one of the most self-interest-driven administrations ever! He claimed “No one can buy me! I have all the money I need!”, yet he has built a campaign contribution “warchest”, now rumored to be over $50 million. What do you suppose causes the minority party in California to cough up that sort of money? Altruism? Hardly, more like good, “old-fashioned politics“! “I’ll contribute to your campaign in return for…yada-yada-yada!” Where IS “Mr Smith” when we need him? Where ARE “old-fashioned values”, like working hard, being honest and upright, reliable and dependable? Why do we have problems like the Columbine murders, drive-by shootings, gang warfare, rampant drug abuse (despite the hundreds of billions spent to no avail in the so-called “Drug War”), abortion and divorce, alcoholism and child abuse? The list could go on endlessly, cataloguing humankinds sins and shortcomings, with many self-styled “Christians” as guilty as any. The Christian Right, which has numbered among its members such stellar lights as Jimmy Swaggart (consorted with prostitutes), Oral Roberts (“God is going to call me home unless you give $8 million!”), the Catholic Church (covering up child abusers for DECADES), pastors who have engaged in murder, embezzlement, breaking up marriages, and, recently in my own community, passing bad checks. The point is NOT that Christians are BAD, but that we ALL fall short of perfection.

How have so many Christians missed the message that Jesus insisted on, even as he was urged to declare himself as Lord, that we should “Judge not, lest ye be judge”, remember “You are your brother’s keeper”, and “Let those among ye without sin cast the first stone”? Repeatedly, His message was one of forgiveness and acceptance, yet Christians today espouse violence against abortion doctors, pass around hate email accusing the “welfare class” in New Orleans of deserving their fate or of “being witnesses” to abuses by people who had literally lost everything. I remember the fires in Los Angeles, in 1992, after the acquittal of the deputies accused of beating Rodney King, when blacks living in the tenements in the inner city set fire to them. Talking heads on TV asked, “Why would they set fire to their own homes?” When the “home” in question IS an infested fire trap to start with, why wouldn’t you burn it? If nothing else, something BETTER would be built, but so long as the slumlords could continue to collect rent, nothing would ever change. In New Orleans, what little those people had was washed away by a storm that had been warned against for nearly 40 years. The interstate waterways of this country are, BY LAW, the property of, and thereby the responsibility of, the PEOPLE of the United States. The poor of New Orleans were understandably angry, having been ignored and relegated to low-wage jobs, if any at all, so when there meager belongings were destroyed, they looked around for something totake out their rage on, the electronics stores and jewelry shops being the best, most visible targets. It didn’t help that the TV newspeople focused on those carrying TV sets, because that’s good photo journalism, as opposed to someone carrying something hidden in their clothes.

The point is that we all would do equally senseless acts, thrown into the same situation, where chaos reigned, where the agency directly responsible for anticipating and responding was led by someone who could not formulate an original thought (as evidenced by his testimony before a Congressional subcommittee, where he blamed EVERYONE except himself) and who owed his job more to political patronage and cronyism than to any expertise or experience. Such is the principal problem with “partisan politics”, with voting for a “Republikan” candidate because they promise to do what your particular group thinks is important, rather than what is important for the majority. Even now, we are engaged in a further exploitation of this in the appointment of Supreme Court justices, where their stand on ONE issue is paramount, rather than their qualifications to be seated on the ultimate court of the land!

Personally, I do not happen to agree with abortion, but I do not believe it is my place to speak for ANYONE else. Primarily because I believe God gave EVERY ONE of us Free Will, the right to choose to do good or evil, to make the decision ourselves, without His interference, and if THAT was His Will, then it CANNOT be mine to undermine that, or to try to circumvent it. Humankind has a long list of sins, all of which will be disposed of on Judgement Day. It is not up to us to do more than set shining examples as to HOW to behave, by our own behavior. Not that any of us are perfect, or will succeed without the occasional lapse. It saddened me no end to hear religious leaders endorsing the invasion of Iraq, as doing the “Lord’s work”, or as a righteous action.

When I read the much maligned, much beloved by Christian Fundamentalists, Ten Commandments, I see “Thou shalt not kill”. It does NOT have a proviso that excepts Muslims, or any other nationality, ethnicity or political belief. He said, “Thou shalt NOT kill”, and that included Iraqis. The very factthat they had nothing to do with the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center only exacerbates the problem. That Saddam Hussein was a vile and evil dictator didn’t seem to bother Ronald Reagan, when he armed Hussein, in the 80’s, in his fight against Iran, our enemy, too. In fact, the US has supported numerous vile and evil dictators, over the past 50-odd years, a fact that has caused peoples around the world to look at us as less honorable or noble than we think of ourselves as being. We supported the Shah of Iran for the entirety of his “reign”, even though his secret police were among the most cruel and inhuman of any place or time. No wonder the Iranis hate us! We supported the dictator the Sandinistas fought to dethrone, and we supported Bautista, whom the Cubans in Florida seem to forget was far worse than Fidel, on his worst day! We’ve supported dictators all over the Caribbean, Central America and South America, even once working to assist the assassination of a legally elected president in Chile and installing a blood-thirsty madman, Pinochet, in his place!

We have a long way to go to clean up our own house, to set thing straight in this country. The prayer noted at the beginning of this article is a start, but it does not go far enough, so long as a single child goes to bed in substandard housing, or in a homeless shelter. So long as people cannot earn enough by working to pay for shelter, food and basic necessities. So long as athletes think they should be paid millions for PLAYING a game in a stadium or an arena PAID FOR with TAX MONEY (a PRIME EXAMPLE, the Texas Rangers Stadium in Arlington TX, sited on land TAKEN from the family that had lived there for 44 years, through Eminent Domain, at the behest of the man now occupying the White House, and BUILT with a TAX INCREASE!). So long as CEO’s of corporations think they should be paid 400 times the average wage of the workers who produce the products that produces the company revenue! So long as Congress thinks it is entitled to FREE medical care and a guaranteed pay raise every year AND a pension EQUAL to that salary for serving ONE two (2) year term! So long as public employees CANNOT be fired, whether for cause or for lack of ability! So long as the wealthy think they pay too much tax, when the percentage is LESS than that of a middle-class wage earner!

We need to return to those “old-fashioned” values, when people did not immediately think of divorce, when things got rocky in their marriage, when alcohol or drugs were not the recreation of choice for weekends (and weekends weren’t FOUR days long!), when doing a good job was the normal way of working, and when learning was considered the standard by which success was measured. When deals could be closed with a handshake, because both parties had negotiated in good faith and had every intention of fulfilling their end of the deal, regardless of personal gain. When kids could run freely through the neighborhood, without parents worrying about sexual predators or stray bullets. When neighbors minded their own business, for the most part, yet could be counted on to watch out for one another. When the Federal Budget did NOT run a half $Trillion dollars over budget each year, without the important things getting taken care of, like highway maintenance, levees being built to withstand the kinds of storms that are likely, and those unfortunate enough to be in need are not left to their own devices.