What's not to like?

There was a time in my life when the three necessities were a roof over my head, food on the table and a beat-up, well-used baseball mitt on my hand . . . and I wasn’t sure about the roof. Summer was viewed by youngsters then pretty much as it is now — a time of “hanging out" with friends doing whatever the moment presented as long as it had something to do with a bat and ball.

Dad was home from the war, we were in the first home that was ours and not somebody else’s, and “Ike” was President. The Russians were a million miles away, and our desks would protect us if they actually tried anything. That desk and Ike’s smile were all that was needed to enjoy the exuberance of youth. When everybody’s grandfather, the general who had won the greatest war in the history of mankind and the most popular man in the world said things were going to be all right, even us kids could take that to the bank (which was a place of respect in those days).

So when was it that cruelty, satire and parody became the byways of our culture? When did we stop believing that we didn’t have to agree to “get along;” that name-calling and insults were acceptable methods of solving problems, that every difference was a matter of “principle,” and that only the wishy-washy would even consider the dreaded “compromise”.

The “us and them” culture we have developed creates the illusion of power and control, but the hardened positions and hearts it abides prevent the best of human nature to shine through the fog of bitterness and anger that one’s own viewpoint isn’t shared or appreciated.

The real question facing this nation isn’t “Where are we going,” or “Who are we,” it’s “What have we become?” People have told me that it’s too late to go back to the rotary dial phones we grew up with, and they are correct. Technology has done and will do amazing and wonderful things for humankind in the future, but it will never supplant the moral conscience, nor a complimentary — “For a dunce, you’re okay.”