Early Times

The morning, for me, always comes early, ready or not. And this morning I was ready for it at an even earlier hour. I don’t know why, but I woke up out of a sound sleep and then couldn’t get back to sleep. After about 30 minutes of vainly trying to regain that sleepy time feeling, I decided to get up and make some coffee; defeated. So here I am… cup in hand and the keyboard warmed up, ready for a thought.

Of course I have spent some time going through the news of the day and reviewing my e-mail. Something there should have raised my level of creativity but nothing comes to mind. Maybe I need more coffee?

In the “lost comments” to my blog posting on October 11, my sister wrote, “Ahhh......the 60's. I graduated high school in 65 and what a great time it was. The rally cry was "Question Authority". It seemed to be an enlightened generation, however, what happened to those people with high ideals? They can't be our current politicians? Are they still on a commune somewhere, blissfully living apart from our turbulent times?”

Wow! 1965… I guess I had forgotten that I had already graduated from high school, joined the Navy, married and was the father of a toddler when she graduated. Obviously, we had slightly differing views of those times; yet we experienced the same things in our culture. And I think that our views on authority were influenced by our mother. I thank her for that.  

Back to the question; what did happen to those people with high ideals? And she is correct; they cannot be our current politicians. I doubt that “ideals” were ever a thing they worried or thought about very much. OK, I know that I’m generalizing, but where are the voices of reason within the ranks of our lawmakers? Pretty few and far between!

History can tell us that none of this new; politicians have always been perceived as being more interested in power and wealth than in doing good things for their constituents. Of the two, power has always been the more seductive influence in a politician’s life. You only have to read the news to see that. And you have to admit that the power of being the “Decider” has to be slightly intoxicating; indeed!

But, as I have said before, Americans don’t like reading history. Much to their peril. And so we think that the politician that caters to us is only interested in our welfare.