Things Remembered

The old adage of "The more things change the more they remain the same." had me thinking, in light of recent events. Is that really true?

You go back forty years ago or so, and what was the standard back then?

CBS news was indeed, the standard against which all others were measured. The home of Ed Murrow was respected. Cronkite was a trusted member of the household, visiting every night around dinner time.

You had NASA and the thousands of men and women working to put men into space. Pushing our technology to its limits, demanding nothing less then the best from its people. And we, as Americans expected nothing less.

The President was charismatic to be sure. But he *was* a war hero, and not only a gifted speaker, but noted author as well. Though not perfect, he had a vision for America. And asked us "not to ask what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." Would that even be mentioned in passing today? By a Democrat of all things??

That brings us to the here and now.

The Democratic candidate is but a shadow of an FDR, Truman, or the original JFK. As for asking America to sacrifice to the greater good of the nation? They need a clearly defined agenda in order to even begin to suggest that. The Democrats are hopelessly mired in the politics of appeasement, be it to rabid self important special interest groups, or foreign policy through international consensus.

The Republicans are little better on the domestic agenda, though their special interests are less inclined to be frothing at the mouth. At least their foreign policy is much more clear headed, and in these trying times, is the single most important issue to be concerned with.

NASA is but a shell of its former self. Somewhere over the last four decades it has lost its vision for the future. The smart young engineers have for the most part retired. The single goal of a man on the moon, replaced with a number of smaller and to be fair important projects, but nothing with the grand national call to greatness we had in the sixties. The shuttle stands down awaiting safety checks and paperwork completion. And where do we go from here?

And finally, CBS the tiffany network, has become tarnished over the years. Now it seems to be on the verge of melt down. The once honored guest at the nations dinner table, at best, now peeks through the kitchen window. Journalists, who once would have had personal bias checked at the door of fact checking and verifiable legitimate sources, now are blinded by their own agendas. Instead of reporting the news of the day, they sit in imperial splendor, giving the "great unwashed" the correct point of view as they see it. Instead of a three minute editorial spot at the end of the evening news, we have thirty minutes of it.

I wish some things had remained the same. Perhaps we need parts of our collective history to repeat itself. As for me, I will set out a plate at the dinner table for someone who I can trust, to come and sit down.