TheWiseOldFart

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart This is a “grandpa story.” I want to tell you all about my childhood. I know that I was lucky to have grown up in the 1950’s and 1960’s. I truly feel sorry for today’s children who never knew what it was like to be a child in America after the end of WWII. I cannot relate to what it was like for a child under the age of 12 or 13 to be a child before WWII or in the 1970’s and beyond. I can tell you without reservation that no one in history had a greater childhood compared to my own, and I feel a deep sense of gratitude every time I think of my younger life. I had a serious health emergency at the age of five. It was only a few years ago when I understood what the root cause of that situation was. My father was physically and mentally abusive. He cursed my mother and physically assaulted her for as long as I can remember. I feared and hated him. One of the greatest days in my life was when he left us for the last time when I was 12 or 13. What I didn’t know then ...

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart First, let me inform you that I feel fortunate to have been an original “baby boomer.” What I have experienced in my life will never be repeated by any other generation. Everything from the growth of commercial air travel, to how we communicate in 2024 began in my lifetime. I cannot say that all of the changes are positive: human beings are far from perfect. However, as a septuagenarian, I will tell you that I was forced to learn about new inventions and how to use them many times during every decade. My education existed beyond what I learned in school. Every day life offered me more information than I could possibly learn in the few hours I attended classes. By the way, we read newspapers daily to learn what was happening in our country and around the world. Television news was in its infancy. Today, television “news” is more concerned about selling advertising than informing our nation’s people. ONE MAN CHANGED THE WAY YOUNG AMERICA USED FREE THOUGHT I began ...