The world changes more and more rapidly and some cannot cope

Sometimes our world changes almost overnight, and sometimes the change seems to take forever.

Technological changes are usually the rapid ones, while societal progress comes much more slowly.

But once in a while, things seem to happen almost overnight.

Even though they didn't.

It was only 15 years ago that voters in California passed a proposition restricting marriage to one man and one woman.

I voted for it, but I was a 50-year-old Roman Catholic who thought civil unions was a pretty fair compromise.

I was wrong.

Without a real news media, all people get is goofy entertainment

"Some days it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps ..."

-- EMO PHILLIPS

If the first couple of months of the 2016 presidential race are any indication, we could be in for the most ridiculous election season since 1988.

If you're old enough to remember -- or if you read Jack Germond's wonderful book "Whose Broad Stripes and Bright Stars?" -- you'll know that the 1988 campaign swung on three non-issue issues. George H.W. Bush attacked Democrat Michael Dukakis for being soft on the Pledge of Allegiance, for being a "card-carrying member of the American Civil Liberties Union and for allowing Willie Horton out on a weekend furlough from prison.

Dukakis '88

Of course, Dukakis helped by being the worst possible Democratic candidate. If he hadn't already lost the election by then, the photo of him riding in a tank -- his "Rocky the Flying Squirrel" moment -- wrapped things up.

We have certainly had some silly elections since then, but the Republicans in particular have been getting goofier and goofier. Whether it was Sarah Palin and being able to see Russia or Mitt Romney saying corporations were people too, they became more and more difficult to take seriously.

Not a bad legacy for a band that only had two years in the spotlight

If you came of age in the late '60s, the odds are you wouldn't have thought of the Association as a particularly hip band.

The first song you would remember them for is "Never My Love," a No. 2 hit in the fall of 1967 that at the end of the century was honored by Broadcast Music International as the second-most popular song ever in terms of radio play in all its various versions.

The only song played more in the 20th century was "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling," and No. 3 was a pretty good one too -- Lennon and McCartney's "Yesterday."

The BMI survey was called the "Top 100 Songs of the Century," and two others by the Association made the last -- "Cherish" at No. 22 and "Windy" at No. 61. Only two groups had more songs on the list than the Association -- the Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel.

But you could still look at those three songs and think "Windy" was pretty cool, but the other two were sort of what Paul McCartney was later to call "Silly Love Songs." "Cherish" in particular has some irritating little noises going on in the background.

But to listen to those three songs, you really wouldn't realize that the Association had gotten off to a really cool start. Their first hit, "Along Came Mary" in 1966, was anything but simplistic. A lot of people thought "Mary" stood for marijuana, especially with lyrics like this:

"And when the morning of the warning's passed,
the gassed and flaccid kids are flung across the stars,
The psychodramas and the traumas gone, 
The songs are left unsung and hung upon the scars.

"And then along comes Mary
and does she want to see the stains, 
the dead remains of all the pains she left the night before
or will their waking eyes, reflect the lies,
and make them realize their urgent cry for sight no more ..."




In fact, the legendary Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967, which was three days of music with a more star-studded lineup than would be at Woodstock two summers later, included the Association doing "Along Comes Mary." It didn't make the original film, but when the Criterion Collection released its version of "Monterey Pop" a few years back, it's on a disc of outtakes.

They didn't have a long time in the spotlight, with five top 10 hits released in 20-month period in 1966-68. Less than three years later, the one time I saw them live in concert, it was in the basketball gymnasium at Fort Hunt High School in Virginia.

Then they were gone.

But how many bands that had such a short run can say they had three of the top 61 songs of the century, two of them songs that have been covered time and again and again?

And all five of the songs -- the four mentioned and "Everything That Touches You" -- still bring back memories.

Steve King was right.

It's the fabled automatic.

Scared people get stupid, and everyone who looks different suffers

Inderjit Singh Mukker is a 53-year-old American citizen who lives in the southwestern suburbs of Chicago.

He is not a Muslim.

I shouldn't have to say that, but if I don't, I'm sure there will be at least a few of you who will look a little bit askance.

Interjit Singh Mukker

He isn't Jewish or Christian either. Mukker is one of about a million Sikhs in the United States and Canada. Sikhs have been here for about a hundred years, and Sikhism is the fifth largest religion in the world. It was founded in the 15th century in the Punjab region of India. It is monotheistic and advocates equality for men and women of all races and religions.

Mukker was on his way to the grocery store when another driver began harassing him. Mukker pulled over to allow the other car to pass, but the other driver stopped his car right in front, got out and began assaulting him.

He was yelling, "Terrorist! Go back to your country, bin Laden!"

Mukker wound up in the hospital with cheek lacerations and a fractured cheekbone.

Sikhs have been taking it on the chin ever since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. In fact, the first backlash victim was four days later when a "good American" killed Balbir Singh Sodhi in Mesa, Ariz. The killer said he was helping the government by getting rid of a terrorist.

Difficult to believe that Freedom of Religion will survive unscathed

We have taken the Bill of Rights for granted for a long time in this country.

So much so that I would be surprised if one American in 100 could enumerate all 10 amendments and what they contain. I know I can't, at least not off the top of my head. But if we're honest, we ought to accept the fact that we don't value all our so-called "rights" equally.

Those on the Left may love freedom of speech, and those on the Right may love the right to keep and bear arms, but there is at least one right which might not survive the next 10-20 years.

Be honest. Do we really still believe in freedom or religion? And more to the point, can we still afford it?

Let me start by saying that every religious person in this country certainly believes that they should be free to practice religion. Most folks who are truly religious doubtless believe their faith is the best way to live, and they have varying degrees of tolerance for those who disagree with them.

The years keep passing and memories become more and more faded

"Roger: I hope 1944 turns out well. They pass so quickly. Where do they all go?
"Biff Baxter: So quickly. Then we get old. And we never knew what any of it was about."
-- WOODY ALLEN, Radio Days

Everybody's got their memories, and as they grow older, memories fill more and more of the space in their brain devoted to remembrance.

I loved hearing my late grandfather tell me stories about seeing baseball players like Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, Nap Lajoie and others. He owned a bat that he said had belonged to Lajoie, a bat that was bigger, longer and heavier than any bat I had ever seen.

My grandparents and my mother.

I loved his story about his strict father, who had emigrated from Germany in the late 19th century, and the Sunday dinner when his brother learned a lesson. The entire family, a dozen or so of them, were seated around the dining room table. My great-uncle, who I never met, complained that his plate was cracked. My great-grandfather came around the table, grabbed him and threw him through the open window into the yard.

A minute or two later, he threw a suitcase after him and said, "If you ever complain about your mother again, you can leave and never come back."

Talk about your tough love.

These days that would probably be called child abuse, but I'll be willing to bet one thing. I doubt that kids raised that way went out and killed people because they were bored.

On the whole, we weren't a generation that was all that interested in the past. People have accused baby boomers of acting as if the world started on the day we were born. I don't think that's completely true, but I know that my millennial son asked my dad more about his experience in World War II than I ever did.

Virgile had a report due in school. He asked, and was told.

I never asked. In fact, I'm not sure I ever asked any of my relatives about their lives in the years before I was born.

It took me a long time in life to understand that when you find other people's stories interesting, you're showing a certain regard for their humanity. And no matter how much you think you know, there will always be people who know more than you about something.

Interviewing Chris Evert in 1981.

Being a reporter helped. Especially when I was doing feature stories or columns about someone, I saw fairly quickly that the more I talked, the less they talked. And vice versa. I learned that short questions are more likely to yield long answers, and that waiting in silence when the answer is seemingly done can often result in even more information and better quotes.

There are so many great memories I ought to have, stories I wrote 30 years ago and didn't save.

I always thought there would be better ones, and there were, but I no longer remember the details of interviewing Chris Evert in 1981 or sitting and talking for an hour with Roger Maris in 1982.

I spent hours drinking vodka with Roger Kahn in 1983 and an entire evening watching baseball with Hank Aaron in 1984. I wrote stories every time and I no longer have any of them.

I do still have memories, a lot of them, but more of them are about my wife, children and grandchildren. The '80s are more of a blur to me now.

They pass so quickly.

Then we get old.

And we never know what any of it was about.

Republicans have us lurching toward a very strange 2016 election

"Turning and turning in the widening gyre, The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity."
-- W.B. Yeats, "The Second Coming"

If you have been a frequent reader of mine in the nearly 15 years I have been writing for various Internet websites, you can't be surprised to see me quoting Yeats. Good old Bill -- and particularly this work -- really resonates with me.

Great works of literature are multifaceted, yielding more of their secrets each time you study them.

Most of the time, I focus in on the first part of this quote. But for some reason, today it was the final part that struck me as important.

" ... the worst are full of passionate intensity."

Yesterday evening in Cleveland, 17 different candidates for the Republican nomination for president took part in two debates in Cleveland. The mere fact of the number ought to tell us that none of the candidates are some impressive that they're scaring others off.

That said, the worst and scariest of them are full of passionate intensity. They speak of going to war with Iran, of defying the Supreme Court and of shutting down private companies like Planned Parenthood. Several even say they would deny women the right to abortions if their lives were at stake.

And then there is Donald Trump, the present-day H. Ross Perot or George Wallace. Trump has certainly made things exciting, and it looks as if his election next year would enable us to mothball Air Force One for four years.

Trump does have one advantage over the other top-tier candidates. He might actually be sane, and he may be the only Republican running with a strong enough personality to actually say no to the lunatics in Congress.

He also doesn't give off that "religious fanatic" vibe, which is good, but he also doesn't look like a candidate who would care much about income inequality as president. The truly frightening part of it all is that of the other 16 candidates, most of them either haver worse drawbacks to their candidacies than Trump or are basically unelectable.

One candidate on the other side of the equation seems like he might be a good president. I like Bernie Sanders a lot, I respect his integrity and I'm very much in sync with his positions on most issues. That's why I've made two small donations to his campaign and will probably make more.

Sanders has two major drawbacks, though. First is that he'll be 75 years old on election day, five years older than anyone else who was ever elected.

Second is that of all the candidates in the race, Sanders is the farthest to the left, and American voters tend to elect the candidate who best presents himself as a centrist. That's why the most realistic hope is for Sanders to draw probable nominee Hillary Clinton a little to the left.

The real problem is that politics has changed so much. We used to be a country where one party was 10 degrees to the left of center and the other 10 degrees to the right. Most issues were settled by compromises and the country ran fairly well.

As author Thomas E. Mann says in his new book, "It's Even Worse Than It Looks," Republicans have swung so far to the right that few compromises are even possible anymore.

" ... the worst are full of passionate intensity."

When the center fails to hold, bad things happen. Will next year be a year that will see a return to a more centrist politics or will things keep getting worse?

It's difficult to imagine a Republican who could take things back to the center, and it's even more difficult to imagine a Democrat as president who wouldn't drive the right wing into a state of psychosis.

So maybe we end up wondering, as Yeats did, what will happen. As the poet said:

"... what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?"