Soap Box

As I look back over the past seven plus decades of my life, I'll have to say I think it's been - at least from a historical and technological viewpoint - the most interesting period of American history to be alive.

I've seen the advent of jet aircraft, space exploration, television, the internet, the cure for a myriad of deadly diseases, the opening of China, the closing of Cuba, the fall - and now I fear - the rise of the Soviet Union and the abject failure of socialism wherever it's been implemented.

If I had to name one thing that has changed life in America more than any other single factor I could come up with it would, without a doubt, be television.

I never saw television until I was I was around 15 years old and remember the days when there was a lot left to the imagination and life choices were made in a more realistic fashion, uninfluenced by the trends, fads and lifestyles that make their way around the world in real time and, good or bad, influence minds and mold opinions in all but a monolithic manner.

So many of us get our information by watching television and form our opinions accordingly, depending on the sources we watch. The inclusion or omitting of one story by a news outlet can set people very much at odds with others, and the glamorizing of lifestyles has the power to change much of the public's perception and alter social mores and acceptance.

The problem, at least as I see it, is that a majority of America is so dependent on television they have completely forgotten how to think for themselves, to read between the lines, to seek alternative opinions before drawing some pretty profound conclusions.  

Social media has also left its mark on society, it seems that the lions share of today's teenagers are giving up the art of conversation in favor of tweeting or texting each other. While I'm sure this is considered the "cool" method of communicating amongst the in crowd, it has a lot of drawbacks and causes a lot of hurt.

Many times texting, Facebook and other mass social media outlets are used for instant character assassination and woe to the young lady who trusts a boyfriend with a compromising picture of her. How many young lives have been marred, and even a few ended, over some embarrassing photo, entrusted to a supposed friend and splashed all over the internet.

I remember when I was very young trying to stay awake with my folks to hear the results of the national election returns, which was an impossible task as the tabulations usually ran well into the wee small hours of the morning, especially if the race was close.

I remember catching the school bus one morning in 1948 and Thomas Dewey had been declared the winner of the presidential election, only to come home on the school bus that afternoon to find out that the media had jumped the gun and after the last few votes were counted, Harry S. Truman had actually won.

Most telephones were party lines with several numbers ringing on the same line which meant that every time the people on your party line got a call the ring would sound on your phone also, the intended number designated by how many rings and if you picked up the phone you could hear the conversation, and as you might imagine, there were those nosy type folks who picked up some juicy gossip on those party line calls. 

Good old days?

Maybe, maybe not, there were good things and bad things, people died from simple diseases that are preventable now, two lane highways made travel a lot slower and more tedious, the only actual pictures you saw of world events were either the stills in the newspaper or the newsreels at the movies.

But conversely, there was a lot more dinner table and front porch conversation, everybody worked for a living and every other person you met was not glued to the screen of a smart phone.

Having lived in both eras, I love the technology, the convenience and the advances in science and medicine, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss wood cook stoves, bib overalls and homemade pear preserves once in a while.

Come to think of it, that old dial telephone wasn't all that bad.

What do you think?

Pray for our troops and the peace of Jerusalem.

God Bless America

Charlie Daniels