It was one of the greatest speeches of the 20th century. Delivered at the right time, in the right place, by the right person. It was sunny and hot 55 years ago, on August 28, 1963 when Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech to 250,000 people, and the world, while standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial. The civil rights movement was gaining momentum. But it would mark the beginning of dramatic change and upheaval in American society. Just over two weeks after the speech, members of the Ku Klux Klan would bomb the black 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four young girls. Less than three months later, President Kennedy would be assassinated. Racial unrest would rage across the country for years, burning cities and killing many. Less than five years later, King himself would be a victim of violence that he spent his life preaching against.

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The people in charge say there are too many rules and regulations. That includes the rules to safeguard the world around us. We are pulling out of the Paris Climate agreement. We had a guy in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency who wanted to eliminate many of the rules to protect clean air and water to satisfy the oil and gas industry, and a Secretary of the Interior who helped shrink some National Monument areas by thousands of acres. It hasn’t stopped. The same people are proposing legislation and amendments to cut back and weaken the Endangered Species Act. The Act, passed in 1973, was designed to save and protect wildlife that had been ravaged by man. It has saved the very symbol of our country, the bald eagle. But dozens of species of animals, birds, alligators, insects, and plants have been brought back to thrive from near extinction.

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Journalists are suppose to be fair, even handed, and even dispassionate. They have to defend their work when challenged. That has never been truer than today when journalists have been called “the enemy of the people” and purveyors of “fake news”. This past week was the 155th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg which turned the tide of the Civil War. The New York Times reprinted an account of the battle by their Washington Bureau Chief Sam Wilkeson Jr. who was one of the most respected correspondents of his time. The battle raged for three bloody days, and determined the future of the country. But, the story of a lifetime became much more for Wilkeson. His 19 year old son, Lt. Bayard Wilkeson was in command of a Union artillery battery.

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This Sunday we will all being celebrating Father’s Day. It’s a day with a long history that started in Catholic dominated Europe in the Middle Ages. It was originally celebrated on March 19th, St. Joseph’s Day in honor of the guy we have all been trying to live up to for two thousand years. It was brought to America by the Spanish and Portuguese. There were several failed attempts to make it a national holiday over the years. There was a bill first introduced in Congress in 1913 to make it a holiday that failed because of fear it would become too commercial. Why would they ever think that? Finally, in 1966, President Johnson issued a proclaimation honoring fathers on the third Sunday in June. In 1972, President Nixon signed a law making it a national holiday. Oh, and the whole commercial thing. One study shows only Christmas out sells gifts for Dad on Father’s Day. I guess that goes all the way back to St. Joseph.

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The crowd was middle age. There was a lot of gray hair and bald spots. About 24 hundred of us were gathered at the Borgata Event Center to hear and see the man who will forever remind us of our youth and the turbulent times when we came of age. As with many iconic figures, his first name is all that’s needed. And, in his case, it’s a nickname, Ringo. He was the last Beatle. John, Paul, George, and Ringo. John was the rebel, Paul was the cute one, George was the quiet one, and Ringo was the funny one. He was the last one to join the band, when the other three kicked out their first drummer, Pete Best, to complete the group. Ringo was playing in another band in Hamburg, Germany that was performing in the same club as the Beatles in 1962. They would change and influence music, fashion, and culture in the decade that would rock the world.

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It was 13 years ago, but it was trip I will never forget. We went to Paris for our 3oth wedding anniversary. We couldn’t pass up the opportunity to go to Normandy to see the beaches of D-Day and the American Cemetery and Memorial. My father-in-law had landed on Utah beach in August of 1944 about two months after the initial landing. He rode a tank ahead of Patton’s army and survived The Battle of the Bulge. It was about a three hour drive north of Paris. You drive along narrow two lane roads through the French countryside that looked as it did in 1944. You finally see a small horizontal sign as you make a turn with an arrow that just says “American Cemetery.” I wasn’t really prepared for what we were about to see and feel.

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One of the most important and damaging stories in the last 25 years has been the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests that went on for decades and was covered up by superiors. A coverup that allowed the crimes to continue for years. Thousands of  vulnerable children from alter boys to high school girls have been violated and their lives ruined. The church has spent millions in legal settlements with the victims. Even after church officials finally admitted the enormity of the crimes, they still can’t stop offending victims. Pope Francis recently admitted grave errors in defending a bishop in Chile who is accused of covering up one of the country’s most notorious pedopile priests. No top official in the church has ever been held accountable or charged with a crime until now.

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This time it was a Waffle House in Nashville, Tennessee in the middle of the night. A man who should never have had a gun pulled up to the restaurant, got out of his car, and opened fire with everyone’s favorite assault weapon, the AR-15. Two people were shot and killed in the parking lot. Two more were killed when the shooter burst into the restaurant. As we’ve seen before, one person stood up to stop the madness. Twenty nine year old James Shaw had stopped in the restaurant on his way home from a nightclub. He was only there because the first Waffle House where he stopped was too crowded. He wrestled the gun from the shooter as he was reloading, and pulled him outside the restaurant before the man ran away. He was naked from the waist down, but he did have on a green jacket. All the victims were in their twenties. Twenty nine year old Travis Reinking was taken into custody the next day while hiding behind his apartment complex.

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Elections are like job interviews. As voters, that’s how we should be evaluating House and Senate candidates for political office. They want the job representing us on some serious issues like life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It’s an attractive opportunity. Starting salary, $174,000, free airport parking, free gym, up to 239 days off a year, you can earn up to an additional $15,000 a year from outside income, a cost of living raise every January 1st, $3,000 annual tax deduction for living expenses while away from home, health insurance, vesting after five years, generous pension and retirement benefits, you have to be 30 years old to become a US Senator, and 25 to be a Representative, and finally, no experience necessary. Representatives get job evaluations every two years, but senators don’t get reviewed for six years. Where else can you get jobs like these?

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The Beatles famously sang, “Here comes the sun, It’s alright, Little darling, it’s been a long cold lonely winter,…it feels like years since it’s been here.”  January and February are the darkest, coldest months of the year. But, we always hold out hope for March. The clocks get turned ahead the first weekend of the month, and we get that extra daylight at the end of the day. Spring looms only three weeks ahead. We know it’s slowly going to get warmer. But, March can be cruel. Just when you think we are out of the clutches of winter, we get slammed with four nor’easters. The promise of the smiles of spring turn to the grimaces of ice and snow for one last jolt. The temperatures for almost every day this March have been below average. This followed a February when it rained more than half of the days. While the first day of spring was a week ago, the real first day of spring is March 29th.

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