We all have the dates of days that are important to us. Birthdays, anniversaries, deaths. As someone interested in history, and its impact on the present and future, I’m probably a little too obsessed with historical dates. But they give me a guidepost to events and help me understand the flow of history. It makes me think about the impact the event had on people that day, and how we view those events today. Next week one will be the anniversary of one of the most significant events in 20th century world history. Do you know what happened on May 8, 1945? Depending on your age, it’s more likely your parents or grandparents may know. It’s V-E Day. Victory in Europe. The day the Germans surrendered ending to end World War II in Europe. Millions gathered in Times Square, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, and Trafalgar Square in London to celebrate the triumph over evil and death. It wouldn’t be until three months later, August 14, 1945 that the war would be completely over. Of course, you know that’s V-J Day. Victory in Japan. Again, huge crowds gathered around the world. We’ve all seen the picture of the sailor kissing the nurse. Right?

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America used to be the place where people came to be included in the greatest country in the world. Where if you worked hard, you would be absorbed into the great melting pot. You could find success and happiness. Now, we know history tells us we weren’t so inclusive all the time. We can start with slavery, and work our way through discrimination against Irish and Italian immigrants. Interning Japanese American citizens during World War II. Blocking Jews from entering the country during World War II as they tried to escape certain death at the hands of the Nazis. We have made strides since the civil rights movement of the 1960s. But some would argue we still have a long way to go.

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Presidential elections can change history and the direction of the country for years.  We are in the middle of one of the most contentious and divisive campaigns in our history. But history also tells us about another presidential election that most people don’t know about. It changed the country. It changed the lives of millions for generations. In 1876, the United States celebrated its Centennial. The wounds of the Civil War were still fresh. Republican President Ulysses S. Grant was coming to the end of his second term. He was even considering running for a third term. But while Grant was one of the greatest generals in American history, he was one of the worst presidents. Grant was too trusting, and surrounded himself with many dishonest and corrupt men who put their own greed ahead of the good of the country.

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It’s a city that sings. It sings about love, loss, hope, and even drinking. It even seems to sing about its history. Sitting on the banks of the Cumberland River, my wife and I spent a weekend in one of America’s great cities. Nashville will make you tap your feet, enjoy rich southern food, discover history, and realize people can still be polite. And it is all wrapped in the sound of country music.

As you stroll down Broadway, you can hear music flowing out of the door of every honky tonk. You walk from the bright sunlight of the sidewalk into the warm darkness of music and beer. There will be a sea of cowboy hats on top and cowboys boots on the floor. Young men and women will be crowded onto a small stage singing for tips. You can hear the joy and ache in their hearts and the wail of the fiddle as they sing about the ups and downs of life and love. Places like The Whiskey Bent Saloon where a three hundred pound cowboy, dressed in black, sits at the door behind dark sunglasses checking IDs. He told me he’s been in Nashville for 34 years. He works 60 hours a week at that door. I said you must love the music. He said he couldn’t tell me the last song he just heard. I guess he was very focused on his job. Because the young guy and girl singing were making magic with their voices singing the Garth Brooks song about being “too young to feel this old.”

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As he plows through the primaries piling up delegates, Donald Trump has the Republican party in an absolute panic. Not only about the election this year, but the very future of their party. This guy could divide the party so badly between radical conservatives and the rational “establishment” members of the party, that the Republican party as we knew it, could undergo the biggest re-examination and change in its history. The convention this summer is looking more and more like a train wreck. Trump says if he’s denied the nomination because of some ballot rules changes, there will be riots. Main stream Republican leaders are trying figure out how to derail the Trump train, and find an alternative candidate that can pull the party together. But time is running out.

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It’s a world that travels at 80 miles per hour. The speed limit signs may say 65 miles per hour, but you will feel like you’re standing still if you follow the rules. I’ve been driving the New Jersey Turnpike for over 35 years to visit family in northern New Jersey and Connecticut. Over the last couple of months, I’ve had to drive it several times a week to north Jersey to attend to family matters. It’s just over 122 miles of multiple lanes. It’s the sixth busiest toll road in the United States, and one of the most heavily traveled highways in the country. As I enter the turnpike at exit 6 from the Pennsylvania Turnpike heading north, I feel like I’m being sucked into a vortex of blacktop and screaming steel.

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Shouting, name calling, insults about the size of sex organs, threats of physical violence, and ridicule are what we hear coming out of the mouths of the men who want to be president. The most memorable quote from this year’s presidential campaign is Donald Trump reacting to a protestor at one of his rallies by telling the crowd, “I’d like to punch him in the face, I’ll tell you that.” Anger, and appealing to our worst instincts, has replaced hope and optimism. This is what millions of Americans think will “Make America Great Again”. The words of demagogues instill fear.

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The most important tool a journalist has is their brain. How we think about the world we cover determines whose work will make a difference in people lives. We have to know something about everything. That takes drive and curiosity. We have to be skeptical and question everything. Why are things happening? Objective and fair decisions often have to be made under deadline pressure. That requires clear thinking which is essential to clear writing.

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It will be 40 years since the Opening Day that will stand out above all others forever. Yes, that’s me standing with Mickey Mantle in Yankee Stadium in 1966. Like thousands of New York kids growing up in the fifties and sixties, Mickey was our idol. He wasn’t just a New York hero, he was the national symbol of the storybook hero. A big, strong, blond, switch hitter who hit tape measure home runs. He was a modest country boy who performed and dominated the biggest stage in the sports world. He was why we loved the Yankees, and why other fans hated them.

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There are three significant birthdays in everyone’s life. I won’t count our first one, which is a big deal to our parents. But none of us can remember it, so we can’t have any reaction. The first life changing one, of course, is our eighteenth. We are legally considered adults. We can vote. Most of us have our driver’s license by then. We are just finishing high school. Many of us are going off to college. When I turned eighteen, the legal drinking age was still eighteen. I was a freshman in college. So that was a real bonus. The second significant birthday comes only three years later. Yes, twenty-one. You can drink. You can gamble. You become a real part of adult society. You can go to anyplace that says you must be twenty-one or older to be admitted, or eligible to win a big prize. So two of the three big ones come when we are just fully maturing, at least, we should be. Our whole life is ahead of us. Marriage, relationships, children, career, mortgages, paying off the college loan money you spent between those first two big birthdays, success, failure, and, we all hope, some degree of happiness and satisfaction.

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