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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We’ve all seen the surveys of high school and college students who don’t know anything about current events or history. There was a survey done of students at Texas Tech University in 2014 called Politically Challenged. Most of the students didn’t know who the vice president was, or who won the Civil War, or what country we fought for our independence. Everyone knew Snookie starred on “Jersey Shore”, and that Brad Pitt is married to Angelina Jolie and was married to Jennifer Aniston. You can laugh, or cry through it on “YouTube”. Most of the students laughed, or were only slightly embarrassed by their lack of knowledge. Some would think, “What’s the big deal?” And if we really had to find the answers, we could just look it up on our phone.

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“First in war-first in peace-and first in the hearts of his countrymen, he was second to none in the humble and enduring scenes of private life; pious, just, humane, temperate, and sincere; uniform, dignified, and commanding, his example was as edifying to all around him as were the effects of that example lasting.” The words of Congressman and Revolutionary War General Henry “Light-Horse” Lee in his eulogy of George Washington. That’s a pretty tough act to follow. Forty three men have followed. Some have been great. Some have been fair. Some have been, well, not so good. Now ten men and women are asking us if they can have the job.

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“Wow, what a great idea. Nobody has ever suggested that to me. Wow, I love that.” That was Hillary Clinton’s response when a young woman at a campaign rally in Iowa asked if she would consider nominating President Obama to the Supreme Court if she’s elected president. Only one other former president served on the Supreme Court after serving as president. President William Taft, a Republican, was president for only one term from 1909-1913. Eight years later, he was nominated as Chief Justice by Republican President Warren Harding in 1921. Taft served until his death in 1930. Taft had been a federal judge earlier in his career, and always aspired to be named to the Supreme Court more than he ever did to be president. He said serving on the court was his greatest honor, “I don’t remember that I ever was president.”

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It’s coming. It started building earlier this week. Tracking the monster. It starts thousands of miles away, and slowly creeps toward us. It gets bigger and bigger. The guessing and speculation begins about exactly when it will hit and how much will bury us. This is what local television news can feast on during these dark, cold winter months. People working in television news hate it, except for the meteorologists. It means long hours of all day coverage. Staying over night in a hotel so you can make sure you can get into work. Everyone else can use the excuse that they can’t get to work because they are snowed in. It’s the job of those TV news people to provide coverage for everyone else who is snowed in.

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The great writers do it alone. It’s exhilarating. It’s frustrating. It’s fun. It’s maddening. Writing demands the best of our creativity. It makes us push ourselves to express ideas and emotions. Sometimes it’s things we can’t say out loud, but can pour onto the page. We can re-write it until we get it just right. Find the right word until it sounds good when we read it, both silently, and out loud. As much as writers love to immerse themselves in their work, all the great ones struggle. James Joyce said, “Writing in English is the most ingenious torture ever devised for the sins committed in a previous life. The English reading public explains the reason.”

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