We are on fire and it’s only getting worse. During this Fourth of July holiday week, we endured the four hottest days in modern Earth history, or at least since we started keeping records of such things in 1940. The planet experienced the hottest June ever recorded. Heat has ripped across the world from the south and southeastern US to India. The ice in Antarctica is at record low levels. The average world temperature on Tuesday was 62.6 degrees Fahrenheit, the hottest ever. We keep burning oil, gas and coal and not listening to the climate scientists who keep telling us we have to change our behavior or make Earth an unlivable hell. And while we burned up celebrating our nation’s birthday, some of us didn’t make it to the end of the week because we continued to lead the world in mass shootings.

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Have you noticed there are more old people around? It’s not your imagination. A story in the New York Times this morning confirms our worst fears. The US Census Bureau says the median age in the country is 38.9 years. To put that in perspective, the median age in 2000 was 35 and in 1980 it was 30. Where has youthful, vibrant American gone?The guy who wants to stay president is 80 years old and the guy who wants to be president again is 77. Even people who like Biden, think he is too old to run again. Age doesn’t seem to affect Trump supporters even though he is also overweight and lives on McDonald’s cheeseburgers. Is it possible people on canes and walkers will outnumber people on bikes. How did we get here?

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It was the pictures that may be the most shocking part of the thirty-seven count indictment against Donald Trump. Boxes and boxes of classified and top secret documents piled up in a shower, bedroom, ballroom stage, storage rooms, and an office. One photograph shows the boxes spilled out on the floor after they fell off the pile. It looked like the home of your crazy uncle who hoarded books, newspapers, magazines and other junk and piled them floor to ceiling. It was a look into the madness of Donald Trump, a man who held the most powerful position in the world for four years. The indictments boil down to the charges that Trump knowingly took the hundreds and hundreds of documents out of the White House. Then when it was discovered he essentially stole the documents, he lied and refused to return them to the National Archives. When he finally did return some, his lawyers lied and said all the documents had been returned. When it turned out they weren’t, it led to the FBI search warrant and raid last summer of Mar-a-Lago.

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It was the day before our tour of Scotland, Wales, and England was to begin. We arrived a day early and toured the Old Course at St. Andrews Golf Links. That’s another story. We boarded the train at Leuchars for the ride back to Edinburgh. It was crowded. Maureen and I found seats one behind the other. I sat down next to a young man drinking a can of Stella Artois. He said, “Is that your wife? I’ll move up if you’d like to sit together.” Maureen declined. She wanted to take a little nap. He struck up a conversation asking if we were on vacation. I told him yes and we had just had a great day at St. Andrews. I asked if he golfed. He said he did when he was younger. His father was a greens keeper at their local club and both his father and mother won the club championship. He showed me a picture of the course on his phone. I found him engaging. He had a Scottish burr and laughed easily.

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Ralph Yarl is a sixteen year old Black teenager who was going to pickup his younger twin brothers at a friend’s house in Kansas City. He mistakenly went to the wrong house. Instead of going to Northeast 115th Terrace, he went to Northeast 115th Street. An understandable mistake. It would change his life. Yarl rang the bell or knocked, it’s unclear which. Two gunshots came through the glass door hitting Yarl in the forehead and the right arm. No words were exchanged. The shot to his arm may have been fired when he was on the ground. Eighty-four year old Andrew Lester, who is white, was taken into custody. He was held for twenty four hours and released without charges. After neighborhood protests, an arrest warrant was issued. Lester was charged with first degree assault and armed criminal action. The prosecutor said there was a “racial component” to the shooting.

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The weight can be enormous. It’s New York. It’s the Yankees. It’s the position played by one of the all time greats and Hall of Famer. The Captain. There have been a few players who’ve played the position since Derek Jeter retired in 2014. But not with the promise of Anthony Volpe, a twenty-one year old from New Jersey who’s now living the dream. Volpe, the son of two doctors, gave up going to Vanderbilt, when the Yankees offered him $2.7 million dollars to sign with them. This spring he was given the chance to take the starting shortshop job. He was competing against Oswald Peraza who had been called up to the majors at the end of last season and played well. Volpe has never played in the Major Leagues. Even Jeter had been called up at the end of 1995 before he got the starting job in 1996.

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Three years ago sixteen young people from across Montana took the first step down a path that could lead to a safer cleaner world and change our lives and the lives of generations to come. They filed what might be the first serious constitutional climate lawsuit, Held v. The State of Montana. It claims the state’s support of the fossil fuel energy system is contributing to climate change violating their constitutional rights to a clean and healthy environment. And, yes it’s in their state constitution. In 1972, the Montana constitution was amended to guarantee citizens “the right to a clean and healthful environment”. The original document, drafted in 1889 was heavily influenced by the powerful copper and coal industries. Basically, allowing them to do what they wanted. Despite the change, Montana is the fifth largest coal producing state and the twelfth largest oil producer. State energy policy says it can’t consider climate change when issuing new permits for fossil fuel projects. Well, the kids want to change all this.

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“And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.”-Kennedy Inaugural Address, Jan.20, 1961

”With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see right, let us strive, on to finish the work we are in: to bind up the nation’s wounds…”-Lincoln Second Inaugural Address, Mar. 4, 1865.

Two of the most famous and important speeches in American history given at a critical turning point. The two presidents use of language to rally the country to see the way forward are the finest examples of the power of writing for the spoken word. That doesn’t mean long and wordy. Quite the opposite. Lincoln’s speech was 701 words and took about six or seven minutes. Kennedy’s was 1,366 words and ran 14 minutes. To put them in context, Washington’s second inaugural address was 135 words. He just acknowledged his re-election. The longest in history was William Henry Harrison’s 8,445 words. The most forgotten president. He died a month after giving that speech.

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It was a network news story about the late cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar’s collection of exotic animals he had imported to his ranch in Columbia the 1980’s. Among the animals were three female hippos and one male. The government is trying to move them now that the Escobar ranch has been abandoned. Well, the four hippos became very friendly and there are now estimated to be between 130 and 160 hippos. The government plans to fly the “cocaine hippos” to India and Mexico because they are a threat to the ecosystem in Columbia. While this is a bizarre and interesting story, the correspondent couldn’t help himself. Instead of saying four hippos grew to be well over a hundred, he called the original hippos “a handful of hippos”. While using the word “handful” to describe a small amount, is vague and inexact, using it to describe hippos is lazy and absurd.

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March is a big birthday month in our family. I will turn seventy-two at the end of the week. Two of our granddaughters also have birthdays this month. Cecily turned nine years old last week and Emily will be ten later this month. We are going to have a joint March birthday celebration. As we get older, birthdays are an opportunity to look back on our lives. For nine and ten year olds, it’s cake and presents. As they get older, these childhood birthdays will fade into misty happy memories. Kids get excited about their birthdays and look forward to being a year older. We older folks are just happy to get to the next birthday and regret getting older. The girls and I are looking at life from opposite ends. I treasure every year I get to celebrate with them.

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