"SOMEWHERE ALONG THE TRAIL..."

"He hath given us speech for endless palaver..."
T.S. Eliot

Somewhere...sometime, along the way---

              we Americans 

     have lost

 Fifteen million WWII vets, the "Greatest

    Generation.."

         ...they have passed

The "Depression Kids" are not far behind

Fibber McGee and Molly, Red Skelton,

      Jack Benny, and Art Linkletter...

           gone from radio

John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Gregory

      Peck, William Holden. Walter 

           Brennan, no more movies...

One Doolittle Raider is left from the

      "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo"

               raid

Missing from the "funnies" are old

       friends of our childhoods---

    Joe Palooka, Tarzan, Nancy,

        Blondie, and The 

                 Katzenjammer Kids...

Oh yes, we can talk...we're talkers

     for sure; 

          "He hath given us speech 

        for endless palaver."

   T.S. Eliot nailed it, years ago.

We're "electronic talkers!"

Oh yes, we can spend money

     if we want to, and borrow

         it if we don't have it...

               the gov't.

Oh yes, in our inane groping for

             SOMETHING

     we are ever coming up with

          new gender variations,

    requiring endless new bathrooms;

        we're apparently not satisfied 

            with plain old:

                  "man and woman."

Oh yes, we have been reminded

     of the "progress we have made!"

          

"What progress?" I ask you.

On our way... to where?

Ah, but we have also lost

     our front porches, where folks

sat on summer nights after

         supper---with the women

still wearing their wet aprons...

          waving at kids as 

     they roller skated and neighbors

               out strolling...

Basic happy things like that

Worse---have Americans lost their

      belief in God?

and their judgment 

and

their perception?

---------------------

BY ML

25 JUNE 17