Remember when...

I remember when I could play outside around our block with the kids from the neighborhood. We weren't stalked. We didn't trash other people's yards, homes or property. We weren't allowed to use our parent's spray paint and we didn't.

I remember watching Walter Cronkite on the evening news. He was like a member of the family and he placed a high value on honesty. He didn't have to "make up" or invent news; it was what it was...and there was more than enough to go around. I think even then news was more about the bad things that happened around the world, but it wasn't sensationalized. It didn't feel like it was common place. It didn't feel like everyone around the world had lost the war with evil.

I remember when the truth was valued as highly as life. If you told a lie, there were consequences and you simply didn't tell a lie because it was wrong.

I remember when the news was the star of the night and not the stars telling the news.

I remember when we said the Pledge of Allegiance because it was a matter of loyalty to country and the boys who paid the ultimate price for our freedom.

I remember when someone said, "Oh my God." There was a tragedy happening and it wasn't just another trite saying.

I remember when differences in opinion didn't get you punched in the face at a council meeting.

I remember when children who were good at a sport played it and if they didn't, parents didn't grab a gun and shoot or kill the coach just because their child didn't play in the game.

I remember when great men had dreams of better days and honor and equality and fairness and hope. I remember Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcom X, John and Robert Kennedy, police officers who upheld the law even as it applied to them.

I remember real heroes, like men who threw themselves on hand grenades to protect the lives of their brothers in arms...like fire fighters and police men and the man next door who took out his ladder to save a neighborhood child's pet.

I remember when we went to school and we graduated. There wasn't any if, ands or buts. We just did it. It was expected....required even.

I remember knowing that things would be better one day. I remember knowing that hatred wouldn't be tolerated in any form. I remember knowing that our neighborhoods were safe and the children in them could play without worry.

I remember all of these things and right now I wonder if it was real or if was all an illusion. Were we really in danger all along? Did everyone hate the differences in others so much that they were willing to murder and maim to prove it? I remember these things, don't I?