Being old-fashioned, I liked to know what the facts were before writing. That required not only a lot of research, it also required keeping up with what was being said in the media. During a stay in Yosemite National Park last May, taking photos with a couple of my buddies, there were four consecutive days without seeing a newspaper or a television news program — and it felt wonderful.
With the political news being so awful this year, it felt especially wonderful. This made me decide to spend less time following politics and more time on my photography, adding more pictures to my website www. Looking back over the years, as old-timers are apt to do, I see huge changes, both for the better and for the worse.
In material things, there has been almost unbelievable progress. Most Americans did not have refrigerators back in , when I was born. Television was little more than an experiment, and such things as air conditioning or air travel were only for the very rich. My own family did not have electricity or hot running water, in my early childhood, which was not unusual for blacks in the South in those days.
Most people living in officially defined poverty in the 21st century have things like cable television, microwave ovens, and air conditioning. Most Americans did not have such things as late as the s. In some other ways, however, there have been some serious retrogressions over the years.
Back in , President John F. Kennedy, a man narrowly elected just two years earlier, came on television to tell the nation that he was taking us to the brink of nuclear war with the Soviet Union, because the Soviets had secretly built bases for nuclear missiles in Cuba, just 90 miles from America.
Most of us did not question what he did. Fortunately, the Soviets backed down. High Stakes in Virginia Oct 22, Although Virginia has been a politically blue state for years, this year's election has the Democrat Is Truth Irrelevant?
Jan 11, It is amazing how many people seem to have discovered last Wednesday that riots are wrong — wh A Vote at the Crossroads Jan 05, What makes the special election vote in Georgia historic is not just the specific issues or the spec Walter E. Williams Dec 02, Walter Williams loved teaching. View More from Thomas Sowell. Dow Jones. By Jason L. Photo credit: Associated Press. To Read the Full Story. Subscribe Sign In. Continue reading your article with a WSJ membership.
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