All the news I wish to print

There are all kinds of stories out there. Some will make you laugh, some will make you cry. Some will make you shrug, some will make you scream. Read any daily paper or listen to any newscast and your emotions can go from happy to sad to disbelief to fear to incredulity to horror to anger in very short order.
As we go along, there will be stories, as Paul Harvey used to say, to "wash your ears out with." There will be others that will make you feel like you need to be deloused simply by virtue of having heard or read them. Some posts will be religious, some secular and for some I expect will defy easy classification in either category. I hope you will join me in this journey and please feel free to comment along the way.
For my part I pledge not to remove any posts unless they are vulgar, libelous, threatening or otherwise in violation of the standards of civil discussion. I will not remove any post simply because I disagree with it but I will reserve the right to respond to any challenges that come my way.
God bless you and welcome to my blog.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

"We Didn't Start the Fire"

While driving into work last night I decided to take a break from the Christmas music on Lite FM and switched stations just in time to hear Billy Joel’s version of “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” As he ticks off so many instantly recognizable events for a child of the sixties, I couldn’t help but wonder how many of today’s college students. The lyrics can be found here. While some names have retained their recognizable attributes I wonder how many could explain the reasons for their fame. Do you know a college student? Better yet, do you know a history major? It might be fascinating to see how many events or people from any one trope such as the one below without using Google.

Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball, 
 Starkweather Homicide, Children of Thalidomide 

Given how so many people events recounted in recounted in this song have influenced the society in which we live today, their responses might be a good indicator of just how likely we are to repeat the mistakes and tragedies of the past.
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