I am for peace and not empire building however we do not need to roll over and play dead when we are attacked numerous times as happened during the Clinton era. Bush at least had the fortitude to react positively to terror acts. I also believe in economic justice but not to the extent we should reduce our standard of living to 3rd. world levels. I believe in love and harmony with those that reciprocate but Communism and radical Islam must be contained. Jimmy Hallman

No one’s asking for the US to play dead. But if you look at our defense budget — which by the say is larger than the entire rest of the world’s defense budget combined — you’ll find at least half is going for nothing but profits for the military/industrial complex, not of the defense of our country.

Frank, I think your picture of the fish with hypocrisy in it puts you in the boat with the Islam’s and other nonbelievers. But it is still a free land so you get to put out your brand of religion. Although the pollsters say 80+ percent of the united state citizens believe in GOD. Charles C. van Bell

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I just read your article about truth, justice and the American way. It's a sweet thought my friend but it reminds me of a cartoon drawn by a local (Phoenix) political cartoonist. A picture of Dr. Martin Luther King and he was giving his famous speech. The excerpt shown was "I have a dream" and the cartoonists answer was "Dream on!"

The people in office are there because they are elected by a small portion of a country full of people who no longer care. They may care about what promises are made that might reflect on their home areas. But beyond that they don't care.

I saw the worst example of where we have come to, in an article in the local paper here. A church had rented a home in a nice neighborhood in a city near us called Chandler. Their idea was to give the homeless a place to sleep, safely off the streets, from ten at night until they had to leave at five a.m. in the morning.

The good neighbors all got together, but not to plan fund raisers to provide food for the short term residents or to buy them clothing...nothing so charitable. Instead, they got together to raise holy hell over the plan. They said they didn't want this "kind" in their neighborhoods. That it would cause transients to be loitering about the area..although extra patrols and strict rules about leaving the area during daytime hours were planned.

Of course they won. The old question of whether we are our brother's keepers means nothing to people now. How much less so, about what should be simply truth..from each other, from employers, ministers or even our children. Like the bible says people want their ears "tickled" about their sins, that what they do is AOK so as not to have change their actions or feel any guilt about their transgressions.

To, truth from politicians? Not even on the agenda. The few who do care would like it but most, again, don't care!

I just wanted to say thanks for the entertaining yet brutally honest column. I'm not one to spend a lot of time on line since I still work full time and have kids/grandkids to fill up my days, but your e-mail always makes me stop and slow down, read, and absorb some of your wisdom. It makes me appreciate my life, my health, and my age! I don't feel old (mentally. but my grand daughter is 'taken' with the feel of my gnarled old hands!! lol), but realize the one thing I never understood as a younger version of me that even though someone has aged they can still think and feel young in their minds. I'm in a select group of people that don't have to don mismatched plaids and rocking chairs just because they're not 29 anymore. We can be vibrant, exciting, and alive... and I so thank you for reminding me of that with your e-mails Connie Risner

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Hard to believe you graduated from college the year I was born! Erin Bliss

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Thank you so very much for this article.  Next year my high school will have its 50th celebration. I share your feelings, and now I'm optimistic that I won't be the odd person there. I'm relatively new to Suddenly Senior and want to thank you so very much. I look forward to receiving your newsletters, as they're very interesting.  I've visited some of the sites and looking forward to seeing them all. Bev in AZ

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Hey, Frank, you were good looking in 1957!!! Wow. Joan Locker

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I too just returned from a 50th reunion at Vassar College--I felt--and feel as you do. It was an idyllic time for us--a beautiful interlude which time can't destroy. Did life turn out as I had dreamed? No--but it has still been one beautiful journey. I just wish the country had retained a certain innocence that was typical of the time, that it wasn't so materially obsessed. It has a certain crassness that wasn't ours then.... Thanks for writing about a life-changing experience!

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Like the Soprano's finale, your essay left me wanting more. Mac Thorlton, DePauw University '61

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Thoroughly enjoyed your college reunion column. I too am in my seventies, but I am in the happy position of not to have to look back half a century to my college days. Through force of circumstances, I didn't get around to going to university until I was forty. My fellow under-graduates were half my age, so college reunions always make me feel 20 years younger than I am. Heading back to full-time study, and maybe switching careers, in middle age seems to be more common in the UK now than in my day, and I think there's much to be said for it. In my case, I went on to do a PhD and wrote a book about new careers for the over-40s.

PS   At 73 I have just published my first novel Alby And Me, ISBN 9781846856518. John C Bird, Solihull, England

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I’m a ’57 high school grad. I love your writings Frank, please don't ever stop. Dot

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I, too, was the child of strict Christian Scientists...although they had met in radio days at CBS in NYC, when Dad was an announcer and Mom had her own piano program.  The Christian Science came when I was a small child and, with an illness of my mother's, they turned wholeheartedly to it--having failed medically.  Now, it was a joy to see you! And, I still want that dance! Mary Ball Hoeltzer, DePauw ‘57

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Frank, I really liked your evocation of the reunion, and looking back on your life. I wish you'd do a lot more of it, even up to a biography! It all looks so different from this end, and so much more interesting.... I talk daily to my old piano teacher, in Tennessee now, now ninety, and we go back over old things a lot. It's so very interesting. I fell in love with her at age seven, in 1942, when she started coming out to Gary from Whiting and built up a teaching practice there. I often tell her that had I been ten or twelve years older, I'd have kidnapped her and run away to---where else--Australia! She just laughs, but she was very fond of me in those days too. I might send you a picture of us in those times. I was touch by Carolyn's column, but haven't written to her. I don't know why I hesitated. Like you, she lets it all hang out, and it's wonderful to be connected at that level, though we've never met. All best old mate, Lee Brunckhorst

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I remember my 20th high school reunion. Everyone was bragging about the money they made the jobs they had and the perfect children they were raising. Two years ago, I went to my 45th from 8th grade and what a difference in attitude. Talk about mellowing out, everyone was just grateful for their health etc.  There was no bragging about anything. I really had fun at the last one and we went to R.I. from Ohio to attend. Celebrating 50 years of marriage next Friday and feel so thankful, but my kids are not perfect and my house is not huge but Bill and I have a great relationship.  Hasn't always been easy but worth the time invested, that's for sure. I continue to pray for Carolyn, she is a spunky lady and will beat this I'm sure. Jackie Keesee

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Great piece; if we had more 50s optimism today our world would be a happier place! My heart goes out to you & Carolyn and the challenge you are now facing with her illness. She’s the bravest girl I know—doing implants and a face-lift in sync and out of the country—either would terrify me more than the dreaded dentist or the H word & H Season!  So my money’s on her and on plucky you to keep her strong.  I’ve walked in those moccasins this heart-breaking last year and can only offer to stay strong, deal with what you can… and for all the rest, like Scarlet, think about it tomorrow. I’m still doing it and for me it helps; I’m blessed that focusing on essentials like bill paying, finances and writing are my best therapy. Take care, and know you both are in my thoughts, prayers, and heart. Peggy Fisher (Get Peggy’s informative and entertaining e-column by writing her at writingbyfisher@bellsouth.net)

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WOW! You sure struck a cord with me this week. So you're a DU. Same here. Class of '59 at U. of N. Carolina. And our old fraternity house still looks the same, too. I'm happy to say that they still put a premium on academic leadership. So I'm the kid a couple of years behind you. Sadly, last year we buried my fraternity brother and roommate. Ah, bittersweet it is, fore and aft. You are right, those were glorious years. Seems most folks now say, "Where are we going, and what are we doing in this hand basket?" So I retired from thirty years of teaching and have been a commercial fisherman for twenty years now.

I have no plans to retire this time. I'll be a happy man if I drop dead at the helm one grey morning. (If you're checking math, a few of those years overlapped in the summers.) I made it with one wife, my high school sweetheart, and first love. I chalk it up to dumb luck, which is the only kind I need. Anyway, thanks for stirring up some wonderful memories and thoughts. And definitely give Carolyn a big hug from another DU. I can tell she is something really special. We'll be thinking of you both. Guy Ellis

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I just wanted to comment on the interesting omission that I see over and over again when racial issues are discussed.  Were there any Indians (or the PC "Native Americans) in your life?  Did you only see the ones on early TV that were racing around the poor settlers in wagons aiming arrows at helpless women and children? 

Well I am Indian and that's what I saw too.  I wondered what your experiences are or were concerning what you thought of Indians as a young man and now. We seem to be so invisible media-wise.  No commercials, sitcoms, guests on Oprah; very few documentaries about the different modern cultural ways of each tribe, the languages we struggle to keep and the beautiful spiritual, social gatherings called powwows.  Or just everyday life of Indians on reservations, cities, towns, etc. 

I grew up with several of the same prejudices too, but grew up in a place where Indians were treated negatively, and miniscule diversity.  (One black family, an Asian woman, Hutterites.)   I am 1/4 Blackfeet and Cree, French, Irish, Italian and Scotch, but enrolled in the Blackfeet tribe.  Not enough Indian to really fit in, but feeling Indian in a white border town.  So I didn't even like myself. Anyway thanks for your honesty Frank, I know I have made similar comments in my past that horrify me too.  All we can do is try and teach future generations by example. Mary Ann Gerard  Check out my quilts and crafts: http://community.webshots.com/user/magpie288

I think the experience is altogether different from my childhood (where Tonto was the only “good” Indian around) and today (where Native American’s are generally treated with respect in the media (Dancing with Wolfs, etc.).

I imagine much of that respect comes from attitudes about money and new wealth from gambling. And I certainly understand that the economic spread of that is uneven and (still) exploited by the white man. I have been in Indian villages out west so desperately poor they could easily have been in rural areas of Mexico or Guatemala. How shameful on us. As is our health system, etc.

There have been recently some excellent PBS programs on our history with the True Americans. I only hope these will be presented in schools to our children as they are taught no history anymore. Politicians prefer citizens to be ignorant in that respect. Thanks so much for writing, Mary Ann.

POLITICIANS NEED INTERVENTION NOW!