Pinheads and Patriots Read Free Page B

father on the phone for more than thirty seconds at a time unless he was yelling at some guy trying to sell him something. Then he took his time.
    When I called home from El Salvador or Northern Ireland or someplace, he’d get on the line for about twenty seconds before inevitably saying, “Here’s your mother.”
    By contrast, he’d sit on the patio in the summer and chat for hours with his friends. If he could see you, my father would talk to you.
    Children today still respond to other children, but machines are curtailing their ability to converse and think creatively in person-to-person situations, as I have stated. Getting a verbal description beyond “cool” and “awesome” from a kid is no easy task foran adult. The truth is that children are bored with conversation because things aren’t blowing up or rhyming (rap music). Again, this kind of youth life experience is changing America big-time, and few understand how it will eventually play out when today’s kids become adults.
    But one thing is virtually certain: Americans are losing the ability to think critically, and that will make it much easier for manipulative, charismatic politicians to gain power.
    For parents and grandparents, the situation is frustrating because many of the things that we enjoyed in our youth are now obsolete and have been banished from society. Not good. Playground competition, creative game playing, Monopoly on rainy days—all of these things brought some maturity and a lot of joy, at least to me.
    I’ve actually bribed kids to sample pond ice hockey, one-on-one basketball, and stickball against brick walls. For my trouble, I mostly get eye rolls and deep sighs. The machines are always calling these kids.
    Sadly, there is little you can do about any of this, and truthfully, you shouldn’t waste too much time trying to stem the tide. The kids will interact with machines, they will. But if you’re a parent, design definite boundaries for your children about what they can and can’t do in their free time. It will be tough, but you have to demand that they converse or at least listen to your words at the dinner table or elsewhere. Don’t allow your children to become zombies dependent on cheap stimulation. These machines and the moronic stuff on them are addictive, and you, the parent, have an obligation to limit the stimulation in a fair way and keep your children clean.
    Age-Old Wisdom
    But things are not completely bleak. If you are articulate and well-read, your place in America is getting stronger no matter what age you are. If you know how to relate to people, how to engage themin conversation, your potential for prospering is greatly enhanced. With some hesitation, I’ll use myself as an example.
    I’ve been anchoring The O’Reilly Factor for fourteen years, and I am sixty-one years old. I keep myself in reasonable shape, but there is no question that I’m in the AARP zone. Years ago, I might have been pushed out by some hot-shot younger anchor. Remember, a younger Dan Rather (who turned out to be a Pinhead) replaced an older Walter Cronkite as the anchor of the CBS Evening News in March 1981. Cronkite was forced out of his job even though he was performing well. The CBS suits wrongly calculated that Rather would attract younger viewers and refresh the franchise. The result, as we now know, was disastrous. The CBS Evening News has never recovered.

    Here’s proof that I’m a card-carrying member of the AARP, and proud of it!
Author’s Collection
    But that most likely would not happen today. There are few hot-shot younger people in TV news now because their experience and education just can’t measure up to those of us who worked in the golden age of network news.
    Back in the 1970s and ’80s, TV news was a serious business, andcompanies spent big money sending reporters around the globe to cover important stories. As a national