When I was a kid, we had black and white TVs that managed to pull in three channels via a thing stuck on the side of the house called an antenna. My grandmother had the more advanced version of this thing on the side of the house, it had a wired remote control so she could turn it from side to side to get half a channel more.

On television we had programs that supported traditional family values, supported the work ethic, and increase the value of entertainment with the addition of education. The programs did not create heroes of dead beat Dads, loose women, or bratty kids. Children on television in those days asked for help with their homework, not showing off what they got away with.

When I was a kid my father helped me make a go-kart, we didn't play Mario kart, we learned the basics of engineering and had fun doing it. We learned how to weld, cut wood in a straight line, and what workmanship meant. We built tree forts in trees in things called backyards, without getting sued by the city for an untaxed improvement or degrading of property values. We played outside with out getting shot at, harassed by the police, or ending up with the child protection services being called. We knew our neighbors, they grew flowers not pot in the spring, and we shoveled their walkways in winter, cut their grass in summer, and raked their leaves in the fall for cash. We worked for our money.

When I was a kid, our parents looked forward to retirement, bought houses they could afford, stuck to the house budget, lived within their means, protected us, loved us, listened to us, because they were our parents and that is what parents did. When I was a kid, our parents were the authority on what the doctor could and couldn't do to us, what the teachers could teach us, and even what the police could ask us. It only took parents to raise a good child when I was a kid.

When I was a kid, the worse thing we did was smoke a cigarette, and it made us sick. When I was kid, we knew the difference between right and wrong, we knew our grandparents, we knew our church, we were part of a thing called community.

When I was a kid, we looked forward to growing up.

We had HOPE.

Times have changed. We don't need anymore change. We need to take a step back.

Wolfe.