Fifty years ago this month I began my tour of potential University job opportunities: Utah State University in Logan, The University of Colorado at Denver, Kent State and University of Ohio in Ohio, and American University in Washington, D.C., the latter only a week or so after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis.

I recall the chaos and curfews of DC that April and the building unrest on many of the campuses — a few years after the visit to Kent State, Ohio National Guardsmen shot and killed student demonstrators.

Fast forward 50 years — high school students are killed in the classrooms, a president tweets all kinds of idiocy from where ever he happens to be on what ever topic seems to have upset him.

We face potential instability in the stock markets, our trade policy is a shambles, treaties are being ripped up and reshaped in heaven knows what form, we have no coherent action on immigration or Dreamers. In general the headlines and articles in reputable media sources such as the Washington Post and The New York Times, National Public Radio and PBS TV are discouraging to say the least.

There are a very few bright spots — The youth of the country are once again moving to make things better as they did 50 years ago, we do seem to be occasionally paying attention to what our militarized local police are doing and some progressive changes are being made in the choice of interim congressional members.

I also optimistically anticipate the coming mid-term elections where I hope we gather strength and change the nature of our national legislative leaders. That might make another 2 years of an inept presidency minimally bearable.

Finally, the day is bright and warm, new life is forming around me and if I can learn to read these headlines with less pessimism I might survive.