Free Choice

The past one hundred years has been a century of amazing invention. My grandfather was born in 1900…before the Wright brothers’ historic 12 second flight, prior to Henry Ford’s assembly lines, and 12 years before Arizona became the 48th state in our union.


The first radio station of note, KDKA in Pittsburg, went on the air in 1923, and television began to be developed throughout the nation following the end of World War II. My generation, the Baby Boomers, began to populate the country in 1946 (my year) (so, what’s the second thing you did after getting home, soldier boy?).

There is one year that stands out for me in those early times…1952. Eisenhower was running for his first term, and Senator Robert Taft was still a power in GOP politics. Our little farm family leaped into the latter half of the 20th century with three major technological enhancements. We acquired an indoor bathroom by converting an old pantry. We purchased a power mower—a Reo reel-type, and we got our first TV from Spoon’s Hardware in McCutchenville, Ohio. It was a black and white GE model. With our 40 foot antenna we could pick up one station from Toledo---channel 13. Later, when I was in Junior High, we could access a second channel (11). It wasn’t until after I had left home that my parents could get channel 24 by attaching a UHF converter to their set. Today on my little farmette, my little patch of paradise, I receive more than 400 channels and watch eight—RFDTV, BIGTEN, CBS, FOX, Fox News, C-SPAN, C-SPAN II and The Gospel Music Channel. On rare occasions I turn to HGTV and the DIY networks. So that’s ten channels that I utilize out of the hundreds available to me. The bottom line is that I prefer books to TV, and except for Buckeye sports, I would rather read than watch.

When I was a child, I always anticipated a trip to “town” (Tiffin). If the timing were right and the egg money was sufficient, I would be treated to a hamburger at “Johnny’s” on East Madison Street. John and his wife, Mary, later opened a restaurant on Sandusky Street, but those burgers at the old location were the best that I have ever eaten. Today, nearly every intersection is populated with multiple chain restaurants offering a phenomenal variety of culinary choices. From the time that I eagerly awaited the delectable hamburgers from Johnny’s to today when I have difficulty choosing which cookie-cutter eatery to visit, I wonder if my life has improved. We have more choices for eating out. We have more choices on our televisions. We have more choices in nearly every aspect of our daily living, but yet…

As our lives have become less strenuous, and our options for entertainment and diversion have grown, our government has been growing as well. Our meaningless options have dramatically increased, and our significant choices have been reduced. We have the freedom to choose the burger de jour, but over regulation by the Nanny state has shrunk our abilities for vital decision making to a mere vestige of what they once were. I have concluded that I will willingly go back to one good hamburger choice. I will gleefully return to one or two channels of local television… If I must in order to restore the freedom, the liberty that once was mine. While I was staring at the Golden Arches, they took my country away. It stops now…today. No more diversions, no more accepting progress when it is wrapped in tyranny. It…stops…now.

Comment or email:  cnpearl@woh.rr.com