I have been comparing then and now. I have lived long enough to do a lot of comparing, and as a retired military person I have served in the U.S. Army and the U.S. Air Force. I also spent two years with the Marine Corps at Cherry Point, and boy did I ever compare the branches of military services.

Most everything is compared to something else to some extent. Take cars, trucks, bikes, houses, bank accounts, jobs, education — even animals, including people too. Even when we are not comparing knowingly, we may be doing it unknowingly.

I heard a preacher on television say there are no young people going to church any more. He was asking why? Young people don’t pray. He asked them why? He heard one say we have got a smartphone and Facebook and Google. That’s where we get our wishes met.

Now I ask, is it any wonder we may be going down the tube?

Now when I was young a long time ago, things were different. That’s a good thing, I hope. Lots of comparing went on back then, too. I was reading somewhere that a democracy lasts only around 200 years. This one has been around 241 years now, started in 1776, and it seems that every country in this world wants to help destroy it. I think it may be on its way down the tube. I hope not.

— Hugh Martin

Salisbury