Beyond the Byline: Rather than rant, hit the road

WILKES-BARRE — It’s time for my annual rant.

That’s right, time to take time to rant a bit about all those things we encounter in life that just drive us crazy.

So where do we begin.

Oh yeah, how about all those political ads that are filled with less-than-accurate information? But the real question to be asked is when are these candidates going to start telling us why we should vote for them, instead of telling us why we shouldn’t vote for their opponent?

OK, we are off to a great start!

It’s time for all these senseless acts of violence to stop. President Ronald Regan is said to have taken this approach:

“I do not believe in taking away the right of the citizen for sporting, for hunting and so forth, or for home defense. But I do believe that an AK-47, a machine gun, is not a sporting weapon or needed for defense of a home.”

That just makes so much sense, doesn’t it?

And how about TV commercials — you know, the really stupid ones. There are so many out there. It makes one wonder what happened to those people who used to work on Madison Avenue in Manhattan and came up with great slogans and ad campaigns.

And please let’s stop with unfunny/offensive jokes and — even more so — all those ugly comments that are all over “social media.” Can’t the human brain figure out that most of these are false and AI generated?

But then, where does one go to get fair and unbiased news reporting these days?

This issue also results in bad manners, disrespect and zero tolerance for people who might dare to disagree with what others say. Tolerating such behavior only further erodes whatever is left of the fabric of our decent society.

Bad drivers also drive me crazy. And they are out there. They are not nice people. They text, they don’t yield, they speed, they tailgate, they blow horns, they flash lights, they weave in and out of traffic. My advice — you slow down, let them fly by and never engage them.

And I wish the mega-rich would find a way to help all those dogs and cats without homes. Those TV commercials tear me apart.

And I’m tired of being misunderstood by even those who should have gotten to know me by now. That saying, “you just don’t get me,” applies here. And let me also be the first to admit that there was a time that “getting to know me” could have been somewhat challenging.

Living in 2024 is not as easy as it was living in 1964 or 1974. That’s why when I get in this mood, I look for something to do and that usually takes me back to the Homeland — Plymouth Pa.., Old Shawnee. I take a ride through my old neighborhood and visit where it all began for me. Back to Reynolds and Second streets and the hills of Plymouth.

I go to where my first steps were taken — I go back home just to look around the hallowed ground where I grew up. It’s where I learned just about everything. And I think about my parents and all those great people who helped me grow.

So much was learned there, but it’s really not so much about what you learned as it is about how you chose to apply what you learned back then and how you have applied it throughout your life that followed.

It comes down to acting like a genuine human being. Deep inside, we all know right from wrong and we decide on a daily basis on how to apply all that we learned when we were learning how and who to be.

Sometimes, we refuse to be all we can be, but back then, we learned how important it is to be good, to be kind.

So there you go, returning to those days stopped the ranting. It took me back to my pre-ranting days — to a time when all I ranted about were kid things like sports, school and not enough marshmallow on my CMP.

Another good way to vent, relax, re-charge the batteries, is to take a road trip. It will son be fall foliage season and a road trip to places like Cooperstown, N.Y., or Bethel, N.Y., would surely prove my point.

These are two of my favorite places on God’s earth. Don’t get me wrong, anytime is a good time to travel to either place, but in the fall, the rides to these two destinations are spectacular. And you can stop for some apples or apple cider along the way.

I have found that Cooperstown with its Baseball Hall of Fame and Bethel, the place that hosted the Woodstock Festival in 1969, both offer great attractions and both bring inner peace to your soul.

I’ve been to both places multiple times — recently, I was in Bethel for the 16th time, again visiting the museum and touring the site. We paid homage to Max Yasgur’s former alfalfa field, passed by the famous ponds, visited downtown White Lake and visited Yasgur’s Farm. This trip never gets old, even though we do.

And I have also been to Cooperstown many times, the best visit was with my dad. We went there in the fall one year a couple years before he passed. I wanted him to see the Hall of Fame because guys like my dad, who devoted most of their lives to promoting baseball in small towns, should have a place or a plaque in the Hall of Fame.

We really are lucky to live in one of the few parts of the world where nature has one last fling before winter arrives.

Ranting can help, but the better option is the road trip.