Social media and its onerous censorship are taking a lot of heat these days. I am there with the critics in nearly all cases. Social media should be treated as a common carrier, like the telephone companies are. But I want to pause this idea for a second to heap praises on the myriad of serious learning opportunities you can find on YouTube. All for free, some with commercials and some without.

Those malcontent Cubans are at it again, protesting 62 years of food shortages, COVID-19 vaccine shortages, shortages of every kind. Yet, Bernie Sanders remains silent.

I hope you have a happy and respectful 4th of July – the birthday of the greatest country ever to grace the face of the Earth.

What certainties of today will be obsolete tomorrow? Not sure, but if Steve Roush keeps writing nostalgic columns in The Highland County Press, I am sure that in 10 or 20 years you will be laughing at many things we accept as certainties today – and today’s bullies will be nowhere to be found.

If you want to see some research that supports your concerns, I recommend the Heartland Institute (www.heartland.org). An article from March 9, 2021 titled “America’s Light Usage Reveals the Insanity of Relying on Weather-Dependent Wind & Solar” opens with “Renewables have already underperformed in temperate climate California, resulting in the states’ (sic) need to import electricity from the adjoining Northwest and Southwest states.”

There is a lot of discussion about employment these days. With governments overdoing unemployment benefits, many have chosen sitting at home as opposed to becoming a productive member of society. I do not understand this; it was not how I was raised.

Well, it has taken 15 weeks, and I have seldom devoted more than three or four sentences to each of the 43 people or topics, but I hope you can use this as an outline to better understand the modern world.

Henry Ford lived from 1863 to 1947. Famous for the assembly line, he didn’t really invent it. The assembly line concept had been in use for many years, and Ransom E. Olds patented it in 1901.

Chronologically, we jumped over Woodrow Wilson last week to get to a good guy – George Washington Carver. Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) is, in my opinion, one of the most destructive presidents in the history of the United States, and by extension, as a world leader.

Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) is a figure of almost mythological proportions. He was a person of immense inventive gifts who came along at just the right time to turn many scientific concepts discovered by people with much more education into practical appliances we still use every day.

In essence, Marx and Engels had the idle time to develop Marxism due to the wealth of the Engels family. Now, isn’t that special?

Abraham Lincoln (1809-65) was born in poverty in Kentucky. Largely self-educated, Lincoln had a tremendous drive and sense of right and wrong. When asked as an adult to fill out a form once, in response to the question “Education?,” he wrote “inadequate.”

I last left you with Thomas Jefferson in bucolic Virginia. We now need to go across the Atlantic Ocean and visit with a few French folks. First up is Marquis de Lafayette, born in 1757, 14 years after Thomas Jefferson. He was commissioned as an officer in the French military at the ripe old age of 13. A fan of the American Revolution, he was instrumental in France supporting the colonists and was a key figure in the colonists’ ability to win the war.

I last left you with Thomas Jefferson in bucolic Virginia. We now need to go across the Atlantic Ocean and visit with a few French folks. First up is Marquis de Lafayette, born in 1757, 14 years after Thomas Jefferson. He was commissioned as an officer in the French military at the ripe old age of 13. A fan of the American Revolution, he was instrumental in France supporting the colonists and was a key figure in the colonists’ ability to win the war.

We are approaching, but not quite at, the middle of my list of people who shaped our modern world. Up through John Harrison – our subject last week – you might have thought of these people as living in very olden times. I think the tone will begin to change now, as we start talking about people of what I would consider more modern times.