[SirJohnBarleycorn]

Christopher, Ted Kennedy and a few family members had gathered one night and were having a drink in Mr. Lawford's mother's apartment in Manhattan. Teddy was expansive. If he hadn't gone into politics he would have been an opera singer, he told them, and visited small Italian villages and had pasta every day for lunch. "Singing at la Scala in front of three thousand people throwing flowers at you. Then going out for dinner and having more pasta." Everyone was laughing. Then, writes Mr. Lawford, Teddy "took a long, slow gulp of his vodka and tonic, thought for a moment, and changed tack. 'I'm glad I'm not going to be around when you guys are my age.' I asked him why, and he said, 'Because when you guys are my age, the whole thing is going to fall apart.' "

Teddy has been doing his best for the last 40 years to make the country fall apart.

[furquhart]

She has summed up what I've been thinking for a very long time very well.

I'm a young man (twenty-two) and I can only imagine the trials and testings that await us in the years to come.

[thoughtomator]

Peggy's spellcheck needs help.

[Rokke]

I'm so glad Peggy has figured out what is going on with "the elites" in America. Geesh. What a stupid and pointless column.

[mhx]

Uhh, what?

I think Peggy has gotten herself worked up a bit too much.

[Jim Robinson]

I think the job of managing the federal government could be reduced to what's important by stripping out all the superfluous unconstitutional baggage and returning the bulk of the responsibility to the states and the people as intended.

[JohnLongIsland]

the elites criticizing the elites.

[magellan]

While Peggy seems steeped in negativism these days, she has a point.

I too feel we are heading into a dark period, similar to the 1970s. Eerily similar.

[Defiant]

Peggy has lost it. Now she's gone apocalyptic.

[hsalaw]

Peggy would do herself and all of us a favor and read some history. Every generation's "elites" (whoever they may be at the moment) have pronounced doom on this country, and yet, we continue to survive and even flourish. Time for a little less navel-gazing, Peggy, and a little more time spent with real people and a study of our own history to learn that what keeps us strong still survives. As Will Rogers said: "Every time we have an election, we get in worse men and the country keeps right on going. Times have proven only one thing, and that is you can't ruin this country even with politics."

[america-rules]

Oh man these dumb ass insiders are losing it !

Us normal people are getting along with life just fine !

[My2Cents]

"We're doomed!" She may have a point there.

[A Balrog of Morgoth]

WTF is this poor woman talking about?

She writes like she is down on the Saxon Shore watching the last of the legions depart.

[Shery]

She has made a lot of valid points, as I, too, have felt that we have left the track and doom awaits us...some might call this judgment. But to point to Ted Kennedy as a predictor or prophet? I can only image how he sees this played out...that the Christians have taken over and ruined America. In fact, I do think that we will be blamed for the fall of America, just like Nero blamed the Christians a couple millenia ago. It's such a handy device and you can already see it being stated in the media in subtle, as well as not so subtle, ways. But there is one thing I do agree with her about. Christians have become part of what's wrong with the culture in America, as we have bought into the "rights" attitude to have everything here and now. Our children have become part of the worldly teen culture and we are not teaching them our Christian values. We wonder why liberalism is gaining such ground with our kids and blame the schools, etc., but the blame lies with us as parents and families. We are not instilling Christian values into them from an early age. In fact, what I see as a school nurse is that many of the Christian parents are just as Narcissistic as the liberals.

[Rumple4]

Peggy needs a vacation or Prozac.

[MistrX]

Peggy is no fool.

[Ruth A.]

She's not rich, and they're inexpensive, but her parents buy her more when she wants them. Someone said, "It's affluence," and someone else nodded, but I said, "Yeah, but it's also the fear parents have that we're at the end of something, and they want their kids to have good memories. They're buying them good memories, in this case the joy a kid feels right down to her stomach when the earrings are taken out of the case."

More likely, the parents use material things, rather than intangibles, to try to make their children feel good. Simple restraint and savings are traits this country no longer possesses on the the whole. Many sell their birthright for a pottage of earrings, gameboys, cellphones, fast food, etc.

[MikeHu]

We have too many writers who have nothing to say, but feel they have to say something because they're getting paid to do so or because they think they have to or everybody is going to be bored to death.

So they create this great sense of urgency hoping to keep our interest -- and thus, when they really have something to say, nobody is around to listen anymore because they've cried "Wolf," once too often.

The work of a good writer, is also knowing when not to lower one's standards and write what doesn't need to be written.

[Siena Dreaming]

our media institutions imploding--the spectacle of a great American newspaper, the New York Times, hurtling off its own tracks, as did CBS.

And she's saying this is a bad thing? What's wrong with this person? Doesn't she know the media has been the problem with decades. The implosion is the healthiest thing possible.

And she's affectionately reading about Christopher Lawford? Oh, for Pete's sake.

And can't she even spell "moat"?

[JoeGar]

A White House is a castle surrounded by a mote ...

Those damn spell-checkers!

[leadhead]

This piece actually sums up all the main topics of discussion on this board so I don't understand the criticism.

We all use FR as a release, like shouting back at the television; but it hasn't changed many (any?) things.

Clinton rode out his eight years despite all the convincing evidence presented here to his malfeasance.

PC is rampant to the point of ridiculousness, etc.etc.

I'm 64 and for all the advances in the quality of life that I've seen from Jet passenger planes, medical technology and the Internet; I've seen the deterioration in Education, Drug use, an overwhelming increase in the Welfare Class and Crime against persons.

She is probably correct that the wheels are coming off everything in the context of her age and her life. But for those in their twenties,there's a new vehicle being built that absorbs all the change and benchmarks it for their life.

My youngest, at 22, will have the memory of the 2000s as one thing and the experience of 40 more years in her "trolley" and will probably write a similar article in 2040.