About a year and a half ago I started thinking about my high school friend, Talks with Beagles. We were both in what were called advanced classes at Gage Park High School on the southwest side of Chicago, and it was drummed into our heads constantly that we had to go to college. But when it came to time to apply for college, Talks with Beagles announced he had no plans to go to college. It was a bit of a scandal, how could he not go to college?  It was the American dream of getting ahead. I didn't agree with his decision, but I rather admired him for standing against the tide.

I went to college, dropped out, and dropped back in. Became a hippie, was a Conscientious Objector during the Vietnam war, spent about twenty years tending bar, had a state job for about ten, and was a substitute teacher for about seven. All this time I have been a liberal democrat, and I follow politics the way some follow the sports page.

When I got in touch with Talks With Beagles I learned that his politics were about 180 degrees of mine, and he liked to write, and so far we have been exchanging about an email a day.

I’m not a man of faith, but I have always believed that if men of reason could get together and discuss things coolly and logically, and not stray from the subject and call each other names then they would eventually come to an agreement. I have to admit I have never seen this happen in real life, and I don’t think I have changed Talks with Beagles’ mind about anything, but you never know.

So now we need a subject to gnaw on.  Beagles, the ball is in your court.