To my dear readers, I received this by email a few days ago. I had the privilege of going to Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland. I was there in its glory days, the late fifties and early sixties. We are still a close-knit bunch, and I often find myself getting letters like this but not always as prophetic. Read it and weep.

Hi Ben,

Probably don’t remember me from Blair since we never had classes together but I wanted to share with you about a strange incident I had recently.

I was unpacking some very old antique pictures in frames that I had stored away with the intention of researching the people in the pictures I originally found in my mother-in-law’s attic. In between some pictures I had newspaper protecting them. There big as you please was a half-page article you wrote for the Washington Star newspaper on Sunday, October 10, 1976. It’s gold and fragile but the remarks you shared are still true today unfortunately. The article was “Why liberals and their double standard give me a pain in the neck.”

As I spend time in grieving the condition of our beloved nation, I wonder how we can recover from all that is happening. Here we are 44 years later and nothing has improved to change the double standard you wrote about. It has actually gotten worse. I fear for my Grandchildren and what they will face. People are being “numbed down” so that the news media in particular can control them. I just cannot understand why people who live in the best country in the world want to destroy it.

I did not want to take up a lot of your time being negative and hopeless. I know God is in control and I know we as a nation have done grievous things to bring us shame. God has probably had enough. I only pray that the people will repent and return to Him. I am also trying to see the good that will come from all of this.

I have always been proud to say we were students together at Blair. You are enormously successful and yet a very caring and down to earth individual. You have been a great role model. I hope this note finds you and your family healthy and safe.

May I share this article with others?

With great regards, Jo Ann Rieder-King